Nunavut health, justice ministers praise front-line staff for pandemic work
Cabinet ministers share tributes in legislature
Nunavut Health Minister John Main, left, and Justice Minister David Akeeagok thanked health-care and corrections workers on the opening day of the legislative assembly’s winter sitting. (File photos)
Nunavut leaders are praising health-care and corrections staff for their front-line work throughout the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health Minister John Main and Justice Minister David Akeeagok delivered the statements on Monday, the first day of the legislative assembly’s winter sitting.
Main thanked Health Department employees, as well as staff at local public health units for the “gruelling hours” they put into keeping Nunavummiut safe and informed.
He also asked that people continue following public health guidelines and to get vaccinated if they have not done so already.
“The collective efforts to fight COVID-19 go beyond health staff,” he said. “We all have a part to play in protecting our territory.”
Akeeagok took the time to praise Nunavut’s corrections staff, who worked through outbreaks in a few of the territory’s facilities.
There have been cases at Iqaluit’s Aaqqigiarvik Correctional Healing Facility and Nunavut Women’s Correctional Centre, as well as at the Rankin Inlet Health facility.
Akeeagok said that vaccination drives, entrance screenings and reduced public access have helped reduce the number of cases in correctional facilities.
“As soon as active COVID is detected in a facility, our staff implement our containment procedures which includes regular testing and increased restrictions, and the isolation and treatment of any impacted client,” he said.
“To our dedicated front-line corrections staff, we recognize and thank you for your hard [work] and commitment.”
COVID-19 continues to spread in Nunavut. The territory reported 595 active cases on Monday.
Another month and another timesheet submitted with my overtime that has not been processed. Two prompts to my manager, and two prompts to Health HR, and still nothing. Please migrate to ADP or an actual payroll software program, between endless follow ups to ensure I am paid for my overtime, I am also tasked with clerical work to calculate shift differential hours. It is a complete joke that I fill out a form, only for some admin staff to enter it into an excel spreadsheet. The room for data entry error is huge and the sheets get “lost” between the manager and Health HR ALL THE DAY and it is a complete waste of time. It is always so convenient how the system always results results in me being paid less, never more.
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No where else in Canada have I worked is like this, so I’ll be telling my friends to maybe skip Nunavut if they expect to be paid on time without sending 45 emails.
You work a job where they can give you OT. Try working on a salary where you’re expected to do the work of those vacant or on leave with no compensation or acknowledgment. Just expectations and criticism while getting paid for 37.5 hrs and easy working double that amount.
What about those that get paid for 37.5 hours but barely even work 3.75 hours?
Umm I am on a salary. I work 42 hours a week. Like everyone in the GN I am entitled to overtime if I am asked to work more… if you are working overtime without approval you’re either a fool or you’re technically Breaking the COllective Agreement. I am authorized and called in for overtime but then it takes forever and ten prompts to get payroll to pay me.
To “fool or breaking the collective agreement”:
I think its safe to assume the OP is a senior manager or higher. Those jobs are not covered under any Collective Agreement and don’t qualify for OT.
Likely a senior manager who isn’t getting paid OT and therefore making less than half of what a nurse makes.
If someone is a not covered by the collective agreement as management (I think this is only senior manager, i.e. directors and higher?) and isn’t being adequately paid (indeterminates get like 50% off market rent? management get a bonus no? extra vacation?), it is them being a fool working too much for nothing. It might explain why my OT is never paid on time, some overworked and disgruntled manager doesn’t want me paid or doesn’t have time to get me paid. Whatever the case, why are we using this ancient system and not just have me click two buttons that are approved or denied on an electronic system like everywhere else I’ve worked? Oh, because it employs people to do data entry and the employment numbers are all people care about. Well they can instead continue to worry about nurse employment numbers since I have a million other job offers that will pay me promptly and without effort that I’ll go to next.
I’ve seen this happen a lot in the department I work in (not Health). One problem is that these time sheets have to go through multiple hands needing multiple levels of approval, the further from the originator the less stake or sense of actual connection and concern there is for the person who has the main stake in it getting the work done properly (another way to state this, people get more apathetic the further removed they are from any sense of consequence).
Add to that the high levels of disorganization and incompetence that run through our public service and it is the perfect recipe for this kind of problem. It’s honestly shameful and I wish the GN would clue in to its systemic inefficiencies, and change them.
Let’s be clear about something, the GN only “reacts” to problems… it never “pro-acts”
For the sake of everybody’s mental health, where is the plan to end these now needless restrictions? Nunavut is firmly in last place without having a plan for its people to be aware. Every other province and territory has already released their plans with firm timelines. Why are we last AGAIN!!!!!
Nunavut time to demand better!!!!!!!
Sure Omnicron is milder but there are still lots of people who need to be tested and assessed and some people do require hospitalizations. Hospitalizations for this outbreak reached 33. Our resources are stretched too thin. If they open things up and more people get sick, then what? Who is going to take care of them? Wait times on the hotline will only get worse.
They cannot open things back up until they can handle the aftermath.
Nunavut will be the last as usual, nothing new. I have recently recovered from Covid, fully vax and boosted. It was not as bad! i have had worse flu. The hotline wait times are long but there is also a call back option. GN cannot out run this virus. Best to protect the vulnerable and let the rest of us live our lives. The whole slowing down approach by Nunavut is why we are still in the thick of things as oppose to just let the virus run its course. All this vaccination persuasion are falling on deaf ears when there are still restrictions. Nunavut was amongst the first to get the vaccine shipment yet we are well below all provinces east of Manitoba and Yukon.
Yeah, ok its time to remove the public health measure (restrictions) because people in Nunavut and around the world are “done” with the rules. It’s time to stop swinging that old stick at the people.
It’s time to lift the vaccine (certificates) and masks requirements. Its time to remove the limits of visitations and activities inside public buildings. It’s time to open it up.
Why don’t you go to one of the schools, have a seat in a packed classroom, take off your mask, and eat with your friends? For teachers, it’s been wide open for awhile.
We’ll see how much staff are truly appreciated when the details of that new CBA come out.
This might be the first time those workers get praise from our leaders. Keep showing respect to Correctional Workers, Hamlet Service workers, Health Care Workers, Post Office and Grocery Workers. Without them, we would be all be screwed. Let’s be fair, they work harder than 99% of us up here in the north.
This is a warm welcome versus the usual “thank you to our hunters for providing during this pandemic” or “thank you for staying home instead of going to work”.
Need more Healthcare providers in Nunavut? Start approaching EDUCATION system that lacks require actual basic ACADEMIC programs that supposed to be delivered in schools. You’ll NOTICE Education that is NOT relevant to STUDENT’s LEARNING.
Consider to look into challenges, and weaknesses in EDUCATION??? This is critical to fill in more Certified Nurses, and Doctors. Did you notice this trend!?!
Who pays You to be ministers, who pays the front line workers to do the job? recognize and thank Your finance dept for once.
Nah, it’s a thankless job. Always has been, always will be.