Glen Abernethy

Does committee agree that we allow the Ministers to bring in their witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Next on my list is Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. We’ll now go to Mr. Michael McLeod for his opening comments.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Next on my list is Mr. Hawkins.

Agreed. Before we proceed with Tabled Document 66-16(5) we’re going to take a short break. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the Minister on that. I understand this base issue and I’m glad the Minister brought it up, because it’s my understanding that they’re taking the medical travel out of there, which is a face-to-face and has traditionally been a face-to-face sort of service, and instead they’ve put the director of medical services in there, which isn’t a face-to-face service type position. In fact, the services that that director is responsible for is ophthalmology, clinical services and medical travel, all of which are out of Stanton. So why did we take a...

I’m quite happy to hear that. I’m glad that the information is going to be sent to them. I’m more interested in getting a commitment from the Minister that she will have Stanton implement a comprehensive transition plan. Given that there is an empty office out there and I saw with my own eyes that there was nobody in there, it was completely vacant, no sign of anybody using that, I think it would be good if the Minister would commit to bringing back one of the medical travel officers and putting them in that office for a transition period to give the people an opportunity to transition from a...

Transition plans will help individuals from both within and outside of Yellowknife who have become accustomed to face-to-face contact seamlessly switch to phone and electronic services. While at Stanton I did notice an empty office right where Medical Travel used to be. Medical Travel could have been left with at least one office there to help with this transition plan.

Customer service is important and as a result I’ll be asking the Minister some questions on the move to medical travel and their change in philosophy with respect to working with their clients during question period today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last couple of months I’ve had a number of constituents mention concerns they have about the relocation of the medical travel office, which was formerly located at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. To see firsthand the status of the medical travel office and how the authority was addressing the move, I decided I’d go for a visit.

On Monday, September 27th, I went to Stanton where I found the offices formerly occupied by Medical Travel. On the door was an 8.5 inch by 11 inch sheet of paper with the following message:

Our offices have been relocated. If you need...

I’ll go back and read Hansard, but I’m pretty sure I’m talking about some action, not just a request for some information. I’m asking the Minister to commit to actually taking one of the medical travel officers back, putting him in that vacant office as part of the transition plan. If eventually we want that person to move out because we want to move to a phone and digital service, that’s fine, but help us understand and build a transition plan so it’s not a turn off of the switch, it’s not a no service from service. So will the Minister commit to putting somebody back in that office?