Tom Beaulieu

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.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The plan is to have three of the positions – the project manager, the policy officer, and the system navigator – in Yellowknife. Just a little explanation. The one project manager is the review of medical travel. The policy officer is a review of the health benefits and will also be located here. The system navigator, located in Yellowknife, is the person in charge of handling all of the issues that are brought forward to the system. The chief physician advisor, although we indicate Yellowknife, could actually be located anywhere in the Northwest Territories.

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.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. There are some issues with mailing, but I think that the majority of the people that went for renewal have had their health cards renewed without any issues.

There are some issues. To answer her question of how far behind we are in this is difficult for me. I can say that we did change the system just a bit by mailing out postcards as opposed to forms, and that has caused a little bit of an issue. Aside from wrong addresses, I think we’re fairly up to speed on our renewals.

Madam Chair, as I indicated earlier, we are going to have a discussion with the leadership in Fort Liard. After that, all things being equal, and then wanting to move in that direction, and we think they probably do, but we need to have that discussion just the same.

We would then have discussions with British Columbia Health to sort out the out-of-territory billing and then return emergent referrals from Nelson to the nearest centre where the required services are available. So if they are getting a service there and they need to have further services beyond what Nelson is able to provide...

They are scheduled to be completed, or the pilot completed, in April of this calendar year, 2013, and then from there we’re going to use that project to roll out the further chronic disease programs.

The evaluation process is very critical in the RFP. The evaluation is going to give us a very clear indication of where the medevacs are coming from. If the Member from the Sahtu is accurate in his thinking, then, yes, many of the issues resulting from perhaps unrestricted alcohol sales and many people, just many people, period, in the area as a result of resource development, then it is possible that many of the medevacs will originate out of the Sahtu communities. That would be in the evaluation.

When we put out the RFP, I think there’s an indication in the RFP as some background information...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a priority of this government that children get the best possible start in life so they can reach their full potential. It is important that we continue investment in early childhood development as this is an investment in the future of our children.

In January of this year, in partnership with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we hosted a roundtable to identify priorities for a renewed Early Childhood Development Framework. I’m pleased to report that the roundtable was a success.

I know the Members of this House that attended the roundtable would...