Debates of Feb. 24th, 2026

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will take the Member's suggestion away. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

He's quickly becoming my favourite justice Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I recall, just to be clear, the last time this was reviewed or kicked around, it was about a $5 million savings to the territorial taxpayer. So my question now is would the Minister agree to consider the opportunity to implement this approach if it boils down to administrative process and minor tweaks to territorial legislation to accommodate this necessity, an opportunity to save money on the territorial taxpayer? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, as the Minister, always looking for opportunities to, you know, reduce budget across our department, you know, I think that the Member has brought forward something that I was unfamiliar with, and I am happy to consider his suggestions as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So following up with further questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services and picking up on some of the things I mentioned in my Member's statement. So my first question is do paramedics have adequate training to engage in the common primary care activities that are needed in small community health centres, such as pre- and post-natal care, chronic disease management, or, for example, recognizing when the symptoms in a stable patient might lead soon to a serious decline; do paramedics have the right training to address those things? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, paramedics are pretty great. They are very versatile. They have different levels, and depending on the levels that they have educated and they're certified through their regulatory body in another jurisdiction, they can do many things. However, within the review that has happened and highlighting that paramedics could be implemented, that work is ongoing. And where the Member talks about all of the primary care services, that is the area that, you know, the nurses would be focused on. That is in their scope of practice. So whatever the scope of practice that they are able to do under the training that they have, that is what will be reviewed and analyzed, whether it's a good fit into implementing that type of a service and how well it could fit into the small communities. So that work is ongoing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And so the Minister has referred a couple times to the scope of practice of paramedics versus community health nurses; however, my question is, is there any recognized scope of practice for particular levels of paramedics in the NWT given that we don't have a regulatory body and these paramedics may have been trained in any number of different provinces with different scopes of practice? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when hiring certified paramedics into the past work and the ongoing work, we have many, many services that we provide in the Northwest Territories that do not currently have a regulatory body, like respiratory therapists who manage patient airways in the Northwest Territories, lab technologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, imaging techs, x-ray techs. There's many, many -- mental health addiction, like, counsellors. They work within what their jurisdiction of their licensing is, and so within the -- as long as they're in good standing, then, you know, we can -- we write the job description or the -- what is it -- the employer has a scope of practice that they are eligible to work on under their current -- whatever level of certification that they do have through a licensing body in another jurisdiction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in terms of the need for paramedics, we heard earlier today about some of the successes of the health recruitment unit. Does the Minister believe that the health recruitment efforts will allow us to close the gap in terms of recruitment of community health nurses to be able to fill the current vacancies? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I could only hope that, you know, we'd have tons of nurses that are going to go out that are going to go and take expanded scope and want to work in a health centre and live there. Yes, I wish that would happen; however, you know, I think the change in our workforce is different. We used to be able to even do job shares for 6 and 12 weeks, up to 12-week job shares in some of our communities. And now with the level that the nurses are willing to agree to, it might be 6 weeks, it might be 4 weeks. And so the change in the way that they want to work -- you know, we can continue to recruit, and we -- you know, wherever we can put them into places. There are some that are signing on and are staying. You know, we have local nurses that are going back home, which is really exciting, into small communities. However, we still have a lot of work to do. And we know what we've heard from them is that they need more supports. They need to be able to focus on some of the things to do their expanded scope whereas that's why we're looking at implementing other, like, LPNs into the smaller communities so that they can pick up a lot of the other -- and work at their scope of practice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. We need to have a Minister or a Premier; pick one.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was giving them the option of deciding who wanted to -- because it's kind of cross-departmental. I will say the health Minister for now but if the Premier wants to answer, I'd be happy as well. Thank you.

Mr. Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will step in here, as the integrated service delivery Yellowknife falls under EIA right now. So that program is essentially a pathfinding program where individuals who are in contact with a number of different government departments to receive services, whether it's income support and housing and social services. We have pathfinders there who help these individuals make their way through the system, which is not the ideal end goal that we want. We want a system where we don't need the pathfinders. That being said, that's what we have right now. And through our service integration efforts, we would like to get to a place where we're not going to need the pathfinders where service is integrated and an individual can go get a government service that they need and they don't have to worry about going to ten different offices. But right now, the integrated service delivery team is -- they are -- their workload is full. There's no additional capacity there to take on a very large cohort of individuals. I am not saying the Member's proposal doesn't have merit; I wish that we could do it but at this time we don't have -- we're not resourced to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's comprehensive and thoughtful answer to the question. I don't know how big the ask is. I don't know how many people are out there. I've had a few constituents reach out to me. It seems like the ISD team is a good fit for this. It's -- the service integration is exactly why I am asking for and why I've raised it with ISD. Can the Minister at least have a look into whether this is a possible interim measure while we're figuring out the health care sustainability unit for persons and their families with disabilities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over my time overseeing the integrated service delivery Yellowknife unit, which was previously integrated case management in Yellowknife, or under the Department of Justice, I've had numerous opportunities to inquire about their ability to take on more and do more, and the answer always comes back the same in that they are fully committed with the work that they have now. That being said, I will go back, and I will have a conversation and see what comes back, but I expect that what I am saying here in the House of what I've heard in the past will be the same answer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate again the response from the Minister. And I am wondering if maybe something like the ISD team could be established in health considering how complex some of the files are that health system clients have. So if the Premier wants to consider a new team or an expansion of the team, it's certainly something I would support. So I would appreciate hearing from the Premier on that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I would recommend that when there are proposals like this, they be brought forward at a point in the planning process that they could then make it into, you know, a future main estimate. So right now, we have the main estimates in front of us, in front of committee, and the money for the budget for next year is in that document, and there is not a line item for what the Member is speaking about. That being said, it's now on the radar and it could be something that is considered going forward but it would be, I am guessing, a significant investment of resources and personnel. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.