Sandy Lee

Mr. Chairman, there are 2.5 unfunded positions in Health and Social Services, and they are in the department: one in population health and one senior policy adviser and intergovernmental officer.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services Mr. Greg Cummings. To my right is Director of Finance Mr. Derek Elkin.

Yes, those are the first eight. I think the other positions are under other tabs.

These are net numbers. I am going to ask Mr. Elkin to do the math for me.

The program at Aurora College, even though it’s nursing- and health-related, is really the jurisdiction of the college. I’m sure the Minister responsible will be able to provide additional information in that regard.

I do agree with the Member. My observation has been also that we could do a better job in terms of coordinating the government work in the way we.... The nurses we train at Aurora College should be placed properly and get the support and resources needed to pursue their practice. I think we could do a better job of coordinating that, because I am aware of some of the pressures that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi that Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Pharmacy Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Pharmacy Act to allow pharmacists to prescribe a limited quantity of certain drugs for the continued care of a patient. Pharmacists are required to notify the initial prescribing practitioner of the continued-care prescriptions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I have the same copy as the Members do, so I can answer that. I will undertake to get that information for you.

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that this is an issue where the Member has concerns, not specifically with Health and Social Services alone but government-wide. I believe the answer has been given in that regard, in that a decision was made to notify the employees of their potential impacted status. Then the choices are given to the employees to see whether they want to pursue other options. I do understand there are affected employees who have chosen not to do that. That’s their option as well.

As the Member is aware, the principle behind it and the good intention behind it was so that instead of...

My information is that we do not know of any NPs trained in the North who have left. I got a motion from one of our Members, who knows there might have been one. I will undertake to look into that further and get back to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say, for the record, that I appreciated the opportunity to see first-hand and hear first-hand the challenges that the residents in small communities have with respect to dental care. For our aboriginal people it is covered by the NIHB services, but we have not been able to obtain service providers. There are lots of dentists and dental clinics in the North who have not taken up the opportunity to bid on this contract, in particular for the Deh Cho region. They had a challenge in obtaining a contract, and I believe only in the last month were they able to find a dentist...