Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, we are working on this as we now talked in this House. We have had meetings with authorities. We have talked to the department about it. The rationalization to do this is very clear; the rationale is there, the justification. We are working on the planning. We are in the business planning process and we are looking at putting some of our federal funds to use as well when those are finally flowing to us, so we can deal with this issue as quickly as we can. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the intent of our whole health and services system is to have a relationship and structure where the authorities and the boards administer and run the programs in the regions on behalf of the people. So in order for us to do that, we have to continue to stay with that process. We are undergoing operational reviews of all the authorities to make sure everything is working the way it’s supposed to be, and these are thorough, comprehensive operational reviews. There is one currently underway in Inuvik that is going to be finished in June and we will be...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that Bill 6, Personal Directives Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We have spent an extensive amount of time doing this for the first time getting the services outside of Yellowknife into Fort Smith. We have worked out an arrangement with Stanton, with the Capital Health Authority. We have worked on the protocol and procedures. So it should be much more timely. We are working with the CEO and staff in the Deh Cho region, as well as with Stanton and the department and Hay River. We have people who have worked through this process once. So to set it up in Fort Simpson we anticipate will be considerably less onerous than it was the...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, there is a saying that even a broken watch is right twice a day. Having said that…

---Laughter

…I would like to acknowledge that the Member has a very legitimate concern in terms of dialysis in his region and that I want to publicly state that the Health and Social Services department is going to be working with the authority to make sure we establish those services. We are looking at two communities outside of Yellowknife in addition to Fort Smith; Fort Simpson is one and Hay River is another because there is a need there. There are residents who...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Madam Speaker, I apologize. What happens is the money is sent from the department, once the budget is approved, to the authorities, then the authorities manage and implement the use of the money. So there are circumstances between the authority and the board and the Transition House that we are trying to sort out so the full amount of money is transferred. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the service that will be provided will be on par with what is currently here. If there are services that are required that aren’t accessible as they are possibly in Yellowknife five minutes away, they’ll be accessible in Hay River 35 or 40 minutes away by plane. We have folks that travel, we have other territorial facilities across the North that provide service to all the people of the Northwest Territories and this program will be no different, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I indicated yesterday and made a commitment to the Member for Kam Lake that we would pull together the information that we’ve been looking at to date. I also indicated in this House that the detail of this transition is going to take 18 months or so to be complete with the part of the business plan process that is now currently underway for the coming fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ll give that request the consideration it deserves, as the Member has requested. The reality is a decision was made to move TTC from Yellowknife to Hay River, and it was a good decision. The capacity is there for Hay River to deliver that program and we’ve done our best to make sure we try to spread the resources around to the best of our ability as a government, though as we hear in this House from communities outside of Yellowknife that we should be doing more, we could be doing more. We take that into consideration when we try to make these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a potential to poke holes in anything anyone does. I could tell you what the Member needs to know, is that the decision has been made to move TTC to Hay River to use the capital money that was in the budget to renovate Dene K’onia. That it is going to take about 18 months and we will be able to set up a program there that is going to meet all of the needs of the children that are going to be in that program. Hay River has the capacity with the services that exist there, the medical, the educational, the health, the social services are there or...