Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask a few more questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services, please.
In my Member's statement today, I did speak about the burnout and the exodus of healthcare workers. And we're not only seeing that in the territory, but you're seeing it nationwide and you're seeing it globally as well. People are tired. And I think people's expectations are also changing as well for what they want out of life. The good news is that the Northwest Territories has great things to offer, including some good work life balance and some great people to hang out with, and we need more people to move here and work in our hospitals. And so I'm wondering if I can ask the Minister of Health and Social Services how Stanton is planning for the loss of potentially additional healthcare staff and what they're doing to attract new healthcare professionals.
Before we left in December, we had a large conversation in this house about the OBS ward. And as we stand here today, the OBS ward has not yet returned to full capacity and so having a conversation about healthcare workers in the territory I think is a very important one. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is obviously a crucial area. We don't have healthcare if we don't have human health resources. So because of the large vacancy rate in our health workforce and because of our mandate commitment to increase the size of the resident healthcare workforce, we've developed a threeyear health and social services system human resources plan, which will be made public in April. Some of the work is already underway that is laid out in that plan, including exploring financial incentives, improved access to training, ongoing outreach to understand the issues impacting retention of nurses and other health professionals, and strengthening approaches to recruitment.
The fact is that staffing at Stanton always fluctuates. And the good news is that as of December 21st, the vacancy rate had gone down by 4.2 percent compared to June of 2021. That doesn't solve all of our problems, but we're going in the right direction. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate that, and I look forward to seeing that plan when it's shared with Regular Members. I think it's one that not only Members but a lot of people from one end of the territory to the other are looking forward to seeing.
Currently, Stanton is very reliant on agency nurses, and I know that this is common right across Canada, and I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to whether or not this plan incorporates agency nurses as a key component and longterm plan for continuing to maintaining staffing levels at Stanton or what the future of agency nursing is in the territory. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question. The fact is that we need to continue to provide health resources in whatever way we can, whether that's hiring locums or agency nurses or, best of all, having people become our resident indeterminate staff.
So, we've worked particularly on hiring local indeterminate staff. I'm pleased to tell the Member that all 11 nursing graduates from Aurora College in 2021 were hired into indeterminate positions. The Indigenous Gateway Program has provided us with ten new hires. The Health and Social Services summer student program has provided us with 81 summer students last summer. So we are doing our best to hire the people who are trained and available locally, and we're also very interested in helping people upgrade their skills, if that's what they are interested in doing. We have funds available for that. But as I say, the bottom line here is that in order to keep our healthcare system going, we hire locums. We've always hired locums. We just recently started hiring agency nurses. And they are probably part of our future. But our preference is, of course, to, first of all, retain the staff we have and, in the event of vacancies, then to hire local staff wherever possible. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I was furiously writing as the Minister was speaking, and I have about 25 more questions but I'll start with one.
Mr. Speaker, do graduates of Aurora College currently have a guarantee with the GNWT that following graduation of a nursing program that they can secure employment with the Government of the Northwest Territories? I know that right now it is hopefully a given but is that a guarantee that is afforded to students who complete the program. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe it's a guarantee, but I will inquire and return with that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Another thing that the Minister alluded to were funds for education. And one of the things that I'm finding with different constituents that I serve is that funds for education aren't clearly accessible depending on what department that you work in. Some people work in departments where it is part of their mandate to provide that training because it helps with the job that they're currently in, whereas other GNWT employees may have found themselves in a position where they want to go into nursing; they want to be part of the solution and they want to serve the people in a healthcare capacity that they've grown up with, that they care about; these are their neighbours and their family members. But their home department doesn't have a healthcare mandate, and so they don't have access to the same education dollars as their colleagues in other departments. And so will Health and Social Services work with the Minister of Finance in order to set up a whole of government approach to helping GNWT employees access education dollars to become a healthcare worker? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the question. At this point, there is a dedicated health human resources unit in the Department of Finance so we, in fact, already work closely with them to recruit people and to provide for training and other opportunities for staff. So that would be decided on a casebycase basis, what kind of support is available and to whom and when and how that relates to the department that the person is coming from. So this fund for skill enhancement is in place, and we want it totally spent. If people are interested in expanding their skills and taking up different roles in the healthcare system, we're more than willing to see that happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
