Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about the dental hygienist and the poor oral health in the small communities and the abilities of the dentists to get out there. I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what the department is doing currently to remedy the poor oral health practises and visits to the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am glad to hear that. If the Minister can just speak about amending the Dental Auxiliaries Act specifically to allow dental hygienists to operate unsupervised in the communities, that will give us the potential for increased visits to the communities as well. Also, Mr. Speaker, I really believe we should invest in oral hygiene care in all communities. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Certainly I’m glad for that level of detail and I’d like to be involved, perhaps, in Fort Simpson. Maybe the Minister and staff can advise of when they’re going to do planning studies or engage the community. I’d certainly like to be part of it to ensure that we have something the community wants. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Just as we move forward with this project, I’d just like to know at what point will the community be involved, engage the chiefs, maybe presidents, the municipality in looking at the potential plans for the health centre replacement in Fort Simpson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that in the past, there was some devolution work getting out to the communities, and during my last constituency tour, some of the smaller communities would still like to know more about devolution. Once we achieve, I guess, phase one, which is getting to April 1, 2014, making the transfers and doing all the legislation that’s there, I’m wondering if the Premier is looking at a second round of devolution to be explained to the communities and regions.

I’m glad the Premier is speaking about it being a planned and measured approach to devolution. I just want to get more about the planned and measured approach only because once we start establishing infrastructure like housing, more office spaces in the regions and the communities, then the plan is not just about plucking lives out of Yellowknife and sending them to the regions. I guess it’s about everybody being told up front that these jobs, these positions will eventually be in the communities. I know that there are lots of big deputy minister committees and everything on planning the move...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to touch base on devolution. Phase one and phase two of devolution is well underway for implementation in 2014. However, there is still no confidence in the regions and communities that we are all working towards decentralization. The plan is status quo and no movement to the communities. It’s no wonder that we have to spend more in Yellowknife, because we support and put more people here. But as a representative government of the people, we must take this opportunity to ensure all of our regions benefit.

We, as Regular MLAs and regional MLAs, must...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It’s important to engage the community, because I don’t want to be in a situation in Fort Simpson, you know, a lesson learned from Hay River. Everything was all approved, everything was going forward and then somebody realized okay, we’re short a whole bunch of beds here and that kind of stuff. So it’s important to get the community involved and to ensure that we’re getting what the community needs.

As well, I’d just like to point out that with increased development, I think Simpson got it back in the ‘80s when that facility was built, they got an oversized, it...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I noticed as we moved to health centre replacements and I’d just like to ask the Minister and his staff while he’s here, it’s not on this capital plan but a future capital plan and I think there’s a health centre replacement in Fort Simpson. I’d just like to ask him currently how the planning study is going as we move forward in the future year’s budget. Thank you.

As we go through recruitment, I guess part of the strategy – I don’t know if it’s there – is that new employees must be informed that the potential for decentralization is there. Is that part of the Regional Recruitment Strategy as we move forward and hope to fill all these empty positions? Because I understand not all the Ottawa jobs are basically unfilled.