Tom Beaulieu

When we request reports and we RFP work with the intention that the company is doing work for the Department of Health and Social Services, for that intent, if we are to release their work beyond our own coffers, beyond Health and Social Services, then we do have to return back to the company to see if it is okay to release their work that was initially requested by us for us.

Thank you. Midwifery is not a cost-savings measure. Midwifery is to provide a service that will be put into place for the health of the children and for the long-term benefits to the health system. It’s not an immediate cost savings. Any cost savings that would come as a result of midwifery through medical travel and so on will be eaten up by incremental costs of hiring midwives. So we can’t approach this and say we’re going to put Midwifery Program feet on the ground right away and start seeing the results of savings. That’s not going to happen.

What will happen is, in the long run, as we...

Thank you. We have had the two CEOs from Deh Cho Health and Social Services and the CEO of the Hay River Health and Social Services discussing how they’re going to be able to provide a service to the people on the reserve using that health centre. So the plan is that we’re going to be most likely using the medical services out of Hay River to come across and provide service on the reserve. So right now it’s just sorting out some of the details.

I mean, as soon as the land tenure is done, that place will be operational. We’re just going to sort out the details and then between the two CEOs they...

We can provide the details of the expenditures up until the end of March. As far as who is doing the work, I will have the deputy minister provide the name.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan for 2013-14 in this budget session for midwifery is community consultation activities for Hay River, review and update NWT Midwifery Practice Framework and midwifery regulations, hire a Midwifery Program development consultant and midwifery project coordinator at the department to support ongoing planning and program development activities, Hay River community Midwifery Program planning activities, and community consultation activities for Beaufort-Delta communities. Thank you.

Madam Chair, like I said, we will work on it. We have something that the Member has brought up, the non-insured services that we work with the federal government in providing non-insured health benefits. Like dental, those will be something that, again, would be another area that we have to work on with BC Health in order to get the patients for their various medical dental services through Fort Nelson. We fully intend to start the process of working on that.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We’re looking for the infrastructure plan here. We have a little bit of detail on the capital plan with us. We are at the planning stages of the Stanton Territorial Hospital. We do have the dates on when we’re going to be rolling out the plan and when we’re going to start spending money, of course, in the actual renovation of the hospital, but that largely depends on the approval of the Legislative Assembly. I’m just going to… Bear with me, Madam Chair. The plan now is that prior to March 31, 2013, we’ll have spent $3 million on planning and in this fiscal year we will...

On this new system where we moved to birthdates, we have about 2,000 per month. The majority of them are processed, yes. A lot of the mailings went out after people’s birthdays, on the 21st of January actually, so we do have a bit of a glitch in the system. But, in reality, we didn’t see it as a huge issue, that most people will have their cards renewed. But if they don’t have their cards renewed then, yes, they will not get the service provided at that time. They can get a service and they can pay for it or else they can quickly get the card renewed.

Madam Chair, that would be one of the huge issues in dealing with BC Health in Fort Nelson. At this point, the electronic medical records are for the NWT, and then we have a long history dealing with Health in Alberta, in Edmonton. We have some compatibilities there, but none in British Columbia. So that would be an issue that would be a barrier that we would have to deal with.

Madam Chair, this response needs to have a lot of detail in it because of things that we’re doing. So I’m going to ask the deputy minister to provide a detailed response on this whole question, and perhaps the director of finance may also add to the response. I’ll ask the deputy minister to start off the response.