The NWT’s health minister faced questions on Tuesday about progress made by the public administrator appointed to run the territory’s health authority.
Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan pressed minister Lesa Semmler on promises such as a plan to stabilize the healthcare workforce, produce a balanced budget and create a business case for the small community model of care.
In December 2024, Semmler dissolved a leadership council that formerly oversaw the health authority and replaced it with lone public administrator Dan Florizone, who had been a healthcare leader in Saskatchewan and Nunavut.
In a statement at the time, the territorial government said the leadership council had “not proven to fit the rapidly evolving and challenging needs of the current health and social services system.”
Noting 14 months have passed, Morgan told the legislature on Tuesday: “We have blown past nearly every deadline for concrete results that were laid out in the work plan, with no deliverables in sight.”
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She said a key goal of appointing the administrator was to work toward workforce stabilization and develop a “people strategy” to help recruit and retain healthcare workers across the territory.
While this strategy was initially going to be ready by June 2025, it has yet to appear, Morgan said.
Asked about the delay, Semmler said the scope of the strategy had expanded.
“Year after year, staff were frustrated and frustrated and frustrated, because many of the issues that they were bringing forward were not in the recruitment strategy,” said the minister.
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While some elements of the previous strategy were working well and will remain, she said the new strategy will be an “all-of-government initiative” with additional coordination for things like housing.
Picking another target, Morgan asked about the territory’s ambition of delivering a balanced healthcare budget.
At a briefing late last year, senior healthcare officials – including Florizone – said healthcare in the NWT operates at a deficit, much of which is caused by the sheer cost of medical travel.
Annual deficits range from $25 million to $60 million. Healthcare sustainability staff have said they are aiming to produce “meaningful recommendations” to eliminate that deficit before planning begins for the 2027-28 financial year.
Semmler said this week that based on the latest information she has, a more balanced budget could be available by the end of 2026.
“There was initial indication that we would see that in last year’s mains, and then further expectation it would be in these current mains,” said Morgan, referring to the main estimates in the annual territorial budget.
“What would lead us to believe we should expect a balanced budget by next year’s mains?”
In response, Semmler said she has been working to avoid worsening patient care by cutting the budget arbitrarily and has instead been working to tighten spending where possible.
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“It was working within, finding from within,” said Semmler. “Those things have been completed over the years.”
Answering more questions posed by Morgan, Semmler said the public administrator’s contract is up in December of 2026.
“Can the minister speak to what barriers have been removed or what issues have now been resolved that would give this House more assurance that the deliverables can actually be completed by December?” Morgan asked.
Semmler said a main goal of the process was to have the government’s priorities actioned within the health authority.
That “direct line,” Semmler said, has now been established and work is under way to improve high-priority areas of the health system, such as first contact with patients.
She said some deliverables had been delayed due to the large scope of work with which the administrator has been tasked, but that work is ongoing.
Ollie Williams contributed reporting.
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