Vince McKay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The territorial government supplies -- or sorry, funds communities through our community funding. It's up to the communities whether or not they want to utilize some of that funding for things like the pools -- or for, like, pools. However, the government doesn't build pools or operate pools for communities so it's up -- at the end of the day, it's up to the community whether or not they want to use their own revenues or go out to other sources of funding for building such facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The way it currently works right now with no licensing body, a lot of the paramedics, whether it be a primary care paramedic, advanced care paramedic, or critical care paramedic, if they are licensed outside a province and, say for an example they're licensed in Alberta, when they come work in the Northwest Territories, they work within their scope of practice which most times most companies that hire them allow them to do based on their protocols that they have. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What the Member is speaking of entails a lot of work when it comes down to legislation in regards to the scope of practice or what paramedics can do in the field. And this is something that we currently don't have which would take a long -- a lot of work to do and to get going. My focus, and I think the continued focus, is going to be to continue to support a basic response within communities so that first responder trainer, first responder response to communities are there in the communities and support the communities in order to assist in community emergencies. So...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think if I had $25 million, I could solve this problem right now. But this is something that's obviously going to take a lot more than that. You know, licensing paramedics, licensing first responders in the Northwest Territories, is something that's been looked at and it's been reviewed a few times; it's been studied. The problem is is when you're dealing with that, you're also forcing volunteers to be licensed which also, again, puts restrictions on volunteers, whether or not they want to volunteer. But it also then turns around to say we're going to charge ourselves...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What the Member is speaking of is an advanced care paramedic and, you know, that type of service for a small community, it may be ideal in some aspects but in the aspect of my department and what the Member is speaking of, you're talking of a service that's done by a community like an ambulance service or a fire department. And sometimes in small communities like that when you have an advanced care paramedic, they have to maintain the scope of practice and in order to maintain that scope of practice, they also have to do so many types of skills to maintain that which is...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Northwest Territories and Nunavut's Compensation Appeals Tribunal 2023 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Member would like to arrange a meeting, we could sit down and discuss this and then at that point maybe we could find out exactly what department needs to be addressed with the concern. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll have to check my schedule and get back to him.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although my department really has nothing to do with the cost of fuel, I'm more than willing to talk -- or work with the Member to arrange a visit to the community if that's so wished -- what he liked to do, and we could figure something out. We could have further discussion on what exactly needs to be done and what we'd like to do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 186-20(1), Addressing Erosion in Aklavik. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.