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 Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the 19th Assembly, I brought forward the austerity to the Finance Minister of the day, and they said they won't be dealing with austerity in the 19th Assembly but the can was kicked to the 20th Assembly. Here we are with $150 million a year. Over a four-year period, that's $600 million.

My question to the Minister is can the Minister commit to working openly with MLAs, Indigenous governments, leaders of their respective communities, to implement the GNWT four priorities and to prevent unilateral budget cuts and layoffs that will harm relationship and trust between them and the GNWT government? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is certainly a role that I think every Member of the House would be taking seriously, and I certainly would do so as well within my capacity. As part of the budgeting process, Mr. Speaker, I instituted and intend to continue doing a budget dialogue process. It's an opportunity where I have specific meetings with Indigenous governments here or within the Northwest Territories. I also have a separate specific meeting with NWTAC, the representation for the municipalities, then do public sessions and sessions with other stakeholders. These are going to be upcoming before building the 2024-2025 Main Estimates.

With respect to as well to employees, Mr. Speaker, we've had over 300 responses already. In fact, probably more now in the last few days to a portal set up for employees. I have myself begun to look through those responses personally. I've sent them to my colleagues. There are some pretty exceptional ideas on there. And we are going to be having a town hall discussion with our employees as well. So lots of opportunities to engage.

And, Mr. Speaker, I would think it goes without saying that the business planning process involves Members and committees quite intimately as well in terms of reviewing plans and discussing plans and giving feedback to departments. So that's a long answer. The short answer is yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Minister. When the Minister refers to increasing revenue sources to help balance the budget, does that mean she's considering a new tax increase? If so, what kind of tax increase are on the table? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not lost on anyone that the challenges in the last few years have put a lot of strain on households, on businesses, and there's little appetite or capacity arguably even for tax increases. But beyond that, Mr. Speaker, tax revenues are a pretty small slice of the revenues that we receive. The Government of Canada transfers in various forms; in particular TFF. That's our major source of revenue, up to 80 percent. So taxes are not right now what we're looking at. We're right now trying to figure out everywhere and every other option available to us. That could also be increases for fees for services, increases on fees that are charged on licenses. But, again, this is part of the discussion that we've kicked off and hope to continue to have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are many examples of public/private partnerships that have resulted in major cost overruns and delays. Will the department review the circumstances of the cost overruns to ensure future projects stay on time and on budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's also some pretty exceptional examples of public/private partnerships that came in on time and on budget not the least of which is the Tlicho All-Season Road. That said, I do agree that there is certainly a need to ensure that all capital planning has a good news story at the end of the day no matter what the financing arrangement might be. There's been some changes in the last Assembly to the capital planning process to have more planning, to have more dollars in the planning so that the cost estimates that we have are of a greater certainty and that we have that certainty when we go out to actually put the dollars out. So thank you for the question. Again, I think it's important but there's a lot of work happening in that space already, and we do expect Members to hold us to account as we go forward on that one to make sure we're achieving it. Thank you

Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the 19th Assembly I came in as an MLA for halfway through my term in the two-year period, and I couldn't really put any of my wishes onto the bus. The train already left the station. So, Mr. Speaker, I put forward a letter to the Premier outlining the priorities for my four communities. So my question would be to the Minister. I have shared a letter with the Minister that I sent to the Premier which laid out my priorities for my communities. Can the Minister commit to reviewing these priorities and considering them when working -- when work begins on the budget and focus on the four top priorities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Well, Mr. Speaker, obviously setting the priorities of the Assembly is work that we've all collectively just done, and the next step is to ensure that there's a mandate to help achieve those priorities. Obviously, that's work that happens by all Members of Cabinet, including myself, and I believe will be work that involves back and forth to Members of the Assembly including the Member who's asking the question. So as that process is underway, I'm hopeful and confident that it can continue to be a dialogue and one that will see reflection of everyone that's here. Thank you.

Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. So noting in the Minister's statement today that one of our current initiatives is employee engagement for retention, can the Minister describe any specific retention strategy that we currently have in place that would hopefully lead us to decrease our reliance on agency nurses and locum doctors? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if -- I want to answer that as best as I can but I might -- you might cut me off. So I'll highlight some of the areas. And I want to be clear that, you know, it's important to note that the use of agency nurses is always the last resort. It's aimed at preventing unit or health care -- health centre closures and to increase -- to keep adequate staffing levels, you know, and we've seen that we've had to close areas in our health care before. And right now -- and I -- you know, I'll continue to repeat it because it is across Canada that we're having a health care shortage of all types of health care workers. So as specific to the retention strategies that we are doing, there are -- it is very multifaceted depending on nurses, doctors, you know, and so we're guided by the Northwest Territories health and social services system human resource plan, and with particularly goal number 4 which emphasizes increased employee engagement throughout organizational change and leadership development.

We've introduced several initiatives to address recruitment and retention, and some of those just to be on time are new measures like using paramedic use in different areas that we would normally not use to make up for that. The friends and family travel program, and that was used over Christmas of last year. Referral programs, so people that -- nurses or other health care professionals can refer somebody they know and if they get an indeterminate position out of it, they'll get a financial bonus for that. And we've had a couple so far with that.

Reimbursing of licensing fees for locum physicians; we've always done that for nurses. The creation of onboarding specialists positions. The covering of international travel costs for NWT, for Canadian health care professionals living abroad who wish to relocate to the NWT and work, recruitment and retention bonuses. So these are some of the things that, you know, we've done, and, you know, I hear the Member -- and employee engagement is important and so, you know, if there's areas that we're not engaging or we're not hearing from the Members, I would like to work with the Members on that side of the House to be able to come up with some -- like, better ways to engage with staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a followup, can the Minister explain how we're monitoring progress on retention over time? So specifically on retention, I know it's easy to combine recruitment and retention, but I'm specifically talking about retention in this case, but are we monitoring progress and monitoring retention rates over time and publishing the results of that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I think the NTHSSA right now is continuously trying to -- they're monitoring employee engagement through formal mechanisms as surveys and formal means like all staff meetings, daily newsletters that go out to all staff, a robust information hub for staff in line with the NTHSSA system. And then, you know, with other areas and -- but, again, like I hear from the Member, you know, I worked in that area. You're busy. You're working. You're not working normal hours. So when you're not able to access the information through certain ways, and, again, if there's better ways to engage with staff, then, you know, if the Members have some ideas, let's work together to figure out how do we get all of the information that our staff need and that their feedback is important to us, ensuring that they have -- you know, that they're happy in their jobs. We want them to be here and stay here. So we know we're recruiting them, retraining them. We're working on that data, and, you know, and I think that's where this new -- the new agreement that was announced today, there's actually positions in there that's going to help emphasize that engagement with staff and, you know, exit interviews and things like that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that the Minister might not have this data at her fingertips now, but can the Minister commit to providing Members with the total cost spent on agency nurses and locum doctors for this past fiscal year and compare that to pre-COVID times showing trends over time, so providing the stats on cost spent on agency nurses and locum doctors over time?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail for the Member, so I'll have to get back to the Member for that. Thank you.