Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before COVID, we sat as equals and set the priorities for the 19th Assembly. Even then, we recognized the shortage of resident healthcare workers and tasked the government to reduce the number of health worker vacancies and our reliance on locums.
Mr. Speaker, there is significant strength in Northerners serving Northerners, providing trauma informed care. This not only fulfills our priority, it creates sustainable succession plans and recognizes the primary role education and meaningful employment play in connecting all community health indicators. I believe that, in essence, the GNWT recognizes this. But the existing process is subjective, inequitable, and not serving Indigenous northerners.
Over the last year, multiple public servants have been denied education leave to pursue nursing, or education leave supports for nurses pursuing higher certifications required by other units, or to work in remote northern communities. But while they continue to pursue their education goals on their own, they landed in courses with non-Indigenous non-Aboriginal public servants who were receiving the support of the GNWT to be there.
One of my constituents found themselves in this situation. An Indigenous Northerner from a small community graduated Aurora College nursing through the University of Victoria, employed by the GNWT, now raising a family and supporting trauma-informed client-focused nursing with a desire to increase education levels and ultimately their skill set leveraged by the people of the Northwest Territories.
It took five months of ongoing advocacy to get this Northerner the same supports their colleagues were receiving. These approvals are at the discretion of each employee's supervisor and often based on operational requirements. But from the perspective of the public servant, this leaves room for inconsistencies and inequitable distribution of education leave and government support.
This failure is a symptom of the GNWT silos with a clear lack of process to operate as one government supporting professional development of Northerners for hard-to-fill positions. Constituents either accept the ruling of their supervisor or enlist their MLA to advocate on their behalf.
Mr. Speaker, we are in a global shortage of healthcare workers. If we want recruitment to meet the priority set by this Assembly, we need to retain the ones we have and support the public servants who want to fill these roles. Thank you.
MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput..
