Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, Mr. Chair, this is, again, further to a budget commitment so what I can do is table those position lists just so I am not rereading lots of numbers and names. But what I'd suggest with respect to recruitment, I will turn that over to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So once the funding is approved, then the department will have a budget and those positions established so they'll be able to start a job action the next day if they want. So typically our service standard is around 11 weeks to fill a position with the Department of Finance. So I expect that we would meet that in this case as well, depending on the urgency for some of those positions though it could be shorter than that. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to confirm, the job descriptions for these new positions have already been completed so, you know, just approving the budget is the last step before being able to actually go ahead with advertising those positions, just to confirm that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, these are standard positions so they would have job descriptions available to them. And we were just saying, Mr. Chair, there may well be a chance that, in fact, there could be -- I know some of these positions, for example community health nurses, have had standing open positions on recruitment. And if that's the case, then the additional positions would be added to those existing recruitment efforts. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not sure if the Minister of Finance will be able to answer this question but further to my statement today, when it comes to recruitment will the same approaches and methods be used in this case, or do we have any new and creative approaches to recruitment up our sleeve? I know this is going to be a pretty significant increase in positions and we've already been struggling to fill all of our positions. Is there any plan in place to try anything new or different in terms of recruiting and trying to fill these positions? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I don't -- while I happen to wear the other hat for the public service in general, I don't have necessarily in front of me all details with respect to their health -- their health recruitment unit. We do provide that information on a regular basis to my colleagues and certainly would be happy to propose perhaps putting the latest numbers on -- as a tabled document just to make sure that that information is getting out publicly. Recruitment has gone -- it goes well in the sense that they are recruiting a high number of frontline health care positions. But we are continuing to fund additional positions, and so it has been challenging perhaps to keep up with the continued identified need, even if recruitment numbers are going up.

I will turn to the deputy minister here briefly, Mr. Chair, just to provide a bit of extra information about some of the efforts, which isn't to say that efforts can't continue to be more creative, just that with respect to the supplementary appropriation before us, creating the positions, I don't necessarily have that information. But perhaps a few words from the deputy, please.

Thank you. I will go to the deputy minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is an area that we're working closely with health. As the Minister mentioned, we do have a health recruitment unit that has been fairly successful in recruiting healthcare professionals to the government. As with every other professional or health care professional, they're in much demand so retention is also a problem. So we do recruit a lot but there is a lot of turnover in the workforce. But we have undertaken specific programs directly related to health care recruitment such as the Bring a Friend program. There was a labour market supplement that is specifically geared towards healthcare professionals. And we're, of course, exploring other ways we can recruit healthcare professionals to the North, specifically within the HR department. We do have a marketing department that is constantly looking at ways to promote the GNWT as an employer of choice, including in the healthcare field, especially in the healthcare field where the need is generally the greatest.

So I take the Member's point that we do need to be creative, and we are looking at ways of being more creative in terms of our recruitment but especially in the healthcare field. Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So -- and, you know, one key aspect of recruitment and retention, of course, is competitive compensation. So the deputy minister just mentioned a labour market supplement. Can the Minister or deputy minister clarify whether a labour market supplement will apply to these particular positions that we are adding here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I believe that is correct, Mr. Chair. I mean, I don't have the full list of all LMS-relevant positions in front of us but I think the answer is yes. And if we are incorrect, we'll bring that forward at the first opportunity.

Okay, thank you. I will go back to the Member from YK North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So that is good news. And I will leave it there for now, just acknowledging that I hope these conversations continue and we'll get more information out there to the public, and I do think that it will help to have as many hands on deck as possible in terms of recruitment and retention but -- so, you know, getting the word out, especially about things like the labour market supplement, will be key, and hopefully people can tap into their networks and spread the word about what a great place to live in the North and our communities are. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Are there any further questions? I will go to the Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question to the Minister, is this -- well, because you're looking at long-term care and continuing -- long-term and continuing care services so it's also fully offset by the Government of Canada. Is this the place where you're looking at the service programs, like the service fee programs? Thank you.

Thank you. I will go to the Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This could be a place where I could answer some questions on service fee programs. Mr. Chair, I don't want to presume the question, but I suspect this might be with respect to a $34 fee that sometimes gets charged. So, Mr. Chair, if I might just take the liberty of answering that question.

As of July 1st of this year, it's expected that patients designated as requiring an alternate level of care are -- and who have been approved for long-term care are going to be asked to pay long-term care accommodation rates. So as compared to a lot of southern jurisdictions, the Northwest Territories has a very low accommodation rate, namely the $34 bed fee, and they are asked at -- when they are no longer requiring hospital care or hospital treatment but they simply are waiting to be transferred from an existing hospital bed out into long-term accommodation, then that is when that fee kicks in. So that would be the same as if they were receiving care in a long-term care placement. So instead of paying a long-term care placement fee, they're paying that fee at the hospital. But, again, I would emphasize, patients that are still receiving acute care in hospital don't pay that fee. It's when they are stabilized and only now receiving accommodation, room and board, etcetera, but waiting for a long-term placement.

So that is a new fee that is coming in. Previously, patients who were waiting for a bed, when they were no longer receiving their care but waiting for a bed they would not be paying that fee. Again, it is substantially much lower than what often is incurred in southern jurisdictions or other jurisdictions, but there is a change in that it is coming in now to folks who are still in hospital but waiting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.