Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister responsible for HR.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my statement, it's apparent that the issues at Stanton that are leading to ward closures long predate COVID despite it being used constantly as an excuse. From an HR perspective, how does the Minister plan to properly investigate, characterize, and address the poor morale situation at Stanton that existed prior to COVID in order to address the longstanding issues at the hospital? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for HR.
Stanton recruitment is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mentioned that I'm interested from an HR perspective. HR has tools that are available to them that include workplace investigation, etcetera. I do believe that these questions can be answered by the Minister of HR, and she actually answers my questions so I'd like to hear from her. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. It's actually up to the Premier to choose which Minister should answer. So Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying that I recognize the importance of morale and solid organizational culture. We've just been through a very intense period of that in this building. And of course, it happens in other places as well. But the end result is that we want to build a strong and satisfied public service. So there are a variety of tools available to us, including employment engagement and satisfaction surveys. I talked about those last week with my colleague from Kam Lake. There are surveys attached to the accreditation, and there is currently a survey going on by the professional organization of nurses.
The department or the NTHSSA recently did an exit survey with nurses that left their positions between January and August of this year. And there are a couple of key findings.
One is that their satisfaction is not tied to compensation. That was not one of the top three issues they identified. The top three issues were that they left for personal reasons, which included things like the needs of their families and moving to accompany a partner to a new position.
They also identified dissatisfaction with management, including the level of support they received, turnover in management and staff, and the orientation that's provided; and,
Third, the consideration that the workplace is unsafe because of staff shortages. So this speaks to the understaffing issue that we have heard about.
So there are existing labor management processes and relationships in place to deal with these challenges, and it is critical that the UNW take part in these conversations. And as a matter of fact, we had a good preliminary meeting with UNW, including the president for the local at the hospital on the weekend, that included both myself and the Minister and our senior officials.
As the Member for Great Slave may know, the collective agreement provides for joint consultation committees who identify and develop joint plans of action to respond to pressing issues that become morale issues and that committee at the hospital is in place and meets regularly. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I have some clarification of whether or not I can go back to the Minister of Finance responsible for HR. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. We continue to go back to the Minister of Health and Social Services unless the Premier designates another Minister. It's up to the Premier to delegate which Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance, as I mentioned in my statement the Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in Canada that did not use COVID to compensate our healthcare workers for the increased hazard and workload that they've been dealing with. Will the Minister, with her Finance hat on, comment or commit to finding money to provide Northwest Territories frontline workers with retroactive hazard or pandemic pay? Is there any indication that more money is coming from the federal government for COVID? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. As I mentioned, we continue to go back to the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services unless the Premier delegates another Minister. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT Health and Social Services Authority and the Department of Finance are working together to review options through the labour market adjustment process which would deal with some of our pressing staffing concerns among nurses. We have no indication that additional money is coming from the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before I continue, I just want to remind both sides, Members and Cabinet, please keep your preambles short and try to keep the questions short because we still have four people after this line of questions, and the clock is running out, so. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll play this game. Will the Minister of Health like to revamp her statement from last week saying that there are no ward closures or other ward closures coming? It has been my understanding from several nurses, the union, etcetera, that that is not the truth. Would the Minister like to revamp that statement about further ward closures. Thank you.
Minister for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you. I'll just start by correcting something that the Member said in her statement. The obstetrics ward is open at this time, and it will remain open until December 10th. There was obviously a group of women who were too far along in their pregnancies to be moved to another location to give birth. So the obstetrics unit is open.
I met with leadership of the hospital and the health authority yesterday. I asked that question. I was told that at the hospital, there are no unit closures foreseen at this time.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm confused then, because when I look in the paper all I see are advertisements for ER and ICU nurses. So can the Minister speak to what's going to happen when those positions aren't filled and those wards have to close down. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I'm very pleased that the Member has taken note of our recruitment efforts. And those are ongoing of course. We want to make sure that we have the full component of staff. And as I said earlier, we are not anticipating any more closures at the hospital. We have, through a variety of people foregoing holidays, working extra shifts, locums, and so on, we have enough staff to provide the excellent services that residents are used to. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Twin Lakes.
