Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sense the Member’s frustration. I have indicated that we have already raised this at a federal/provincial level. We are certainly on record at the federal/provincial level during our last FPT. We are waiting to see what some of the other provinces and territories want to do, because a united front on this is certainly going to carry more weight than individual fronts. Having said that, I do know that the Minister of Finance is going to be in Vancouver to meet with the other Ministers of Finance I think it’s this weekend coming. I have assurances that the Minster intends...
No, Mr. Chair. I mean, at the end of the day, we’re redescribing existing positions, some reprofiling some positions out of the department that are going to now be territorial health Authority positions. This isn’t about growth. This isn’t about creating a whole bunch of new positions. This is about utilizing what we have in a better way in a more collaborative way to meet the needs of the residents in the Northwest Territories. In the future, what you will see is a smaller department, more as a ministry function, and an authority that actually has some of the functions and roles that are in...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I’ve indicated, I’m hoping to bring forward legislation for first and second reading during this sitting, at which point it will be in committee’s hands for 120 days, which means the earliest it will be able to be in front of the legislature for third reading would be the fall sitting. If passed, and I stress if passed, then we will have to identify an appropriate implementation date that gives us time to actually change our system so that we can utilize the different fonts that exist within our Official Languages Act, the 11 official languages, so that we...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the total for region allocation in 201516 was $241,000 and it’s $240,000 for this year, so it’s down one thousand. There has been some additional positions added for other reasons, and some internal reallocations, positions that existed, but maybe weren’t in the previous capital. They would have been unfunded. They’ve brought some of those in to be established.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. . These dollars cover things like basic administration, client support services, some of the direct costs by way of individual authorities, some facility maintenance and support across the different authorities, their finance costs, human resource costs and some of their system support costs. These are things that are happening in the authorities today. I don’t anticipate that these dollars are going to go down with a single authority because, as I’ve said several times, this isn’t centralization or taking anything away from the communities or regions that exist today...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, it falls under this area. You’d find some of it under community mental health and addictions, health promotion and community wellness. It’s certainly within this area.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we’re just finalizing our Federal Engagement Strategy now to highlight and bring forward issues across the departments, across the government at a federal level, and this is certainly part of that. As I said, I mean I’ve brought it up with the federal Minister as well as my provincial colleagues, and we’ll certainly be bringing it up again at the next meeting. As far as moving forward with DAAIR and Finance, they are aware. Once we finalize our Federal Engagement Strategy, we will move forward accordingly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as they look for the exact numbers, the funding that we needed in order to do the work and the analysis and the system design and all the work required to move from a fragmented multisystem, multicompeting system to a single authority was actually federal funding that we got under the Territorial Health Innovation Fund. The fund, the total fund is $4.3 million, of which we use some of it for implementing and designing regional health strategies, some of it for medical travel, and $2.8 million annually for the duration of implementation and design for the system...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are for a number of reasons, and I think the Member has actually identified a couple of them already. A number of the positions that you see in Hay River are as a result of the new Health and Social Services regional centre that just opened there in order to provide services in a larger building with a different delivery method. It did require additional positions, things like emergency room nurses that they didn’t have previously.
It also needed some additional positions just as a result of the footprint, how it’s laid out and how they’re going to provide...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have an Official Languages Act here in the Northwest Territories that recognizes 11 official languages, and we attempt to provide services as much as we can in those official languages. If you go to Stanton, by way of example, if you move around that facility you’ll notice that there’s signage for all the official languages in that facility. We try to ensure that official languages are posted in facilities across the Northwest Territories, health facilities. We attempt to have interpreters available to provide language services to individuals who request...