Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since taking on this activity and putting human resources into one area, dealing with the backlog files, a number of things I’ve put in place to monitor the work that has been going forward. One, it is on the pay side of the equation on our backlog what gets done. The second piece, and becomes more critical, is the benefit side and the backlog there. In both sides, pre-September 2005, and post-September 2005, because that is when we really started pulling things together within the department to try and smooth them out and get the flow working. We do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the majority of decisions made now within the Sahtu are made by the people of the Sahtu when you talk about a critical program in Health and Social Services, in Education, in Human Resources even having that centre there. So, Mr. Speaker, we are working to ensure that the level of services we provide throughout the Territories is expanded to communities. If, of course, the Members of this Assembly feel that we should put more dollars into the administrative side of governance and want to give me those funds so that we can establish those office positions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Members realize, I believe we only have three centres where FMBS is directly involved and that’s changed with the work of Human Resources. At this point, there is no plan for FMBS to establish any more offices or add any further personnel. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again going from own knowledge of previous experience in this department, is that our process is established for services available within the Northwest Territories. Those that need those services would be directed to the location closest to them. If they don't like that level of service and choose upon their own wisdom to travel beyond that, that would be at their own cost. The same would fall into levels of services that are available within Canada. Again, because we've been dealing with this file with other jurisdictions and trying to come up with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe there would be a policy in place that's in effect that would deal with how patients access services, whether it's in our territory then to the next jurisdiction where we have a contract for services and if there are no facilities within Canada, then further to pre-approve programs. But that would follow a timeline and process. In the particular Member's spoke about here in the Assembly, although I'm not going to get into the level of detail, I'm aware that he hasn't been left out there on his own. There have been many doctors' visits to try...

As I stated earlier, once I get up to speed in the area of particular programs in the drug and alcohol area, if we are working on that initiative, I would gladly sit down with the Member and look at what options are there, what plans may come up, and work with the Social Programs committee in this area as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of drug and alcohol treatment programs in the Northwest Territories is one that has concerned us for quite some time. As long as I have been a Member of the Legislative Assembly, the issue has come up time and again. The Department of Health and Social Services, over a number of years, has tried to adjust its programming to fit the criteria for northern families and individuals. In this situation I know the department has undergone a review of how it provides programs and, with the previous efforts of the previous Minister, things are in the works to change...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006, I will move that Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that as a government we’ve left the Sahtu out to dry. In fact, over the last few years this government has substantially invested in the Sahtu and its people. For example, with the health board, with the education board, human resources centre established there and hopefully, in fact, within a year a new office space to help that situation out. So we’ve invested in there and are doing the best we can with the available resources. Within FMBS itself, as I stated, we don’t have the available dollars to expand beyond the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not a trained doctor and I don't understand that profession well enough, and I'm sure the Member across will be in the same category. I'm willing to sit down, work with the Member on this and go and do some historical data, go through the process that we've used to date. At this point that's what I will commit to, is to sit down with the Member, review this file. But beyond that, again, we're relying on the professional expertise of the caretakers out there. Thank you.