Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I can commit to provide to the Member, through the Social Programs committee, the usage numbers for the Telehealth sites we do have, as well as the existing communities, those who are on the books for this year and coming years. I can show them what we are projecting with the funds we have available. I will commit to share that with committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, once again, we’re aware of the committee’s recommendation and we’re going to be looking at responding to that. I would also, as I did in committee, point out that we have been dealing, even though it may not have had the label FASD, I would suggest for generations now that we are in the midst of it. We are becoming more aware of it. There’s more and more effort being put into the research side. We’re just heading down next Friday to meet with the Pacific Northwest FASD Partnership which is comprised of the three territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the Member and we are trying to expand Telehealth services. One of the issues that became clear to us is we had spent a lot of time on the technical system side and not enough time on the actual program development dealing with the services and systems used by health practitioners. We now have brought on board into the department a champion on the use of Telehealth. It’s not so much a focus on the system side, but making sure it’s used to its full capacity. We have done that, as well. There is money in the budget to continue the expansions...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, a statistic of interest is the fact that there are 124 nursing positions at Stanton and we now only have five vacancies, which I believe is a good indicator that the things we’ve done to deal with recruitment and retention with the nursing profession have borne fruit. I also recognize that when there’s change, there are always some people who support it and invariably whatever decision is made some people don’t support it. As Minister, I have to make choices and decisions in the broadest, most careful, measured way I can, recognizing that not everybody will...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a different definition between disease and infection. Dr. Corriveau indicated to me this is not an arbitrary, unilateral decision that we thought it would be more effective. My understanding is the current thinking in the field is a more accurate depiction of what we are dealing with is an infection as opposed to a disease, so that they are now referred to as infections as opposed to diseases. They indicate that that is the new terminology and that’s what we go with.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just for current day-to-day practice, there is a significant amount of care taken with access to the actual drugs themselves and the forms used to do prescriptions, but it would not, in my opinion from what I’ve seen in doctors' offices, take much to come up with a pad, to manufacture a pad and find the doctor’s name and basically forge his signature. So for those who are intent, there are always ways to try and do that. The normal course of events and practices are fairly stringent in terms of trying to prevent against the abuse, not so much on the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to assure the Member that I just don’t sit in my office gazing out at the lake thinking what we should do today to the health care system. We work very closely with all the boards, all the CEOs, and the senior staff across the Northwest Territories. In fact, this issue of consolidation of clinics has been on the table now for a number of years, put forward by Yellowknife Health and Social Services. There have been the senior managers and other professionals brought to the table to deal with health issues who have discussed this issue already. What we are...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Mr. Dave Murray, the deputy minister of Health and Social Services; and Warren St. Germaine, director of Financial Services. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments and suggestions and we’ll definitely consider them as we move forward in this area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the saying is, our reach has to exceed our grasp, for what is heaven for. We are faced with very many daunting challenges that seem irresolvable. We have set some very tough goals for ourselves as a territory, keeping in mind that this is 100 percent preventable. It is a personal choice issue. It is an education issue. It is a very simple one of not having unprotected sex and how do we deal with the individuals and the families in the communities to make the point that, like many of the other issues we talked about in this House, it is...