Tom Beaulieu

I can assure the Member that, yes, there will be training. Right now the facility in Behchoko is under construction, and we need to train staff there, as well, as we’ll be expanding from an eight bed facility to an 18 bed facility also in Behchoko. So the nursing and the home care, and all of the workers that are needed to operate the facility in both places will be trained, and I can assure the Member that the staff will be up and ready to go by the time the facility opens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term facility in Norman Wells, as the Members know, is well underway. All of the planning is complete. It’s a matter of doing the construction phase. I think the land has also been decided upon. That was a little bit of an issue. Also, the plan is to have, at the time the health centre/long-term care facility is open, everyone that is going to be working there trained. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if the planning study is on schedule, is completed by March 31st, I will provide the planning study to the Member. I can also have the people responsible for the planning study engage the Member. Yes, after March 31st and we’ve had an opportunity to review the planning study, I will accompany the Member to his riding. Thank you.

Within the planning study, the department has allocated somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 to complete a planning study. The planning study is scheduled to be finished by March 31st, this year.

The top recruiters for foster parents are other foster parents. Through this coalition and just the foster parents within the communities, some of the communities have groups that are head of the various foster parent organizations in the larger communities. They are helping the social workers and the child protection workers in the communities to recruit. Generally our recruiting is through foster parents and through child protection staff.

The Department of Health and Social Services provides funding to the NWT Foster Families Coalition. The Foster Families Coalition supports the foster children or foster parents across the Northwest Territories. They are sort of like a network organization that provides the foster care assistance to everyone that is a foster parent across the Northwest Territories. I think that is really the key way that we assist foster parents as the support is necessary for them to continue to be foster parents.

Likely you would find a policy that indicates the decision for who goes on the medevac is made by a medical practitioner. I’m sure that it would describe any sort of discretionary decisions inside the policy, but I’m assuming that if it says that individual will make that medical call, then it’s not a political decision or an administrative decision. It would be a medical decision.

Like I said, the first priority is the health and well-being of the patient. Now, it is still a medical decision. So it would be the medical practitioners that are making the decision whether or not they think it’s safe for the patient if the individual would take the escort with them, whether it be a family member or somebody’s spouse and so on. But generally, usually when we use medevac it’s because it’s urgent, and under urgent situations we generally try to use the spaces in the facility for somebody that would be able to assist the patient if they were to become distressed during the...

The Department of Health and Social Services and the Sahtu Health and Social Services Authority are currently discussing training requirements and working with Aurora College for that required training. So I can provide the Member with the plan and schedule as to what type of positions will be needed, and at what time the training will be required to be able to operate that facility. Thank you.

All of the requirements that are in for a home, a long-term care facility, will be met. Individuals that are working there will be trained. The exact timeline, the schedule is that there will be some construction this summer, and then continuing on probably, if the unit is closed, in that there will be further construction until finished the following season.

I do believe the facility is scheduled to be finished at the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year. So through this coming fiscal year and being finished over the next fiscal year, with a full staff complement that’s needed to provide the service...