Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I was reading in the news, there was a press release put out yesterday by the Government of Saskatchewan – actually, the Health department, Government of Saskatchewan – where they’ve created this incentive program to lure doctors into rural communities. I want to know if the Minister of Health and Social Services was aware of this news release, and if the department has any plan of action in terms of recruitment of physicians, which we know is already a challenge throughout Canada.
What is the Minister of Health doing, in terms of this news release that has come out of the Government of Saskatchewan? How is he going to address this or are there any incentives from the NWT that will keep us in the running for some of these physicians? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Recently we had transferred the territorial physician recruitment, developed a Territorial Physician Recruitment Strategy that’s developed to improve recruitment to the Territories. We hadn’t contemplated luring doctors with cash, but rather improving the system and how we attract them back to the Territories. We have a fairly healthy compensation package for doctors that wish to work in the Territories and we are seeing some success. Recently, since we’ve developed this recruitment strategy, we have some doctors in Inuvik, Fort Smith and now the first one in Hay River. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I do understand in terms of discussions that standing committee has had with the Minister of Health and Social Services and his department on these compensation packages, but what the Government of Saskatchewan is doing is very unique in terms of the cash amount that they are giving to physicians that recently graduated, and they’re actually going even retroactive for ones that qualify and it is a pretty substantial amount.
Is the Minister contacting, perhaps, some of his federal counterparts in terms of how to address this kind of situation? One jurisdiction is often some type of mechanism to get doctors into the rural communities when they would be taken out from other jurisdictions. Is he speaking with his federal counterparts to address this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I haven’t specifically talked to other Ministers. We all have the different types of issues in recruiting doctors. There are doctor shortages everywhere. It’s just that our percentage of our population that don’t have immediate access to doctors is probably higher than most, maybe not as high as Nunavut but higher than most places. We develop various strategies. We have a website. We have bursaries. We have 22 medical students from NWT now out in school that we are tracking. Like I indicated, we offer a good compensation package. We also offer residency to any doctors that wish to come here to gain some experience and practice. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, seeing as this press release just came out yesterday from the Government of Saskatchewan, I ask Members, especially the Standing Committee on Social Program members to take a look at it because it is going to possibly have an effect on the positions in our recruiting strategies for the Northwest Territories where we have a shortage of physicians.
Should we start to see that has an impact on the Northwest Territories, what is the Minister of Health willing to do to address this issue, working with possibly the Government of Saskatchewan or the Government of Canada? Can he make a commitment to trade some discussion or some type of strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in Saskatchewan they’re trying to attract doctors to communities with less than 10,000 people. All of our communities, with the exception of Yellowknife, have less than 10,000 people. Again, our game is a little bit different but, of course, as we meet at the federal/provincial/territorial meetings, I would talk to the executive deputy minister and see if there would be some value in us having a discussion with a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, which also have remote communities, and Alberta to see if there is maybe something that can be gained from having the discussion. I will certainly do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We always talk about the communication between governments and committees and even between committees here. Was the Minister of Health made aware of this press release that the Government of Saskatchewan put out that’s possibly going to affect the Northwest Territories creating this awareness in getting some recruitment for physicians? Did he have any discussions with his counterpart in Saskatchewan, or was he made aware of this press release when it first came out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I had not had previous discussions with the Minister of Health from Saskatchewan on the press release. However, when there is anything that’s pertaining to health right across the country, we have individuals in our communications that would track it, pull out some information and eventually, as we sit down and go through various agenda items with the deputy minister as part of regular routine, we discuss what’s happening in other parts of the country in as far as health goes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
