Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has an obligation to raise the issues with his constituents, and my responsibility as Minister is to look at that and make sure that we respond to circumstances and to issues in a very measured and careful way. We are doing that. I've committed to the Member for Range Lake that we would have an outline of how we intend to proceed to honour the commitment to have the staff consulted in a free and open environment where they could get full feedback, and we would provide the preliminary feedback that we are getting within two weeks. So it's within that time...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware that the Member has been in contact as well with the CEO of the Inuvik Health and Social Services Authority with these specific questions. I can commit to the Member that I can hand him that specific information. I haven’t seen any copies of any replies that the Member may have received, so I will commit to the Member that I will have the information for him for the start of session tomorrow morning.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will give it to the Member before the start of the House tomorrow with information on each of those positions and the status of where they may be in the hiring process, recognizing that I know the importance of this. The Member is talking about this, and I will commit to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the majority of the recommendations were followed up on. I've asked the department to dig out the last report that was done in terms of reporting on that particular consultant's documents. I'd just like to point out as well that, yes, there are some issues that continue to be of great concern at Stanton, but we've also made significant investments and progress in the services there and I don't believe that they are the same, as extreme as they were back in 2001. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we did a review of all hospital facilities across the Northwest Territories, we worked with Dr. Peache and the medical association to look at do we have the appropriate mix of doctors, not only Stanton but in all the other health facilities that have doctors. As we were doing that, it quickly became clear that we also needed a similar kind of review done with the nursing complement as well in Inuvik, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River and Simpson. So that review is looking at all those particular facilities to make sure that the mix is right for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that information is available and collected through the HR system. We monitor that on a regular basis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, clearly, it’s a matter of fact that the Member’s brother did work at the North Slave Correctional Institute during that time period that he referenced. Clearly, his wife is an employee at Stanton Hospital currently. However, my intention is not to threaten the Member; it’s to make a point just to reflect those facts. If I have caused him discomfort or caused him any unhappiness, then I would be very happy to withdraw that particular comment as it may be recorded in Hansard. My intention is not to drag his spouse into this, but just to point out that there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clearly the Member must have been a negotiator at one time. I/m not sure how many questions she has left, but, yes, I'll commit to that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're going to be compressing a lot of activity here in a relatively short time frame, but as soon as we have an outline of how we intend to proceed, I will share that with the Member as the chair of Social Programs for her use and to be able to disburse to share with the other Members and for their feedback. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member makes some very sweeping statements. She indicated in her Member’s statement she met with six people at her constituency meeting. Stanton has over 500 employees. While I recognize there are employee concerns out there, very clearly we also have, for the most part, a facility that is running very well. What I am prepared to offer the Member is if the Member is interested as a chair of the Social Programs committee, I would be happy to set up a full briefing for the committee and bring in the deputy minister, we could bring in the folks from Stanton. We can...