Sandy Lee

The Member is aware that the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority uses every dollar they have to provide those services. Vacant positions don’t mean they have money set aside sitting in the bank. Vacant positions, in fact, mean more expenditures are required because they do fill those positions with locums and casuals. Mr. Speaker, the allotment for Tsiigehtchic, for example, are being used to provide nurse coverage because they do get nursing coverage for about half of the year, which is equivalent or better than what communities that size receive in other parts of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct in saying that we have been working under the Foundation for Change to enhance our goals. The goals under Foundation for Change are: wellness, accessibility and sustainability. So we are working on that three-year plan that would change the way we deliver our programs in the North and to strengthen services at the community level, but as a Territory-wide plan to use our resources as efficiently as possible and change the way we provide services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Currently we have four dedicated nurses in Simpson that services Wrigley, Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake and Jean Marie River. Yes, we have a proposal that would enhance nursing coverage in Wrigley and those three communities in 2010. Thank you.

Nursing coverage for Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley is my priority and I am happy to commit to do as much or more than what the Minister of Justice is doing in that regard.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to make it clear, because I think that going back and forth questions may sound like, you know, we are in any way not open to receiving anything. We are open to hearing from the committee members, public, any interested organization, feedback to that discussion paper and the questions we have and in whatever format they want to do.

Secondly, we are going to -- now that the final document is on and because it went through some changes -- be distributing them as widely as possible. We’re going to put them on the website; we are communicating with the regional health...

Once again, the Sahtu Health Authority does review the workload and, in fact, they have tried to do a different model of delivery where the community health rep and homecare support services were combined in some communities. I believe the authority is reviewing that, so I will undertake to discuss with the authority and get back to the Member.

That reads to be like some of the observations that we are sharing with the public and looking for their input. The Member is right in that this is, I wouldn’t call it a moving target, but it is a living document, it is a live conversation we are having about the extended health benefits with the residents of the Northwest Territories.

In our last time out it was quite obvious that not just the NWT residents, but people across the country are not very clear about exactly what’s covered under the Canada Health Act, what’s covered as extended health benefits, what options are there for them to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, every community has nursing services. I believe the Member is asking how many communities have nurses that don’t live there. I don’t know exactly what number. I believe it’s four or five, perhaps six. I have to get back to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories adopted an ISDM model back in 2003, and that was what had prompted withdrawal of full-time nurses in Wrigley and Tsiigehtchic. So it goes back to 2003. This is the delivery model that we are using. The Member knows that if we are going to change that, we could do that as a discussion in the House as a business plan, but, again, the Member needs to understand that our health care services are being provided by making sure that everybody has access to care. It’s not necessarily about what all the services are, because we know that we need...

I absolutely totally understand that and I think it’s much more difficult for the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley because they had a resident nurse and they now no longer have that since 2003. There are many communities in the Territories of similar size who have never had a resident nurse. What is really important for people to know is that if a community doesn’t have a resident nurse, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the health care they need. The community health reps and other care providers are in constant touch with medical professionals all across the Territories. There is...