Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reality is at the end of the day that the territorial government will be the sole funding agent for any development that goes on with dementia units, including the Yellowknife one. The reality is what they are looking at is a different variation, but the fundamental dollar requests come to the department, come to the government, and we are going to guarantee and through the O and M costs pay the mortgage costs for whatever construction takes place. So the reality is we’re going to work with YACCS. It’s going to be in the plan, but when the YACCS...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I met a number of months ago now with YACCS and I met with the Social Programs committee on this issue. I believe that I have also written to the Yellowknife MLAs who are supporting this project. Basically what is currently happening is we are in the process of completing a report that’s due in November. It’s going to look at facility usage across the Northwest Territories in terms of acute care beds and long-term care beds and the issue of dementia and how it impacts not only Yellowknife, but Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Smith and Simpson, all the places...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, out of the $8.4 million, we put in funding for additional doctors in the Deh Cho, into the Sahtu and for the Inuvik region, as well. So we’ve added doctors, we are looking at adding nurse practitioners, we are trying to come up with a special program to better mentor community health nurses so that we can get many of the recent graduates qualified as soon as possible and agree to work in the communities. So we are very aware and very concerned about the service in the regions and in the communities, and these are some of the things we are doing. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated yesterday in this House, there was about $8.4 million put into hiring doctors and nurses and midwifes late in the 14th Assembly. I also submit that the agreement that we’ve reached with the Medical Association factors in the quality of life issues, referenced by my colleague, and that is an issue of concern for the doctors. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the bridge it is my understanding it is a P3 project that’s going to generate revenue through tolls. With this facility we are talking about building a facility that’s going to address a very specific need. It’s not a revenue-generating item. It’s one of providing a needed service not only in Yellowknife, but across the Northwest Territories. I’d like to remind the Member that, yes, she speaks as a Member for Yellowknife, but we are a government for all people of the Northwest Territories and it’s an issue that is a problem across the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to point out that the government has been very committed to working with YACCS. The Department of Health and Social Services has given them money to do their studies. As a government we’ve turned over land worth $1.6 million to them to assist in their planning, and at this point it’s part of the mix when it comes to the final report that’s going to be coming out in November. There is a lot of money at stake that’s being requested. The YACCS facility is a multi-million dollar proposal with the territorial government being the sole funding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe we are making all reasonable efforts to do just that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back in the 14th Assembly there was, I think, over $8 million voted by this Assembly as interim health professions to allow us to better staff our health professions. The majority of that money went into Yellowknife with the nurses, doctors, more specialists. We currently have 29 GP positions in Yellowknife and 22, I believe, are specialist positions. We are also working at better coordinating our referral processes, our medical travel. We are adding nurse practitioners. So we’re investing significantly across the board to deal with waiting times, not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking me for a technical, detailed question very specific to a certain circumstance, and not being an expert on the medical travel detail I am not able to answer that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that seems very clearly to me like a hypothetical question.