Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for the question and I do look forward to receiving those petitions, which I am aware of.

Mr. Speaker, the department is engaged in doing a business plan analysis for expansion of the Midwifery Program across the Territories. The business case analysis would also include the more traditional midwives use that has been used in Nunavut, which is in line with what the Member spoke about, about bringing back the traditional knowledge. We need to look at the training options and obviously this is part of the Foundation for Change action plan...

I think we’re being a little ahead. I don’t know what the action plan will say and what recommendations from the review will speak about. I am thinking, and I think that recommendations would include after-care and seamless transition of the people in mental health services and how we can fill some of the gaps. I’m hoping they’ll identify the gaps and how we could fill some of the gaps. I’m hoping they’ll identify the gaps and how our providers that are providing services already can do things differently. I expect those options to be available. I don’t know if they’re going to recommend...

That issue was raised and I spoke about that when MLA Bromley asked. I think we need to be... I understand what the Member is saying, but we should be aware of some of the clinical decisions that clinicians make. There is some legislation in place that has a bearing on when the people are being discharged. There are limitations on how long we can keep some of these people in treatment places. There are Charter issues and Freedom of Rights issues as well. So it’s not always just about money that our clinicians make their decisions based on their clinical expertise as well as their legislative...

Yes, I am willing to look at that. We need to be mindful of the fact, though, that addictions and mental health programming needs to have a spectrum of services and there is a place for residential and more acute care. We have been looking at some of the money we are spending on sending people down south to institutional settings and we have been refocusing our energy on seeing if we can use that resource better within the Territories. This is what we are doing in the North. So yes, I’d be happy to discuss that further with the Member.

Thank you. I don’t have all of the information for all of the communities in the Territories in front of me, but for Lutselk’e we provide $186,000 for Lutselk’e mental health and addictions. We also provide $23,000 for Lutselk’e cultural programs; $76,876 for Deninu K’ue First Nation to fund their addiction counsellor position in Fort Resolution, and in addition we provided $23,000 to Deninu K’ue First Nation for youth addiction initiatives. That’s just an example of the different programming funding that we provide to smaller communities.

I take the Member’s point that maybe we should look at...

Mr. Speaker, as we are all aware, we have 31 communities in the Northwest Territories. I think the communities like Inuvik or Fort Simpson, Hay River, Norman Wells, are good candidates for having midwifery services where mothers could be supported from surrounding communities. Obviously I don’t think we could do it in the smallest of communities where there might be two or three births. I believe originally the Midwifery Program was targeted for Hay River. The community chose not to take that on and that position started in Yellowknife.

So this is an important issue and it needs a comprehensive...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is making correlation of analysis on this data. I am not sure if it is a connection that experts who look at these things make, but I would be happy... I have no problem looking at what the Member is suggesting.

I could tell you that in Fort Smith, since we have had a Midwifery Program, there have been 200 births and about 54 percent of those births have been attended to by the midwives. Within the Territories, Fort Smith has the most comprehensive complement of midwives and even then we have about only 50 percent, or a little less than 50 percent births still happen at...

Mr. Speaker, yes, we would obviously do that. I would commit to do that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I have said on many occasions that we believe, yes, all of our authorities are not necessarily under right budget. We are working toward right budget for all of the authorities. You can’t be looking at Stanton and Beau-Del separately, Mr. Speaker. The Member has said that we all know that Stanton is underfunded and if you do a zero-based review, you will know. I have to disagree with the Member on both accounts. We do not necessarily know. You can’t just make a statement that Stanton is underfunded, and a zero-based review would only tell you how much money you are spending to do...

Mr. Speaker, I will make sure that that is part of our review process. Thank you.