Jane Groenewegen

That is really good news. I am happy to have that on the record. That is all I can think of for right now. I do want to say that I recognize the challenges of the size of this department, the magnitude of the challenges and certainly the scope of the various issues this department deals with. I just want to commend the Minister for his attention to all of those. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. We’re on Health and Social Services. Would the Minister like to bring witnesses into the chamber?

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. With 25 seconds left on the clock, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is good to hear because that is certainly an unfortunate set of circumstances which lead to the death of this child in care in British Columbia.

Mr. Chairman, I’d like to just touch, for a moment, on the volunteer fire and ambulance service in Hay River. I know I raised this with the Minister last week in the House here.

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But I just wanted to say again, I didn’t get a chance to say it then, that I think that the fire and ambulance volunteer service in Hay River is of extraordinary value to not only Hay River, but to the surrounding area. If the Government...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister describe any other initiatives that are underway out there in the communities creating awareness about signs and early diagnosis of breast cancer? South Slave and Yellowknife, that is great. We have mammography services, but there are a whole lot of remote communities out there where people are a long ways away from there. We need to create awareness. What is being done on that front? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.

Well, thank you. I didn’t get all the way through my list, Mr. Chairman, so I appreciate this. I understand what the Minister is saying with respect to getting birthing services available in Hay River, but it has been a number of years now since that has been available. So in the interim and in the short term, I do think we need to find some way to make it easier for the young moms or, for that matter, any mom that needs to spend three weeks or more in Yellowknife waiting for the arrival of a baby.

Mr. Chairman, there’s been a case recently in the media quite extensively, it’s actually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are a small territory, but do we have any kind of in house capacity to do an analysis of why those rates are moving higher? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to the issue of doctors as is related in Hay River, for a number of years now we have not had delivery for babies available in Hay River. So expectant moms are required to travel south or travel north and spend at least three weeks out of Hay River, sometimes away from their families and other children, in order to await the arrival of their newborn. This is something that different patients deal with in different ways. Some do go south where they have family they can stay with. Some do come north. Some are able to stay at the boarding home in N’dilo and...