Great Slave

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I indicated yesterday, a significant portion of the system funding within the Department of Health and Social Services is actually for the authorities. So, recognizing that the authorities report on criteria and categories that were created by CIHI and the department didn’t, we have moved to a system where our reporting system that’s in front of you now mirrors what’s coming from the authorities and is consistent with CIHI, and this is one of the categories that existed. In previous budgets these dollars would have been in one of the sections where it said “transfers...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you. The dollars actually came in in the ’14-15 fiscal year, which we’re using for the transition and the planning, and it came in by way of a supp in ’14-15. So it will not show as an increase in ’15-16. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There actually is a significant amount of interest in the Deh Cho and we have been working with a variety of groups in the Deh Cho to determine what the best approach is for the residents of the Deh Cho. So as that work progresses, I’d certainly be happy to keep the Member updated. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have indicated that I’d be happy to go to Tsiigehtchic and have a conversation with the leadership to determine truly what it is that they are specifically asking for and what it is that they think will meet their needs. There are lots of potential options. We ask the question of what can an LPN do within their limited scope of practice, and an LPN scope of practice is significantly less, or it can be significantly less than an RN. What is it we are trying to accomplish? We have looked at other models from other jurisdictions like Alaska where they’ve taken local people...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

I’ll state what I’ve already said. There is a continuum of care services and opportunities for individuals who are suffering from either mental health or addictions issues from community-based counselling to residential treatment facilities. We’re still pursuing the on-the-land programming. There’s the Matrix program, which is actually an outpatient, community-based treatment program. There’s a number of these programs and they’re available throughout the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, Matrix isn’t available in every community, but we’d obviously like to find ways to expand that out...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

We appreciate the City of Yellowknife. They’re a fantastic partner on the delivery of the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife and we look forward to a continued positive relationship with them. The city is contributing some money, as are we, but at this time there are some significant infrastructure improvements that need to be made in that building so that it can meet the long-term needs, and taking that money away from the infrastructure and putting it to programs will actually adversely affect our ability to deliver those programs in the future. We need to get that construction done.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

I’m glad the Member’s actually brought this up. Our human resources are significantly the largest driver of costs in the health care system. Our employees are highly trained and compensated accordingly, and there are significant costs there. Overtime is a massive deal. I’ve asked the department, and they’ve already begun the work on doing a complete analysis of overtime usage throughout the Northwest Territories in different authorities. They’ve actually started that work now to help us figure out what, if any, areas are driving overtime to greater degrees than other areas. Trying to dig in to...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 61)

The Early Childhood Development Action Plan was based on two years of research and best practices across the country and the world. So, yes.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s already had its second reading and it’s in front of committee, is the Health Professions Act. The Health Professions Act will give us the ability to create regulations to basically licence health professionals like naturopaths in the Northwest Territories. We have four priorities in that area. Recognizing how increasingly popular naturopaths are, naturopaths are actually fourth on the list. I put on the list for something to be done with the other three immediately after the legislation passes.

It will take a while once the legislation passes and is concluded, but we...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 60)

As I indicated, we can report 77 percent to 89 percent and that’s based on the data that has been collected. Without real territory-wide electronic medical records, a real solid information system across the Northwest Territories, it does prove difficult to get 100 percent accurate information, which is why we’re moving in that direction so we can give the Members the exact totals.

I do believe, and I do feel, that our immunization rates are higher than this. We haven’t received, and I haven’t had any, strong pushback on vaccination. The early childhood programs are proving to be quite...