Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Madam Chair. Our first plan A is to try and retain the THSSI funding. We are on the schedule of the federal Minister, and when the federal Minister wishes to discuss the plan or the furtherance of the THSSI funding with us, then at that time we will have that discussion. If there is no discussion and the money is sunsetted or lapsed, then we will need to come back to the Legislative Assembly to fill the gaps. We really don’t think it’s an option to reduce medical travel by that amount. We really don’t think it’s an option to lay off six nurse practitioners. We really don’t think it...

We have no problem providing that information. If we are able to pull that information, the department is listening and is able to pull that information together before the end of the review, we will provide that in the House. If not, we will provide that to the Members at a later date.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department recognizes that prevention is probably the key to long-term savings for the department. Some of the money that we’re putting into the system on prevention, at the end of the day, downstream, will have positive financial benefits to the department. So that is probably the main thing.

In as far as medical travel goes, we recognize that maybe medical travel is not as efficient as it should be. There are a lot of pressures on medical travel. People put pressures on medical travel and sometimes individuals that may not be eligible for an escort, as an example...

We don’t have the detail of the level of discussion between officials for the GNWT and the federal government through ANSI, the federal government, Aboriginal Affairs. So we can provide that information to the membership or to this Member. It shouldn’t be difficult to pull that information together. We can pull that information and provide that to the Member.

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.