Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That was the arrangement with the federal government. They gave us the start-up money, but we are responsible for following up. When we approved this program we put that into the calculation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not familiar with the program that the Member is mentioning, but I’d be happy to look into that. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to advise the Member that the Department of Health and Social Services is working with the Gwich’in Tribal Council and IRC. We are investing $600,000 over three years to do an aftercare program in Tuktoyaktuk. We are working in partnership with IRC. IRC is working with Tuk to develop the Aftercare Program. I had the occasion to talk to Mayor Gruben when I was there for the Beaufort-Delta meeting, and he was pleased with this...

During the freeze-up and breakup the nurses are there to provide the emergency response and services that they need, because they have no road access. When it is not time for freeze-up and breakup, obviously, they do have road access to receive services that they might need. I understand that’s not the most convenient way, but they do have a service available in a way that they don’t when they are cut off from freeze-up and breakup.

Mr. Chairman, I have committed, and the Member is right, we have talked about this issue for a long time. Previously, I have committed to expand the services of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This agreement is renewed every year on a year-by-year basis. For the last two years my focus and concentration has been to renew the THAF funding, but we are working to strengthen our position on this particular agreement to see if we could renegotiate the terms. I would be happy to get the Member more information on what the terms of the contract are. There is not a lot of room for negotiating in terms of the escalating clause and such, but we are doing everything we can to see how we can strengthen our negotiating position.

Mr. Chairman, that is part of the Foundation for Change Action Plan. We are looking to enhance our chronic disease management programming and that includes treatment of diabetes and prevention of diabetes. I don’t know if the Member is asking for a precise dollar amount, but this is something that is done in every authority. Our primary care nurses and health care workers are involved in that. Thank you.

The H. Pylori project in Aklavik was initiated by an educational institution. It was initiated by a university who wanted to take a look at it. The Department of Health and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority provided all the support that we could possibly give them to get that work done. My understanding is that the results of that will not come out for another year or two. They need to do an in-depth analysis of the data that they had collected. In the meantime, the H. Pylori tests are available to any resident that might be interested in getting tested for that, if that...

Almost all of these changes have to do with THAF program that’s expiring, that we had to put in the book as being ended. But we’ve already talked about the fact that we’re working on a contingency plan, but we don’t want to prejudge.

I’m not sure if it’s correct to say that we’re subsidizing this care, because every province and territory is responsible for the delivery of health care to their residents. So whether we get any money from the federal government or not, we would be providing health care to every resident, and doctor care to every resident in the Territories. In the case of aboriginal peoples in the Territories, we get money from the federal government. The federal government’s position is that they are funding for the health care for aboriginal people by this agreement plus the transfer payments that they...

Mr. Chairman, I believe that this is more of an accounting issue. The $5,000 denotes a one-time payment through a contribution agreement to Tlicho Community Services Agency for the Tlicho Healing Wind Sexual Health Terminology Project. The goal of the project was to reduce the incidents of STI in the region. It was a one-time program funding. It was marked in the books for 2006-09 and it would no longer continue, but it doesn’t speak to our programming in language services in the department. It will come later on, I believe. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does analyze and review data such as the cancer rates in the Territories. My information is that the cancer rates vary across the Territories, but in general, our rates of cancer in the NWT are similar to that of the rest of the country except in colorectal cancer, which is the reason why the government issued a new clinical guideline for screening colorectal cancer more aggressively. Having said that, the information that the Member brought to me is new. I’ve not heard that before, and it’s one that I am interested in looking to see further. We would...