Sandy Lee
Statements in Debates
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Minister of Health and Social Services and on behalf of the government I would just like to put it on record that the government supports this bill. We have indicated that support to the Member in other venues, and we make the commitment that we’ll work with the Member to make sure that the details are worked out and supported by the Department of Health as we move forward.
I believe I’ll be making a formal presentation at the consultation process in committee, but I just wanted to put that on the record.
The elder in question who was taken away was in need of intensive care. We did have him in the community with the family, but his needs were so high that he could not be taken care of there.
I do understand and appreciate the need for the community to keep their elders, especially in their last years. We want to be able to accommodate that as much as possible. But there are some seniors with acute needs that need to be taken care of, and those services are not available except in major centres.
My understanding in terms of 24-7 care for seniors is that in order for us to provide those services...
The CHRs have been distributing car seats to families. They have distributed 125 car seats all across the Territories. My information is that they know how those car seats work, and they teach the parents how they work. They are qualified to provide this. If there’s a need for Yellowknife, I am willing to look at helping Yellowknife social services authorities see if we could have similar programming.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have it exactly here, but I understand the building was built by the NWT Housing Corporation in, I’d say, the last ten years or so.
As of now I don’t have enough information on the person or the condition or the nature of this drug or why it should not be approved. I just don’t have enough information. So I’m making the commitment to the Member that if he wishes to provide me with that information, I’d like to get more of the facts and see what the options are. Thank you.
I am guessing — maybe I shouldn’t guess, but I am assuming — that this patient is under…. Assuming there is some medication for the person’s condition, he would not be without treatment. The dispute is on a specific grant, or there are some experimental drugs that the patient may want to take, and governments across the country have not always approved and agreed to fund some of the medications that are on the market.
I don’t know that. I haven’t had communication from the Member on the latest one, as he was rejected on that. I do have to look to see and make sure that we are providing the...
I thought I stated earlier in the answer to the first question that the authorities who look after the staffing, the PYs and the service levels in Deh Cho, have told me — and I have talked to them following my meeting and my visits to Wrigley and other communities in Deh Cho — about the issues that were raised in the community, one of them being having more nursing services in Wrigley.
They told me then and they have told me lately that they believe that the nursing services in Wrigley are at or above the level they should be — for the size of the community, that is. Now, I understand that the...
There aren’t any reasons that I haven’t said already. I would like to just state that again that Wrigley is under the administrative oversight of the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. They allocate how their money and their PYs are divided among all of their eight communities, I believe, that they serve — or maybe even more. They feel that the services they are providing right now to Wrigley are actually more than what they provide for another community within their region of similar size, so there are no plans to put permanent nurses there at the moment.
I understand in the past...
Mr. Speaker, let me say it again. We have CHRs that we pay for every day. They work for us. They’re all over the communities. Part of their job is to distribute car seats, and we have distributed 125 car seats. They teach the parents how to use them. All I’m saying is that we are already doing that. We will continue to do that, and we don’t need to find extra funding for that.
Now, I’m just answering this issue that I think has come to the attention of the Member as well. We have had a proposal from a lady in Yellowknife who would like $30,000 to deliver this program. We e-mailed her back and...
Mr. Speaker, I’m sure the Member is as aware as anyone else here that we need to be responsible with our dollars. We should be doing as much as possible within the budget we have, which is certainly the challenge that Health has.
When he asks why we are not providing funding…. Yes, we did not agree to fund a $30,000 proposal to have these two programs in Inuvik and Yellowknife, but that doesn’t mean that this program is not being delivered. What I said is that the community health reps in all of our regions are already engaged in working with parents with infants on how to use their car seats...