Sandy Lee

As I indicated yesterday, in adhering to the realignment exercises that we’ve had to go through, my department placed the most minimal impact on the front-line services as much as possible. That is the reason most of the reductions are within the headquarters, within the Department of Health, not in the authorities.

There are reductions of 17 positions from the department, and that is about 12.5 per cent of the entire workforce of the department. I do have a table here for the Members that I can provide to the Clerk. I can advise the Members that out of the 17 positions, nine positions are...

Obviously, I’m not as familiar with the situation in Fort McPherson and Tl’oondih as the Member is, but I like to think I have spent some time in meeting with the people and talking to the Member. I have had the occasion of meeting with the people from Tl’oondih Healing Society and the community people. I don’t think we could generalize; we need to work on specific situations.

With respect to Tl’oondih, the Beaufort-Delta authority has been working with the community to have that community person do the job she has been doing for a long time. There were extra training models provided. She was...

It’s a gain.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t agree with the Member — the way he puts that. There are programs and services for addiction services. The mental health unit at Stanton is the more acute-care facility for addiction treatment, more intensive care, under the supervision of the medical professionals.

We have mental health addictions specialists and community wellness workers placed in most of the communities. We invest up to almost $1 million to Nats’ejėe K’eh, which is the treatment centre facility in the Hay River Reserve, K’atlodeeche band land. We also provide funding to the Salvation Army...

Yesterday I think I touched on this when I stated, and I want to state again, that the nurse practitioner program is very important to us. As Ms. Bisaro mentioned yesterday, hopefully it’s more than a six-month situation at Stanton. I want to make it clear that what we know happened at Stanton should not be construed as a reflection or any sort of…. It’s hard to explain. It’s a situation that is really internal to the operation of the hospital in that those two positions were put there to be incorporated into the operation. That’s the understanding of all the authorities.

All the authorities...

Yes.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have the seven positions that were provided already — FTP policy adviser; graphic design and communications specialist; communications planning specialist; senior adviser, financial planning and analysis; junior financial board analyst; data entry clerk; manager of planning and reporting, impact assessment analyst. Those are the seven position reductions, not eight positions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There is a reduction component of this budget, but there are lots of other investments. The increases in the positions for the department are on the THAF program, which is federal funding that we have. It’s the Territorial Health Access Fund. There’s a coordinator for accreditation, which is located in the department. There’s patient wait times, e-health project management in the department. There’s a midwife position being funded in Fort Smith. There’s an STI nurse being funded in Yellowknife. There’s a registered nurse, a Northern Women’s Health position, being...

The information we have is that almost all the grads who graduated from Aurora College this year — I believe there were about 18 — were offered positions within the NWT, some of them in Stanton; some of them have gone to Fort Smith and other areas — Beaufort-Delta. I think there are three who did not take the option. There are some who have chosen to move away; their families are elsewhere. But that was a huge success. Now I would like ask the deputy minister why there might be reduced enrolment for this year.