Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That review is being undertaken by the motion of this House. I understand from just hearing from the committee members that they’re having a very good review of this whole area and obviously the committee will report back to the House on their findings. Our department’s approach, and my approach with the deputy minister, has been that we are there to assist in any way, provide whatever information and resources that you may need. I am looking forward to what the committee has to recommend and at that time we will have to work together to work out the plan on how the...

Yes, I understand what he’s saying. We could provide him with a breakdown of exactly what that $600,000 is, but what I did say is correct, I believe, but I will give him a breakdown. Each authority had their own fuel costs imbedded into their budget; now it will be transferred out. THAF funding had a different impact for different authorities, whether it’s the Midwifery Program in Smith, the Home Care Program was spread into three or four different authorities, nurse practitioners were in different areas, STI nurse was in Yellowknife health, and some of the physician money out of THAF was all...

Mr. Chairman, the topic that the Member is bringing up is the medical travel escorts. I think that is primarily what the Member is speaking to. As the deputy minister mentioned yesterday, that program is under in-depth review. The government spends about $26 million a year on medical travel. It is one of the highest costing programs we have. It is in our interest to make sure that it works, it does what it is supposed to do, that the people are served well. Our government has a policy that says that elders over a certain age and those who need physical support, mental support in that defined...

Even though there isn’t any planning money, there is a lot of work being done on that issue. I would just like to get the deputy minister to given an update on where we are on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The department is responsible for two areas in this regard. One is family violence shelters, which is not necessarily a homelessness shelter but that might be the area in which you have seen some increase in funding as a part of our Strategic Initiatives committee and that money funds family violence shelters in Yellowknife, Hay River, Tuktoyaktuk, Inuvik.

The homelessness programs in the department, we have three. We have two under homelessness. One is Homelessness Assistance Fund and small community homeless fund. Small community homeless fund, we have about $200,000...

That’s the new position for Healthy Choices Framework and that’s the health promotion and healthy eating. That’s one of our strategic initiative investments.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to advise the Member that much of what he’s saying is something that we have been discussing and working with and it’s part of the Foundation for Change plan in that we understand that we need to work on the larger framework, like the governance and delivery models but the focus in delivery needs to still be at the community level.

As mentioned earlier by the deputy minister, the recruitment and retention of physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, for example, we have 68-plus positions and we have about 20 vacancies. While we are trying to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know the Member is good, but I don’t know how he got dental care into primary care, but, anyway, I’d be happy to answer him with the information. This dental issue in general comes up everywhere I travel. It is a big issue for our community people, but it’s important for people to know that dental care is not a responsibility of the GNWT. It is not an insured service. It is the federal government that provides dental care to our aboriginal peoples. The non-aboriginal people in the Territories, they get dental coverage by their own insurance. Dental care is not part...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Paddy Meade; and, to my right is director of finance, Mr. Derek Elkin. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I understand his question. I don’t think we can get him that level of detail, in that I don’t think that right now we are keeping, okay, how many hours are we using this. The tools are out there. We are trying to provide the support and training so that more people will use it. As I stated earlier, we will be evaluating and monitoring this program and we will give an update and promise that to MLA Yakeleya too. I will give him a profile of where the machines are right now, where we are going to get more out of and what kind of services are being provided through these tools...