Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on October the 5th, 2022, the Government of the Northwest Territories and Union of Northern Workers signed an MOU providing a one-time labour market supplement in the form of a recruitment and retention bonus depending on eligibility requirements. According to the MOU, the labour market supplement will be applied as retention bonuses for some registered nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, licensed practical nurses, and medical laboratory technologists. Eligible employees will receive between $5,000 and $7,000 depending on the NWT community they live in. An additional temporary labour market supplement in the same amounts would also be given as recruitment bonuses for new hires into eligible positions such as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and midwives.
Mr. Speaker, while in theory this is a good idea being used by the Government of the Northwest Territories; however, in practice the way they are delivering these bonuses has been done poorly. The main issues with this are that the finance department is only giving these recruitment and retention bonuses to a select number of health employees. This means that there are many nurses across the NWT who are omitted from receiving the labour market supplement retention bonus. In fact, I've been contacted by several constituents who work in health, some of whom have worked in that area and have lived in Fort Smith for nearly 20 years, and they never received this retention bonus. This is unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, if the Government of the Northwest Territories truly wants to retain nurses, midwives, and laboratory technologist staff with the labour market supplement, then our government needs to seriously rethink their approach with this. The parameters around this policy are too strict, and it has needlessly created divisions among the new and old staff in the NTSSA. For the Government of the Northwest Territories to reward new nurses with bonuses and not give the labour market supplement bonus to long-term nursing staff who have lived in the NWT for years is not okay. The divide among this bonus has created tension and an unhealthy work environment for many staff who feel undervalued, left out, and forgotten by their employer the Government of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Mr. Speaker, I've spoken to the Minister of Finance about this many times over the last few months but she's unwilling to revisit this and make any changes to this temporary recruitment and retention bonus. The Minister tells me that these bonuses are not designed to be a thank you to employees despite their length of service or the type of work they've done throughout their careers.
We all know there is a healthcare crisis across Canada right now so the retention of our long-term staff should be a priority, but that's not happening right now. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.