Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Healers and other initiatives that the Member mentioned would have to come from other sources of money. This is something that I’ve been communicating with the Member and it is an ongoing challenge for us to come up with those resources.

Thank you. As we’ve discussed over the last two days, the use of agency nurses has gone down substantially. Locum nurses we have in Stanton, for example, are really, really hard to recruit nurses. So as the Member knows, or anybody who knows about nursing, nurses all come with different training, different backgrounds, different skill sets that we need. So I don’t think we should be distracted by having to use some locum nurses that means that we’re not giving those jobs to new grads. New grads have to go through the Graduate Employment Program, they need more training in different settings...

Mr. Chairman, on family violence issues as with the situation with some other like topics, we work very closely with departments like Justice. Family Violence Coalition is comprised of NGOs that are involved in this work as well as the Department of Justice and Health and Social Services and other people who are working in that field. Mr. Chairman, I can assure the Member that a lot of the same people are involved in sharing information and working on strategies and evaluating the programs and such. Thank you.

The Member has been here for three and a half years. She knows how we get resources. It’s through the business plan process. All the departments and programs make business cases. There are unmet needs, yes, in Yellowknife, but there are unmet needs in every community. We have lots of people in our communities who could benefit from having supported living that are being taken care of by families and friends and communities. I have met them in every community in the Territory. So one of the ways we are doing that under Foundation for Change is including home care programming. Respite care is...

We’ll be floating this money into the authorities to work at the community level.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s no question that our Northern Nursing Program is a success story. We have produced a lot of excellent graduates and the last fiscal year we were able to place all 11 of them; nine of them in Yellowknife and two in Hay River. So, Mr. Speaker, I’m confident that we will be able to use the training that these nurses have received in various communities and health centres and hospitals around the Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are aware of the work that was done in the Yukon. The review we are doing is in a similar vein. The same group has done a review of similar programs in B.C. and Alberta. We are doing that and we will get recommendations and action items out of that and work with the committee on that in the spring. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will get back to the Member on that specific point, but the Member knows already because we have had many communications between the two of us that we have programs available and we do provide assistance to those residents in the Territories who need support in living situations due to their disabilities. Thank you.

No, we can’t say that we are substantially increasing the funding for suicide prevention.

Mr. Speaker, I wouldn’t be the responsible Minister, or the Member would be responsible if we were to make decisions without having at least some information about what it is we are being asked to take a position on. I am interested in getting the information from him as to what he has in mind, understanding that different ideas about overarching or comprehensive sorts of models on seniors was introduced before. I think we are also aware, though, that seniors’ issues, whether it be housing, fuel subsidy, health benefits, touch so many different departments that I don’t know if it is just...