Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community of Tsiigehtchic and its residents have been requesting the services of the health department and the justice department for a few decades without any success.

Mr. Speaker, the closest nurse and RCMP is about 60 kilometres away. That is about 45 minutes' drive by vehicle. This is dependent on the season. In the winter, you can go directly by the all-weather road. In the summer, you would have to use the ferry system, which can add time on the travel and time is essential. It depends on the severity of the health concern. And the RCMP is required in the community to deal with the influx of the drug activity.

Mr. Speaker, I've been told personal stories from concerned residents who have had their neighbours die in their arms. This is because the community does not have anyone certified to attend to these isolated emergencies. The community of Tsiigehtchic and its residents deserve these services of the health and justice department. We also state that the safety of our residents throughout -- we always state that the safety of our residents throughout the NWT is crucial. And at the end of the day, it is very important to this government. Let's show the people of Tsiigehtchic and other small communities that do not have these essential services that we do care and start providing these services to them.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to see this government engage with our federal counterparts and the Indigenous governments to start the process of providing these services to our residents so our residents can feel safe within their own communities. Mr. Speaker, this is just another example of taking control of our Indigenous communities and fall short of providing essential necessary services to protect the residents of Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have questions for the Premier at a later time.

Thank you, Member for Mackenzie Delta. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about health care which is clearly a priority for Members here although perhaps we have different areas of top concern.

It's our largest operating budget. And to be clear, a lot is at stake here. Much more than money. It's a matter of preserving lives and taking care of people when they're suffering the most and providing a sense of security for our families, as Mr. Nerysoo was just describing. But it should alarm us that NTHSSA has been bleeding money since it was established with an accumulated deficit of at least $200 million.

Now, I have many health care professionals in my riding, and they tell me that the system is in danger of falling apart. I know that health care is huge and complex, and there are a hundred sides to every story. We are often told that health care systems all over Canada are strained, every jurisdiction is underfunded, everywhere they're struggling to hire enough doctors and nurses. And we're told that young people might not want to work full time anymore, they want a travelling lifestyle, so we just have to accept that agency nurses and locum doctors are inevitable. But I don't accept that there is nothing we can do.

What I know is that the foundation of any health care system is our staff. It may be unrealistic to aim for all full-time stuff and we may always need to fill in some gaps with temporary workers but without a strong core of resident health care professionals, the system collapses. The good news is that we seem to be doing well at recruiting new resident doctors and nurses who do actually want to live here, but our retention is dismal. The burnout rate is high. What I hear from health care staff is that they are exhausted and overwhelmed. They are frightened and demoralized by the prospect of decreasing standards of patient care with too few staff per shift. They're constantly being asked to work overtime and come in on their scheduled days off.

Salaried nurses work alongside entry level agency nurses who could be making twice as much money as them. Doctors, even those who want to live in the NWT, are quitting and becoming locums because they are fed up dealing with an administrative system that seems more interested in policing them than in supporting them. And perhaps in an attempt to find cost savings, NTHSSA has increasingly been going to arbitration with staff, fighting over their access to benefits --

Member from Yellowknife North -- thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in trying to pinch pennies, we are costing our system dearly. Increasing hostility and miscommunication between staff and administration lead to a downward spiral of morale and an increasing spiral of costs.

Mr. Speaker, we need to put resident health care professionals at the centre of any strategy moving forward, to communicate clearly with them, to find out what they need to avoid burnout, to treat them as partners in designing a sustainable health care system. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would wish to recognize a few different folks. Two of the pages here today are from my riding. That would be Ms. Jack Penny and Hamza Abouhagar, pardon my pronunciation. Thank you for being with us here today.

And also, I would like to recognize my past co-worker from environment and climate change, Ms. Tasha Alexie who is here today to hear about the annual report. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize three of the pages that are helping us out here today from Yellowknife North. We have Kijel Ulbricht, Kaize Roach, and Kate McShane. Thank you for your work here today. And a visitor in the gallery from my riding, Georgina Rolt.

Thank you. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member from Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to say there are three pages here working from Yellowknife South. Always pleased to have their support and assistance. Michael Bell, Caleb Doering, and Seth Gordon. Thank you for all your help here today.

Member from Yellowknife South. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. If we missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your Chambers. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to see people in the gallery.

Reports of committees on the review of bills. Reports of standing committee and special committee. Return to oral questions. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of course the fiscal situation appears to be dire, which means we need to find new revenues or make some cuts. And I think Northerners would much prefer revenues over cuts. So I'd like to ask the Minister of Finance what is our accounts receivable situation? I understand in particular Nunavut does owe us quite a bit of health care costs. Can she speak to how much we're owed as a government? Thank you.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, accounts receivable, March of last year, which would be the last time that it comes out with an actual, was at around $131 million. And of that, there is a significant amount that is due to the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority. There is ongoing work happening within the authority to make sure that they are billing back timely. So every time someone from outside of territory with a different health care card is in the territory, that does create, for example, an accounts receivable balance. And as I said, I know they are alive to it.

I believe the Member has also asked a second question with respect to Nunavut. Mr. Speaker, there is some accounts receivable owing as well. I believe roughly at around $10 to $12 million, and that's where Nunavut residents may be passing through our territory and, again, typically is when they're receiving health and social services here within the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, that's $131 million is a pretty big chunk of that $150 million. So we've solved our financial challenges if we just collect on our debts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is definitely part of the kind of work that we want to be doing and making a really strong effort to ensure that we are, in fact, adhering to current industry best practices. These are exactly the conversations to be had, not only about making cuts and certainly not about making cuts to programs and services that people depend on, but looking at what we can do to encourage all departments, every agency, to be maintaining the standards to accounts receivable. Right now, that is if invoices are 30 days or more past due, we want to be making sure that every -- again, every department and every agency and all the authorities are taking those steps. It can creep up incrementally in one department or one agency and that was what will lead us into a bad situation. That can't happen, Mr. Speaker. I'm committed to following through on that. That's exactly why we're putting ourselves forward with an ambitious fiscal response or a fiscal plan, and I appreciate bringing attention to it. Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for those commitments. The GNWT has often whispered about a sales tax in the past. Is the sales tax going to be on the table for this government? Thank you.

Pretty quiet whispers, Mr. Speaker. I don't think I've heard anyone whispering those words. Sales tax at this point would obviously have a pretty significant cost increase to individuals and residents. We are already finding that the cost of living -- anecdotally people say all the time the cost of living is very high. And the recent years and a number of challenges we faced have only made those challenges worse for everyone. So there's no whispers of a sales tax at this point, Mr. Speaker. We're going to have to see what we can do with the government to make sure that we're best utilizing our funds in a way that delivers programs and services but can also bring our fiscal house into order. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Member from Range Lake. Final supplementary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. So another area that Northerners often talk about is taxing people who work in the Northwest Territories but don't live here. We have a payroll tax system and a tax benefit that accomplishes that. Are we maximizing those benefits to the Northwest Territories' public purse through that system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is certainly a concern that gets raised that too many people are working in the North, benefitting from high median wages, which do maintain -- ours too continue to be very high and yet aren't actually providing to any sort of tax revenue here. So with that in mind, some years ago, a payroll tax at 2 percent of employment income was imposed. And we bring about $48 million in payroll tax. About $10 million of that is coming from non-resident workers, Mr. Speaker. So as far as we're maximizing it, obviously increased taxes you increase revenues, but at some point you do start to have impacts on local residents. It is offset for local residents because there are other tax measures, such as the northern resident deduction, available to those who stay in the North. They're not -- the two aren't tied together but in that sense while you might be paying the right payroll tax here if you live here, you're also getting some significant tax benefits.

Mr. Speaker, asking, though, if we were to change -- if you change any of these systems, you always increase revenue, but you may be impacting on residents, and that's the balance we have to strike. Thank you.