Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the need to make this sort of process as smooth and seamless as possible for the patient. I am aware that one of the patients in Hay River we did approve the travel, but we did give notice that for next year she would have to travel to a neurologist in Yellowknife. Also, I will work with the department to make sure that we review the files and see that if there is going to be a change in specialists that they need to see, that we give them as much notice as possible. Thank you.

I would appreciate getting more information from the Member, perhaps, on the specific situation. It’s case by case and it’s depending on the person and what facility they are in. We pay for medical escorts, but we do not have a budget to pay for somebody to visit anybody in long-term care at any time. It’s a question that we get asked all the time, so I would need what facility they are in and what condition and under what circumstances they were asked to have support. If they’re indigent, if they’re on income security, sometimes we’ve covered those. Sometimes they’re covered under employer’s...

Thank you. We would be part of or we could sign up to be a part of national research when the clinical trials are ready to proceed. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is any clinical trials or procedures like this have a very set objective process that scientists and doctors follow. They have to be random, they have to be double blinded and it has to be safe. In all of the jurisdictions there are lots of researchers at different university settings that are studying this issue and right now. The information is that science does not indicate that we could do this clinical trial safely. But NWT...

Yes, we do, especially with the opening of the Territorial Dementia Centre and the Hay River Assisted Living Facility. We did review clients outside of the jurisdiction, our clients in other jurisdictions, to see if they can be moved.

Territorial Admissions Committee are administrators who review the files to see where our clients should be best placed within the Territory. Questions about how do they get paid to be moved would be on a case-by-case basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Health and Social Services is on board with all of the other jurisdictions in Canada. All of the Ministers of Health have agreed that we are supportive of this treatment going forward once there is scientific evidence that would take us to the next level. All provinces and territories have agreed that we will work together and work with the scientists to be ready when the scientific evidence shows that this procedure is ready for clinical trial. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the department and the government is doing a lot of work to put our nurses through our various training programs. We just direct appointed a number of nurses. We support nurses going through this program.

Mr. Speaker, this year’s budget for the CHN Program, we have a contract with Aurora College for $460,000 and we spent $350,000 in salary subsidy for CHNs in their second year program. It is important that we support them through their programming, and we will be interested in taking on new students, but we need to make sure that we have the budget in place to support them.

Mr...

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member. This is a very important program, but like any other programs, it has to work within the existing budget. It went over budget by quite a bit, so our approach right now is to support students that are already there. We are spending $750,000 this year. We will bring in new intake as the budget allows.

On the note of parking, there are lots of government buildings where the employees do pay for parking. That would be the kind of thing that administration would do on their own. I will get an update on that. I am not aware of patients being charged for TV or any other service, but I think anybody who has travelled to southern facilities, all those are charged. So I’d be happy to talk to the authority to see if there are plans like that or any other plan. It hasn’t come to my desk. I’ll share that with the Member when it does.

I’m sure the Member would appreciate that our overarching goal in this House cannot be about reducing the deficit to zero without understanding what the impacts of that would be. I don’t think the Member would support reducing or eliminating programs at Stanton that would impact our residents and the regions across the Territories.

It is important that we work as leaders of the Assembly and work with our health care partners and health care administrators to get advice from them on exactly where the cost drivers are, what are the things that we must have, what additional resources should we...

I would be happy to get back to the Member on the load, the wait times and such. Also, we should be mindful of the fact that the Medical Travel Policy says that we pay for medical travel and treatment of patients where those services are not available in the NWT. It may be that somebody may have to see another neurologist because the service that they provide here is not exactly alike. So we make sure that we have the services there. I will get back to the Member on what the patient load is, wait times.

With respect to grandfathering, that is always not a good idea. I will just get back to the...