Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the Department of Health and Social Services, the Hay River Health and Social Services, the NTHSSA, and the TCSA, all complete quarterly vacancy reviews to identify current and future active vacancy needs in the budgeted positions.

Mr. Speaker, along with the vacancy review, exit interviews continue to be conducted with staff across the health and social services system. Data metrics and trends based on their feedback have been used to synthesize into six overarching themes and drivers. The results have been used to inform the creation of the employee engagement strategy and development of the employee retention programs and initiatives. And as of June 30th, 2024, the vacancy rate for physicians within the NTHSSA was 48.6 compared to March 31st which was 48.7. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My next question is just can the Minister commit to providing data to this House on the rate of health care practitioners, so that's physicians, nurses, NPs, and LPNs, and other staff, who have been terminating their contracts with the NTHSSA over the past year? And I would emphasize that I'd like to see the stats for primary care in particular but then extending to other units. Can the Minister commit to providing this data in written form? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure of how detailed, like, the vacancy -- the vacancy information that we have, but I can commit to providing the most recent vacancy information that we have. But I'd like to say, however, Mr. Speaker, that in doing exit interviews, you know, staff are choosing to leave due to many different issues in primary care. Many are departing for sick family members that live outside the NWT that they've disclosed or reasons related to family and child care. Mr. Speaker, there have been two NPs that have left primary care since the move -- or there have been no NPs that have left. We actually hired two NPs in the prime care since the move. But the largest group that we're seeing that move around in the health care are the program assistants, and they are entry level positions in that team, and they have more options to move around in the system and take different roles as they see they arise. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The final question is are steps being taken to reduce the administrative burden on practitioners, such as physicians, which the burden has unfortunately increased due to the primary care reforms, so that they can work to their full scope and do what they do best which is caring for patients? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a lot of effort has been put into improving efficiency, and everyone is part of this work. Physicians are on the new YK primary care reform regional committee which is guiding the reform efforts. This committee has created two working groups, both including physicians. One group is focused on clinical information management, and this -- and is working to reduce administrative burdens and streamlining process allowing practitioners and nurses to spend more time with patients. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the last several seasons of the ice road certainly have been very challenging. They're starting later, and the roads are deteriorating sooner. As a result, the department has taken a number of measures. For one, and in fact I believe the Monfwi riding is one where they are leading in terms of having studies and better studies done of the permafrost of exactly what's going on to understand what's going on with our roadway systems. We are trying to get out and get the roads in earlier. They are able to try to build up faster so that they can move more equipment, more fuel, more things on a shorter season. And, Mr. Speaker, I can say that, particularly in light of what's happening in the Sahtu right now, we're also -- wanted to make sure we are doing everything we can to maximize the efficiency of the drivers and the trucks, so wanting to improve our working relationship in the private sector, reaching out to the mines -- we've obviously been doing this for many years -- all in an effort to make sure that we maximize the road time that we do have to get resupply in. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the information. So what is the average cost of building and maintaining the winter road to Gameti from January through March annually? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't know the per kilometer cost of the winter road offhand. I certainly can get that. There's different costs for some of the different roads as well, so I'll make sure that I'm getting the one for that stretch, and I'll commit to get that back to the Member here quickly. Thank you.

Thank you. What planning has occurred to begin to develop an all-season road to the community of Gameti by the Department of Infrastructure?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, an all-season road to Gameti is not currently in the Infrastructure acquisition plan for the immediate future for the Government of the Northwest Territories. I'm certainly alive to the concerns the Member is raising and, again, you know, we're seeing what kinds of challenges we have but at this point, Gameti is not in line for an all-season road. They are still relying on the winter roads system and air freight as a backup. We are right now working with the Tlicho in terms of trying to make sure that that winter road gets put in, and the costs of that are, indeed, quite significant. So for now, we're just going to try and make sure the systems that we do have in place are actually working to the best of the abilities that we have. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With that in mind, what she just said, can the Minister commit to a feasibility study or cost benefit analysis for an all-weather road -- access road to Gameti? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to make that commitment here today. Again, I'm live to the challenges of transportation infrastructure in the North and the fact that we are challenged with our transportation infrastructure in the North, but doing a feasibility study at this point, given the challenges that we're having and given that we're right now trying to get the Mackenzie Valley Highway done, it may well be that we're in a situation where we want to get one thing done and then we can move on to looking at the next. But at this point, that's not a project that is on the near horizon. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And further to my Member's statement, I have questions for the Minister of Infrastructure. On the Deh Cho Bridge, what caused the damage to the Deh Cho Bridge? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Infrastructure.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, back in August of 2023, it was noticed that there appeared to be a broken cable on this particular bridge. They had engineers on site within 48 hours, and they were able to identify fairly early on what they thought was happening was in fact a metallurgical problem, a problem with the materials themselves. So a number of -- they took the materials out. They pulled the cable off the bridge, took it for testing, wanted to of course to make sure that they knew for sure what had gone wrong, and it was confirmed that there was no defect in the design or the engineering or the construction; there was something wrong in the metal that was actually used to cast this particular piece. And so as a result of that, not only did they fix that one, Mr. Speaker, but they fixed all 24 bars just to be sure since they were all cast from the same bit of metal. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you for that. Yes, there was different -- people were saying maybe a truck hit it or something but I didn't realize this happened. So why is the repair to the bridge taking so long at this point? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to speak to this question. I think there has been a lot of concern and rumor and frustration on this but in fact, as I said, it's -- we're really only just barely over a year since the issue was identified, and what they've done is gone back to the original constructor of the bridge. Rather than try to find someone new to fit themselves in, they've gone back to them to recast these pieces again. They had to, in fact -- well, to recast the entire 24 bars. So that's now been done. It's been happening by this other company. At the same time, Infrastructure did go out, we simultaneously procured the part of getting it built back in. And so with that, they've actually -- by doing it that way, they're able to speed up the overall process of getting folks on site. There was a bit of a delay in terms of getting the material -- or the bridge components shipped here. I am told that they are due here -- they're en route, they're due here in early November. And the best I can say is in terms of a delay, I think early on, Mr. Speaker, people were saying an estimate of having it rebuilt this fall. Fall, of course, can be September. But, really, there's only been a slight delay in that delivery, and so I'm happy to say that they're en route, they're expected to be here in November. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Thank you. So the cable -- the cable will be repaired in November. When will the bridge be fully functional? Thank you.