N.W.T. MLAs won't support capital plan without more money for housing and health care

Regular MLAs say they won't support the N.W.T. capital plan without more funding and attention to their priorities. 

As the assembly considers the territory's $339-million capital budget, members have been calling for more attention to housing and health care — two of this assembly's four priorities. 

In the legislature Wednesday, Inuvik MLA Denny Rodgers tabled a statement on the housing and health-care crisis in the territory. The report is from the standing committee on accountability and oversight, which all regular members are part of. 

"[The] committee is very concerned about the fragility of our health-care system and the apparent inability to put appropriate resources into housing," Rodgers said, reading the report to the assembly.

The draft capital plan suggests earmarking $11.3 million for housing, which is roughly three per cent of the budget. Just under a fifth of the budget, or $60.8 million, is set to go to health care.

Rodgers characterized the territory's health-care and housing availability as being in "crisis conditions," and called for a fundamental culture shift to take steps to fix them.

The report refers to health-care staff not being able to take leave because of chronic understaffing and comments from front-line staff that the primary care system may be on the verge of collapse.

It also calls for a much greater commitment from cabinet to create more housing units.

Rodgers said he looks forward to continuing discussions on the capital plan during the fall session, which ends Nov. 1. There are five sitting days left between now and then.

Stanton Hospital to review leave policy

Health Minister Lesa Semmler fielded questions from multiple members Wednesday on the state of health care in the territory, including difficulties getting appointments, staff being denied leave and the inability for N.W.T. medical systems to communicate with Alberta's, where N.W.T. patients are often referred. 

A former nurse herself, Semmler said she's aware of the many issues facing the territory's health-care system and that she is working on making things better. 

Semmler said she heard about the leave issue at a series of forums with staff at Stanton Territorial Hospital on Oct. 1 and 2. Coming out of that, she said, Stanton has committed to reviewing its leave policy.  

She said the department is also looking to upgrade the N.W.T.'s medical record system to share documents with Alberta. The proposed capital budget does list a project to replace the electronic medical record system and says it's estimated to be complete in the 2025/26 fiscal year.