Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to have questions for the Minister of health as well, and as a matter of fact I have doctor questions but I was just realizing I have nursing agency questions, so I'm going to build on my colleague's questions here, Mr. Speaker.
What has the department done to reengineer the nursing agency problem because this is an attack on the health system as pointed out by my good colleague. And even the Premier of Manitoba has defined it as a crisis and attack on the health system. So in other words, to the question, Mr. Speaker, what is the department doing to reengineer the nursing agency problem and fixing it here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said in my previous statement is that we haven't used agency nurses preCOVID for at least 15 years, and so this is something that has come because of the health care crisis post like, post the pandemic. And so right now what we're doing is strategically within the NTHSSA and within the department is, you know, we're identifying where there's high needs and, you know, and I think the plan like, the work that's going on right now is to try and home grow like, some of the nurses that are employed by our department in these specialty areas. So that is one way that we can try and eliminate using the use of agency nurses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've recently talked to some nurses let me try it again. Agency nurses; there we go. So I'm not sure, there's six, there's ten, there's a hundred; I have no idea. How does the Minister know that there's this minimum, or maximum as she's trying to describe as six or seven, and where are they? I'm trying to because if she says the numbers are so low, it should be easy to explain where they are. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reason that I know this number because it was asked of me, and so I asked the department, where are these nurses and how many do we actually have right now working, and there was seven and they're in obstetrics. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well yeah, I'll start with that. That's a good point. Seven too many, of course. And I spoke to one who was a former nurse in the Northwest Territories, and she told me it's way more lucrative to quit her job and move south to become an agency nurse. Mr. Speaker, as I said, what is the department doing to reengineer the nursing agency problem and to define this; what is the issue that seems to be blocking the problem that the department doesn't seem to understand? Why are nurses quitting to become agency nurses to come back home to the Northwest Territories and work?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure how many nurses have left the health care system to become agency nurses or to become term nurses because they want to go be closer to their family. There are different reasons for it, Mr. Speaker. Myself who worked as a alongside agency nurses at the beginning of my nursing career, there wasn't an option for me to pack up and go live some other territory because I was from here. So, you know, I think that's you know, when I hear the Member saying that it's more lucrative, well, you know, we have, you know, a different group of individuals that are coming out of nursing school and they're not settling down, wanting to live in this one certain area. Some of the nurses that I've like had spoken to throughout my career say they're fine with just travel because it gets them around the country and because it's the nature of the health care system right now. They're able to go and people are paying for them to fly around the country. They're seeing the world. They're taking off the time when they need to. Right now, the Northwest Territories is doing what they can do to work with the staff to try to promote. I think I've read off a list of things that we're doing that we can do. You know, our salaries are equivalent to the rest of Canada. There's and I'll I'll leave it there, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate your eye on the clock because, my goodness, we'd be through question period before we got to all the Members based on some of these answers.
She said we're doing whatever we can. You're paying the agencies too much. It's that simple. That simple. Mr. Speaker, money is the problem and the Minister says well, you know, I don't know but the reality is people leaving here because they know they get paid more coming back here. It's not about family.
So, Mr. Speaker, my question specifically to the Minister is is she willing to table publicly a wage comparison package of what our local nurses are paid versus what the agencies are paying their staff just to come back to the Northwest Territories and work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be able to table what our nurses are making but I can only table what we pay the agency because they don't disclose to us what they pay their staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Mackenzie Delta.
