Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Much of what the deputy minister said in terms of the work we are doing on the governance model and role clarity, that does deal with the thing that the MLA Krutko just brought up. We are working to strengthen accountability in service delivery and financial accountability plus I’m just saying this in my own language here, but it’s written in a more fancy way in the book... We are working for service accountability, financial accountability and coordination accountability.

Right now, the way our authorities are set up, they are quite independent. They get bulk funding...

Mr. Chairman, I remember looking at that very closely as a Regular Member too, so the minute I came into this office I reviewed that. Since then, my understanding of the contract is, we have to go back to the history of this, but I think the agreement was signed by the Minister at the time of 11th or 12th Assembly and it is a pretty clear cut, short agreement on how much the federal government is willing to pay for the doctor service and hospital service for our aboriginal people. There’s not a whole lot of negotiating clauses built into that. It is renewable every year, so it is either we don...

This is not something that’s been brought up to me before in detail, so I would like to... I need to undertake to look into that further. I understand that the Member wants us to set up a policy saying that no person should be refused service. I think that’s what he is saying. I think we are looking at probably some provisions under labour work where workers do have a right to consider some safety issues. So there is some balancing of interests here. I think it might be more complicated than it sounds on the surface, but I will commit to look into this further and consult with my counterpart...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, to the Member. We are reviewing the Mental Health and Addictions Program. Yes, we are working with IRC to do what the Member is saying, aftercare programming in Tuk. Yes, I agree with the Member that there is a need in all of the Beaufort-Delta, which is the reason why IRC is doing a community needs survey for the entire region. The Member mentioned earlier that we should work with the federal government. I want to let him know that the Department of Health has submitted an application to the Mental Health Commission to get more money. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Chairman, I don’t think we are doing board reform initiative in Foundation for Change, but, obviously, that initiative was introduced. It is being put back and it is being revised. But within the health care system we recognize the governance and accountability framework is important. I want to ask the deputy minister to explain a bit about the work that we are doing in that regard.

I would be happy to provide the Members with the terms of the agreement and some of the related issues on that, and I would be happy to meet with committee or the Members to give more information. I think it is a misnomer to say an outstanding amount, because the contract is pretty clear. It was signed by previous governments. It states what they’re going to pay and how much they will pay every year, and for reasons I am not aware of, there were not a lot of provisions put in there for renegotiating or increasing the amount of money the federal government is willing to give. So we have to...

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.