No plans for hospital lay-offs as COVID-era funding ends, N.W.T. health minister says

The Northwest Territories health minister says her department is not planning to lay off any staff as a result of COVID-related funding expiring at the end of the fiscal year. 

Minister Lesa Semmler says that's because the plan is to cut positions her department wasn't able to fill in the first place. 

The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) recently said that there will be fewer beds in Stanton Territorial Hospital and "associated staffing reductions," after a COVID-related boost in funding comes to an end on March 31.

But in an exchange in the legislature Tuesday, Semmler said she doesn't expect anybody will be laid off.

"It's important to understand that many positions that were added in this, with this funding, we were never able to staff them," she said. 

Semmler said the department filled the vacancies with casual and contract workers. 

The minister's comments came under questioning from Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse. 

Morse said nursing aides — among the positions expected to be cut — were unsung heroes of the pandemic. 

"Eliminating these positions could not only deteriorate care standards, but also demoralize our health care workers, who, in the face of growing pressures, continue to selflessly serve northerners when we are actively working to recruit and notably, retain nurses," Morse said. 

Semmler pointed to two agreements the territory recently signed with Ottawa. The federal government is providing $36 million to enhance culturally-appropriate mental wellness and suicide prevention programs, establish an addictions medicine team, and improve care for seniors. 

Semmler said those agreements will create jobs in health care.

"When we talk about what's going away from COVID, we've been able to integrate a lot of those positions into these new fundings," she said.  

"We will not jeopardize patient care. That is not something that I will do as a minister."