Glen Abernethy

Any time the GNWT has worked with other governments or other bodies to bring staff into our employ, we have always been very, very conscious of these concerns and we’ve always worked really hard with those organizations, whether it’s the federal government or whether it was the Hay River Health Authority or five years ago or almost 10 years ago when we did the initial negotiations. We do our best and we will work with their union. Their union will want to protect their employees and we want to make sure the employees get a fair transition.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bill 44 actually provides us with the flexibility to ensure the process for bringing Hay River health and social services staff into the public service can be coordinated in a manner that addresses the needs of both the GNWT, the UNW, Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and superann.

Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t seem to be in the right order here. That was something that was occurring. That’s one of the main reasons we’re doing a fundamental change in how we provide child and family services in the Northwest Territories. According to the Auditor General, there wasn’t enough accountability, so we actually made all the CEOs in all the authorities associate directors under the legislation, which has brought this to the forefront and made it a priority in every authority.

To the Member’s point, this is a priority; it is being dealt with; we are moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have one of those individuals in place. We have been recruiting for the other one without any success at this point, but I will certainly keep the Members informed as to when we’re finally able to successfully fill that position. Thank you.

We have had some preliminary meetings with staff in the Beaufort-Delta who have been involved in this type of program or who might be involved in birthing services at this time. As the Member has indicated, there have been some challenges raised with the delivery of midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta. To that end, we are looking at envisioning how we are approaching midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta.

Originally when we came forward, there was a multi-part plan which included set up midwifery services in Hay River, move midwifery services to Beaufort-Delta and then move forward with...

As I indicated previously, the territorial model’s primary goal is to support the knowledge and skill capacity of community health nurses through continued interaction and direct clinical support with midwives. This will benefit all NWT communities by raising the standard of community maternity care. This is one of the primary goals of a territorial program. There’s also the secondary benefit of being able to provide some midwifery support to residents of Yellowknife who choose to access those types of services.

The fact is, at the end of the day, if a patient is at risk, if there are any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the challenges we face around midwifery and providing birthing services in communities outside of Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife and Beaufort-Delta, Inuvik in particular, is that we need to make sure the facilities are appropriate, that individuals can receive the proper diagnostic and specialist obstetric or services such as C-section. Most of our communities don’t have the capacity to provide that type of service. So we need to make sure we focus our attention where we can actually provide birthing services.

What we’re talking about now is pushing midwifery...

Just for clarity, the Midwifery Program that was in Yellowknife was never funded. It actually never had core dollars to fund that program. It was funding the authority had taken out of other programs in order to create midwifery services.

I’m still committed to midwifery services, I always have been, which is one of the reasons we are looking at re-envisioning how we roll out midwifery services over the next couple of years.

As I indicated, we had planned to move forward with Beaufort-Delta. Things look like they might be changing. There have been some alternate proposals submitted to us on how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the position in Fort Smith is still not filled. We’ve attempted to go out and recruit that position a number of times and every recruitment activity has proved unsuccessful. We are intending to fill the position and we continue to go out and recruit and we hope that we do find somebody to fill that position in short order.

At the same time, we have filled the two positions in Hay River. That program has started. They’ve already started meeting with clients and we anticipate that the midwives in Hay River could be facilitating a birth in the community as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill includes amendments to the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act that would require the Minister to:

develop a territorial plan for health and social services;

authorize the Minister to establish regional councils to provide advice with respect to health services and social services;

authorize the Minister to establish a territorial...