David Ramsay

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Minister for letting everybody know that I attended that committee briefing. Thank you.

I also wanted to ask the Minister — and she mentioned it. Between a year and a half and two years ago, when it appeared through a supplementary appropriation, and today, what is causing the cost overruns and the accrued deficit in our health authorities? The Minister should know what is causing that, and we should be able to address it, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, some of the stories that Members have heard — and, again, we waited three weeks to actually get any information from the government in terms of the positions that were being impacted. I'm just wondering how that could happen. How could it take three weeks for the government to let Members know which positions were being impacted?

Some of the stories that Members have heard from constituents, where they're put into a situation where it's every man for himself or every woman for herself. There are three positions left in a shop and there are four people there, so somebody…. It's...

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier today, when I talked of the accrued deficit that’s building up at Stanton Territorial Hospital. It’s nearing 11 and a half million dollars. I mentioned earlier that it was just two and a half years ago that Members of this House approved millions of dollars to help address the deficit situation at Stanton through supplementary appropriation.

I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, what is the government’s plan to address the 11 and a half million dollar...

Mr. Chairman, I thank the Minister for that. Under the title "Quality Assurance — Monitors and evaluates human resource services and activities to ensure delivery supports effective human resource management. Provides guidance and feedback on human resource processes and procedures." I'm wondering: how was quality assurance employed when it came to the staffing reductions that the government is embarking upon?

I'd like to speak today about Stanton Territorial Hospital. There continue to be many issues at play at Stanton that throughout this session I will be addressing in an attempt to get some answers from the Minister as to what exactly is happening at that hospital.

In speaking to health care professionals on the front line, I find there seems to be a constant disconnect between the positions that are available at the hospital and the continued reliance on agency nurses. Are we not interested in hiring more nurses who live here? Why wouldn't we look at increasing the float pool at Stanton? And, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the Human Resource Strategy and Policy what policies were used when the government was conducting its reduction exercise and targeting positions government-wide? I'm just wondering what policies were put in place or what policies were used in determining whether or not a position should be reduced.

We’re all interested in this reduction exercise that took place and the notification letters that went out to employees. Between the time the letters went out and Regular Members actually found out exactly which positions were being impacted and affected — it took approximately three weeks to find out. Mr. Chairman, my question for the Minister is: why did it take three weeks? What was happening in that three-week time frame? We were left answering calls and concerns from our constituents in that three-week time frame without any knowledge of what was happening. I’d like to know what was...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is perhaps the appropriate place to ask some questions, considering the directorate provides leadership and direction to the department and is under the authority of the Minister. Getting back to the notification letters that went out to the affected employees, I want to get a better understanding of what advice the Department of Human Resources gave to the Minister and gave to Cabinet that would see those letters go out. Was the advice to send the letters out or not send the letters out?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister proposing that somewhere down the line the government comes forward with a supplementary appropriation for 20-some-odd million dollars to bail the hospital out in terms of what they paid in payroll for six months? How long is this going to continue to be allowed to happen?

I didn’t really hear a response there. It’s pretty much a yes-or-no question. Did Human Resources give Cabinet advice and recommendations on the staffing reductions? Yes or no?