Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Could the Minister in cooperation with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, please provide the complete statistics on admission and graduation rates for the Aurora College Nursing Program from 1999 to present?

Please identify the affirmative action status of these students and graduates by year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think ultimately we both want the same things. I agree with what the Minister is saying. We need to have services available for people in communities because midwifery does not only provide birthing services, they also provide pre- and postnatal care. What I am concerned about is maximizing dollars. If we have a community that only has three or four pregnancies a year, it does not justify midwifery services. I want the Minister to provide me with some of the data on what justifies, what level of pregnancies justifies a business case which does involve money and it...

Mr. Speaker, that information is incredibly important in building a business case. I look forward to seeing the information.

I am curious if the Minister can confirm for us whether or not that data is being utilized to help determine what is a reasonable number of births to justify a midwifery service in a community. If she does, can she tell me how many pregnancies in a community justify the business case scenario for midwives in a community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 24, 2008, I made a statement and asked some questions in this House on the value and importance of midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Since then, no additional support has been made available to these services in the Northwest Territories.

In 2008 there were three midwives practicing in the Northwest Territories: two in Fort Smith and one in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah. Unfortunately, as predicted back in 2008, the workload for a sole midwife in Yellowknife was very exhausting. This has resulted in the incumbent having to go on an extended...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yesterday in this session there was some talk about the extended health benefits and the Minister indicated that she was going to be bringing back their direction on that. I look forward to that, but there were also questions on how the department plans to provide support for what we once categorized as low-income families who didn’t receive insurance or any support for health benefits from their employer. Now I understand fully that that is gone. That policy was rescinded, but there are still employees out there who do not have health benefits or whatnot from their...

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Next on my list is Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will tell the Minister where I am going and then I will ask a question. Mr. Speaker, the department has money for and runs a program called Community Health Nurse Development Program which is designed to help northern nurse graduates transition from school into community health centres. We have used it in the past. In fact, I know that we have placed at least three northern nurse graduates into community health centres in the Northwest Territories in the last five to seven years, but I haven’t seen it working lately. I haven’t seen northern nurse graduates entering...

Thank you, Ms. Meade. Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, I know that HR delivers the programs on behalf of Health and Social Services, who actually administers or actually holds the budget for health recruitment and retention. My question was pretty specific. I want to know what the Department of Health is doing, even if they are doing it through the Department of HR, but what is the Department of Health and Social Services doing to facilitate the placement of northern nurse graduates into community health centres throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Lee.