Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I stated in the House that we would like to have the full complement by the end of March, either by locums or by other means, but we are hoping we could do it sooner than that, if at all possible.

Mr. Speaker, all eight communities in the Beaufort-Delta Region are on a regular course of business. They do have the full nursing and primary health care services, including nurse practitioners and nurses.

We are not able to have doctors make regularly scheduled visits to communities as they usually have done, once or twice a month. Right now the community health nurses and nurse practitioners have to rely on doctors’ services by phone.

We are working hard to fill the positions with the locums and to have more doctors in place in that region as soon as possible. We do understand this is a very...

Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, there are currently negotiations going on between the doctors and the government, so I have to refrain from commenting on anything like that. But I could advise the Member, Mr. Speaker, this is not really…. This is an unusual circumstance, where we are operating with about half of the normal complement of doctors. It is a situation which we are working to fix.

In the general term and in the long term, the department continues to work to improve our packages and our working conditions and training opportunities and everything else to make this place an...

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to send congratulations to all the correctional officers in particular. There are many people in the gallery, and I don't want to recognize anybody twice.

I just want to recognize Mr. Walter Orr, who is a constituent of mine and an engineer with Ferguson Simek Clark.

The telehealth program is in the process of being expanded. In Nunakput, we have services available, and in Inuvik, Ulukhaktok, and I believe we put a new one in Tuktoyaktuk. There’s a lot of services being rendered through the telehealth system. However, we hope to expand those services as well.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question.

Mr. Speaker, we are experiencing a very unusual situation, even within the environment of pressures we normally feel, in terms of shortages of health care professionals.

We are short of four doctors in Nunakput, and it’s because two of them…. Well, we normally have about eight, and we’re funded for nine. But we’re operating with about five, because two doctors have left to practise elsewhere and two are currently on leave.

So the Beaufort-Delta authority has made a choice of something that they’ve never done before, which is to not be able to have...

As the city of Yellowknife and the N.W.T. prepare for the more than 1,800 athletes, coaches and visitors who will be coming to Yellowknife for the Arctic Winter Games, more than 200 health care professionals are being organized to staff the Arctic Winter Games Clinic.

Registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses, doctors, massage therapists and physiotherapists will provide their services at the clinic each day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The clinic will be located at the Multiplex in Yellowknife. Each sport’s venue will have a radio dispatcher who will be in contact with a...

I just want to offer some answers to the questions raised.

Mr. Chairman, I think it’s really important that when we delete a capital project, it’s a serious matter, and it warrants a full debate. I would encourage Members to reconsider the vote and take a vote with all the information.

I’m happy to have the opportunity, first of all, to answer some of the questions that the Members may have. We should also note that while this is an interim appropriation, we have agreed that the capital budget will be a full budget, because we know that you can’t approve a quarter of a building. When you...

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that there has been quite a bit of work and analysis that has been done on this and on how the policy could come about, how that would be implemented and how we could lay that out. I have to get the details of that to see what work, exactly in detail, has been done and where we are with that. I just haven’t had the time to look into that further.

But I do want to assure the Member that a lot of work has been done on this issue by this government. I’d just like to look into that further, get back to the Member and then maybe we could have more discussion at...

Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to make that commitment to look at the process to see what improvements, if any, could be made and whether or not it would require legislative amendments. It is my understanding that over the years we have gone a long way in improving and supporting this process, but obviously if there’s any room for improvement, I would be happy to look at that with the Member.

Question 99-16(2)

Public Service Medical