Sandy Lee

As the Member is aware, this is relatively new legislation. The last Standing Committee on Social Programs worked to implement that.

The second thing is that all of the tools and the legislative framework are there. We just need to work harder to get the communities to come on board. There’s not a lot of money allocated for that. It’s a situation where community leadership and interested parties could get together, and we will give administrative support in that regard.

Lastly, what I want to say is that in some situations in our regions, families agree…. In Sahtu they have agreed to the...

I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Annual Report 2006–2007.

Document 8-16(3), Health and Social Services Annual Report 2006–2007, tabled.

I think the 1-800 number question was to do with residents in our small communities who need to get hold of a health professional, if there’s just one simple number they could call. The issue there, at the time, was with NorthwesTel having some difficulties.

With respect to this medical travel, I would commit to the Member that I will ask the department to review the process we have now to see if we could improve that any better. But, at the end of the day, having a contractor who could deliver that service consistently probably will be the better way, and I’m hoping we could have somebody take...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for bringing this issue to my attention, because it appears that we could improve our programming there.

My understanding is that we do not have a contractor for medical travel in Simpson. It is going out for tender in the next couple of weeks. While they do not have a contractor in place, the department and the Stanton authority, which is responsible for medical travel, have been using patchwork efforts to organize transportation. Where patients are flying in charter planes, they would arrange with the charter companies to pick them up, and then taxi...

I believe the Members are going to get a chance to review all of the new initiatives under that strategic initiative committee and Building Our Future budget in November. I could confirm that every cent of that money has been subscribed to.

The midwifery program is something that we want to be able to expand to smaller communities, where there is, I think, even greater need for midwifery because of the fact that there’s not a regular doctor service and other arrangements for women who are expecting to give birth.

I would like to commit to the Member, again…. I just want to be frank and direct...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t believe there is any question about the merits of the program or the skill sets of the midwife who is delivering the services here.

The issue, as the Member is aware and everybody here is aware, is that we are under extreme pressure in fiscal realities. In the Department of Health and Social Services that has meant we have to work really hard to make sure we protect the core services that Health and Social Services has to deliver. The midwifery program is not one of those core services. In fact, it’s a service that in seven provinces in the country is not even...

Mr. Speaker, as the Member is aware, there are a variety of reasons why some of these health centres had to reduce their services to core services. None of the health centres have been closed; it’s just that on certain occasions they have to reduce the services to core level. There could be anything from nurses having to travel for training or an HR issue or somebody who was to show up for new employment did not, or sometimes we have pumps breaking down. There are various reasons why some of these units have to be closed.

I think the situation here is that we do have a significant issue with...

There will be no program or money that would be available to do something like that at this time. If we as the government or the Legislature decide that this is something we want to undertake, then it would have to be introduced as a new initiative with new funding. Unless a pregnant mother falls into some other programs under Income Security or something else for health reasons, we do not have such foster family programming for pregnant women at risk. I think it’s something we could look into and explore further.

Mr. Speaker, all of our health authorities are under pressure in terms of the capacity and the ability to recruit and retain health care professionals, especially in areas of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners. We as a government are working to encourage as many as possible of our northern trained nurses and nurse practitioners, midwives and whoever to be able to go to the regional centres. At the same time, the Department of Health and Social Services and Beaufort-Delta are working closely together to look at our operations and numbers and finances to see what is causing the deficit and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I listened to the Member’s statement with a great deal of interest. It’s something I would like to look further into. I don’t believe at the moment that we have a system, legislative framework, policy or program that would intervene in that way with the pregnant mother

I do appreciate what the Member is saying, which is to support a pregnant woman whom we know to be at risk and see what we can do to assist. I’d be interested in looking further into that.