Debates of May 23rd, 2025

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there was two questions there. So to the first question, the answer is no.

To the second question who is in charge, so the DEC has the responsibility of hiring and selecting and working with the superintendent. And within the legislation, there is also a concert and it works in concert with our Public Service Act and the collective agreement under the NWTTA. So that's an important thing to consider there as well, is that there are considerations under that too. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So earlier today we heard the Minister of ITI give an update on work towards increasing labour mobility, but my questions are actually for the Minister of Health and Social Services on a similar topic. So our Medical Professions Act allows us to register and license physicians in the NWT so they can practice medicine here, either they're living here or they work here as locums, but there are some barriers that unnecessarily prevent some doctors coming from elsewhere from being able to work here, particularly specialists.

So the first question is around -- so the NWT requires a specialist position to have a Royal College exam and designation whereas this is not required in some other jurisdictions, such as Alberta or Ontario. So is the Minister looking at changing our requirements so that we're more in line with other jurisdictions so we can welcome more specialist doctors currently working in other provinces to be able to work here too? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate this question. Within the last week, we've been talking a lot about -- myself and with the leadership of both the department and the NTHSSA on the struggles that we're hearing, not just from physicians, it's from MLAs that have raised issues on behalf of them, locums have brought forward to the senior physicians, like the territorial medical director. And so what we're looking at is we're finding that the general practitioners, you know, when they get their two letters of reference and they've got their letter of good standing, that process takes about two to three days, and then that was the -- that is kind of where we ended. And then most recently, the issue about this came up. So I did follow up with the department and that it was something that was done, and then it was waived for a while, and then it was put back, and I think right now it is -- under my understanding is that this will be waived again. So hopefully that will help streamline to be in it line with the rest of Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay, that's great news. Thank you to the Minister for that. Is there other changes the department is working on to the Medical Professions Act that would further reduce barriers to labour mobility, and what are the timelines on those kinds of changes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is actually a lot of work going on at the national level, and so there is -- at the health Minister meetings, this was a hot topic of all Ministers, that we all raised this issue that there needed to be more -- the physicians to be able to move freely within the -- or within Canada so that way that they could assist in other areas when needed a lot more easily. And then -- but so where we are right now is, you know, with the new health Minister, I'm hoping that I'll be able -- as I said, we're planning meetings with the new Ministers. One session has concluded. That we will -- and this will be on the radar as to what the topics -- like, what are the highlights of the new Minister of health, and, you know, bringing forward this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Premier's sessional statement, he celebrated the new emergency room plan as being codeveloped, and yet I hear very different from the frontline. The Minister of Health and Social Services explained what went into the co-development. Was it sitting down with doctors, nurses, and other staff to figure out what it needs; like an interest-based negotiation and build a cohesive plan, or was it we listened to the presentations to the standing committee from the doctors and we implement their recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Mr. Premier.

Sorry, Minister of Health and Social Services. Sorry about that. Oh, sorry. Can you repeat the question, Member from Range Lake.

Thank you. My apologies. It was in the Premier's sessional statement, but it is the responsibility of the Minister of Health and Social Services. Will she explain to the House how she codeveloped the ER plan with staff, doctors, nurses, everyone else who works to support the emergency department. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From what the information that I have on file is that this was work of the working group, the emergency room working group that initiated and recommended these changes so that we would change from four physicians working throughout the day versus the three physicians plus a general -- like, a general practitioner which would help because of the specialization of the emergency room specialty, that this will help, you know, flow of patients, and it would also, from the understanding from the working group, that this could help promote recruitment and retention in the emergency department for physicians. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Well, I hope it does because adding a shift without the doctors to fill it seems to be a problem here.

Mr. Speaker, are all the shifts, these four -- there's four shifts in the ER now. Are all the shifts currently scheduled covered through June to August of this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have information up until June, and what I have until June is that the shifts are covered. So I don't have the other information. So I can get back to the Members with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I could get ahead of the Minister on this one. I do have some of the information until August. I recognize it's still being developed, but at least 22 days have only one doctor, and there are four days with zero doctors. So how is the Minister assessing whether or not this new program -- this new thing is actually working? Because these new shifts are not filling up. So what is she going to do to fill these shifts urgently? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say is that with the new locum rates that are being -- we are already getting an uptake of people contacting to come to work, and so the department -- like, the OMAC, the office of medical credentialing, is working with those and working with NTHSSA as well as Hay River health authority, to look at their staffing levels within the health authority, and a lot of times staffing schedules are done in increments. And this is something that is not new and so as the -- as we get locums, you know, people apply, and then we fill up the positions. And usually, even in nursing, like, some nursing in the past would be on a six-week schedule. So there would be nothing after that six-week schedule until two weeks before when that schedule is done. That is -- there's different scheduling that has been put in place for -- and so with physicians, what we do is we go as far as we -- you know, a month or two, and then we fill them as we need because, you know, historically, the Northwest Territories has been around 50 percent physicians so we rely a lot on locum physicians, and that's not new to this territory as well. This has been happening in the whole 20 some years that I've been part of this system, and so those -- as we continue to recruit, this keeps going, we'll fill those. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned previously, that NIHB is done differently in every region and what I -- what I mean differently is that even in Nunatsiavut, they have drawn down -- with their Indigenous government has drawn down the -- to implement the NIHB -- administer the administration. So even in -- and I raised this even with Newfoundland health Minister that they don't even deal with it because it's dealt with their Indigenous government. So every jurisdiction is different. BC has a First Nation health, and that's who administers, and so if you're Inuit in BC, you have to go through another jurisdiction because they don't -- you know, so there's so much complexity because it's a federal program that it relies on people having to just access it through the federal jurisdiction in Ottawa, or they can -- if their province or territory has drawn it down, that they access it through their province first.

So when our residents leave the Northwest Territories, you know, we administer it, so we take care of all of the stuff in the background. When they leave the territory, they have to do all of the coordinating themselves because we don't coordinate with that. So I can flag that for the Minister of ISC as to how it's being done across Canada and how it impacts our residents when I do get a chance to meet with them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given that, you know, we know every jurisdiction is different and doing business a different way and a new way is different too. So will the Minister consider this looking at doing it a little different, being the voice for the North, and creating something different that might work for the residents of the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm not wanting to paraphrase but I've heard from enough people through -- since being the Minister that one of the issues is people do leave. Some people -- you know, maybe they don't -- they can't afford or they don't know and they don't get the travel insurance, and they get sick. I can raise this with the Minister of Indigenous Service Canada who this program falls under, but as of the Northwest Territories, this program is funded by them so we administer what we negotiate with them, so I can add this as something that could be looked at, but I can't commit that this would be something that they would do at this time. Thank you.