Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, members of the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, Northern and Remote Health Network, are with us here today. The foundation was one of two organizations to be highlighted in the federal budget for enhanced funding from Health Canada. This network meets twice annually to share success and develop collaborative approaches to share challenges in delivering healthcare in remote regions like the Northwest Territories.

I would like to welcome the following network representatives: Gregory Cumming, Stephen Samis, Laura Wessman, Sonia Isaac-Mann, Helga...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-Up Letter for Oral Question 651-18(2): Arsenic Levels in Kam Lake." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There does seem to be some continued confusion and I’m happy to sit down with the Member to talk, but I’d like to clarify for the Member that the ultrasound machine at Fort Simpson is not the kind used by sonographers to perform diagnostic tests. Rather, the machine at Simpson, the portable ultrasound machine, is the kind that is used by doctors and nurse practitioners and midwives at the bedside to help them make immediate decisions about patient care; things such as checking someone in an accident has internal bleeding or to check to see if a baby is in breach. Establishing a full diagnostic...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first off, I have to apologize. There was clearly some confusion and there have been some changes. The existing portable ultrasound in the Fort Simpson Health Centre is out-dated, as the Member has identified, and is actually scheduled to be replaced with a new portable ultrasound machine this summer. We’re hoping that we’ll have one in place by the end of June 2017, barring any unforeseen challenges with purchase and delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Late in the life of the last government, it was decided to move the Hay River authority into the public service because there were unknown things at play. There was no finalized collective agreement with the UNW for GNWT employees. There was also no finalized collective agreement with the Hay River employees. It left a lot of questions up in the air as far as what exists in one body, what exists in the other, and how do we make those come across seamlessly so that we don’t adversely affect the employees. At that time, I accepted that logic because we didn’t know those things, but I also...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know. I know that when we looked at bringing the health authority in during the last Assembly, the cost estimates were about $20 million. Things have changed since then. We have put in 12 new positions in Hay River. There have been some other changes. There has been staff turnover. The bottom line is: I can’t tell you what the number is today, but it is likely still around that number, maybe slightly higher. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The environmental health officers are working with small operators and people applying for temporary or permanent food establishment permits to ensure the food they provide is safe. Providing for locally sourced meat products will require revisions to the Public Health Act and regulations, and it may require other regulations or amendments to be done, regulations and legislation that might exist in other departments, like ENR, Lands, or ITI, so we would need to work with those departments to ensure that any sales or distribution of locally harvested foods is safe for the residents when it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have environmental health officers employed by the Department of Health and Social Services who can offer NWT food safety courses when requested by a community. They can go out and do that. They are usually waiting until they get at least 10 individuals who are interested in that course. However, we do know that, in some of the smaller communities, finding 10 individuals has proven to be difficult, so that can be offered by Telehealth as well, but we would need a request from the community that they would like that course provided and we can certainly...

As I indicated, as we are moving forward and rolling out the single authority here in the Northwest Territories, we are trying to improve the protocols and standing orders that we have in all of our health centres. We also have a cancer strategy -- I think the Member is talking specifically about that -- that outlined some of the services that we provide, but also some of the standard testing that we do in cases where cancer may be suspected. I am happy to sit down with the Member and go through some of the protocols that we have so that he will understand what service are being offered both...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not 100 per cent sure that I understand the question. I am not sure what a premedical diagnosis would be. When it comes to residents of the Northwest Territories in the small communities attending a health centre, we have a number of standing orders that the nurses in the communities utilize when assessing an individual trying to determine what, if anything, is wrong with them. We also have a number of standing programs that are available in each of our health centre, Well Man, Well Woman, Well Baby, and there are some pretty defined guidelines and the...