David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

How many locum and agency nurses are currently employed by the department and health authorities in the NWT?

What positions are they in?

What is the length of time each position has been occupied by locum or agency nurses?

By year, what is the hiring priority of new students entering the Northern Nursing Program for the past seven years?

Thank you.

Thank you. My intent in all of this is to work with the Minister and work with the government in ensuring that we make sure that public safety is a priority here in our Territory.

Again, I want to take issue with the fact that we’ve got two programs that are running out there. The Anger and Emotions Program, a six-week course, and the family violence course. Both of those courses, Mr. Speaker, were offered once last year. That is not enough and it’s little wonder people are ending up in our court system 16, 17 and 18 times. The system is failing, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’d like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue today asking some questions to the government about how it intends to address the incidents of family violence in our Territory. Mr. Speaker, I’ve been asking questions here all week and I was reading the CBC site this morning and it looks like we’ve got a new family violence treatment program coming along set to open, as the story indicates, next month. I’ve asked a number of questions this week and neither the Minister of Justice nor the Minister of Health and Social Services said anything about this new program. I’d like to ask the Minister of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also in that news story it talks about the Family Violence Treatment Program being the first of two new programs that the government is going to bring forward to address domestic violence in our Territory. I’d like to ask the Minister when the work towards the establishment of these programs was brought to the Standing Committee on Social Programs and whether or not the government sought the input of the standing committee, Mr. Speaker, and where the money is in the ‘11-12 budget to accomplish these two new programs that apparently are coming along. Thank you.

Thank you. I must have missed that, this new family violence treatment program that the Minister says he talked about. I’ll have to go back and check Hansard. I don’t believe I heard that. I also didn’t hear the family violence court process like the Yukon has that is supposed to be implemented here in the Northwest Territories sometime down the road. That’s something else I’d like to ask the Minister about, but perhaps while I can, I’m going to ask the Minister, he did mention some programming that is currently in place at the North Slave Correctional Centre, one that deals with emotions and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spent this past week raising issues related to family violence. Today I wanted to speak about V-Day.

V-Day is a global movement in over 140 countries to stop violence against women and girls by promoting creative events to increase awareness and raise money. In 2010, volunteers from around the world produced over 5,400 interactive V-Day events educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

Mr. Speaker, in 11 years the V-Day movement has raised over $75 million worldwide and reached over 300 million people. V-Day North is the fourth V...

Mr. Speaker, this individual that has 19 prior offences of a violent nature, in fact, killed somebody, got five years. Mr. Speaker, according to some folks that work with sentencing, this individual could be walking the streets of the Northwest Territories in 22 months’ time. Mr. Speaker, 19 times the system has failed him. I’d like to again ask the Minister of Justice what safeguards are in place or what are we going to do differently with this individual that is going to ensure public safety when he gets released, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sounds like we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that locum nurses are going to be in these positions and the department and the authorities are not going to post the positions to be filled by resident nurses here in the Northwest Territories. Is that what I’m hearing the Minister say? That locums are there permanently, we’re not posting those jobs? I’d like to ask the Minister why aren’t we posting the jobs that locums are filling today. Thank you.

Thank you. I hope the Minister can appreciate the fact that these graduates are months away from completing the program, yet when they look at the government website and any job postings, there are just none available and they’re left scratching their head saying, well, the Minister was here three years ago and promised us jobs, where are they? Then they see locum and agency nurses working in our health authorities and at Stanton and they wonder where are the postings. I’d like to ask the Minister if she can explain the fact that we have these locum and agency nurses here and no job postings...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to be speaking today about the Northern Nursing Program at Aurora College. As Members are well aware, this program became a four-year degree-granting program a few years ago. It is affiliated with the University of Victoria.

One of Ms. Lee’s first speeches as Minister of Health and Social Services was to address first-year students of the Northern Nursing Program at Aurora College in the fall of 2007. Ms. Lee’s address that day was full of encouragement, support, and promise of full-time employment in the Northwest Territories for each graduating student. Well...