Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the importance of nursing aides to our health care system. My question is for the health Minister. What actions are being taken to mitigate staffing impacts associated with federal COVID funding ending? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear. There seems to be confusion around this, and there so within this announcement, I guess what happened was that there is COVID funding that is ending at the end of this fiscal year but there is no layoffs in the NTHSSA as a result of this sunsetting funding. It's important to understand that many positions that were added in this with this funding were never we were never able to staff them, so we were using what we used as casuals. We used float. We used relief workers in a lot of these positions to make sure that these extra positions were filled. And so the staffing impacts associated with this COVID funding has not you know, there hasn't been we're not saying any layoffs or anything like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, that's an interesting response from the Minister. I guess my question is I believe that people were given the impression there would be layoffs. There was a story in the news. I've heard from constituents about this. So how is the department been communicating about these changes and how did we get to the point where we're in a miscommunication about whether there's going to be layoffs or not? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there has been communication with the people that have been in these positions. They have been communicated since the beginning of the positions. Anybody there were some positions that were transfer assignment. They're going back to their home position. The majority of the people that are filling these positions, as I've mentioned are casual, either the float pool, or they're relief positions. And I think some of the communications initially went that there are and this is kind of what I tried to explain. I'm trying to explain it in a way that people will understand is COVID funding funded beds. And so some beds are closing under this funding which means it doesn't mean we're going to go in and we're going to tape up beds in the hospital and we're not going to use them. It just means that the level of staffing that needed for COVID and the acutety of those patients, we had to increase the number of patients or the number of staff. And that's what COVID funding did. You know, and I've heard the Member. I've heard from multiple Members.
I've heard from community. I've heard from nurses, you know, and I've heard, you know, from their families that the staff at the Stanton Hospital here in Yellowknife, they're concerned because of the messaging around the end of the COVID funding. But today I announced these $36 million in funding is which these positions, there's going to be new positions created in some of these units. And so when I when we talk about a lot of the what's going away from COVID, we've been able to integrate a lot of those positions into these new fundings and so and I hear the Members, and we know that the nursing levels that the acutety of the patients, people are sicker now, and we know that. We've heard that. Like, the department knows that. The NTHSSA knows that. And we're working within all of the different things that we have to ensure that the staff are supported, that they have what they need, and we will not, you know, jeopardize patient care. That is not something that I will do as the Minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No further questions.
Oral questions. Member from Tu NedheWiilideh.
