Robert Hawkins

Is that the actual statement in the contract, or does the contract actually take the time to identify what is considered reasonable wait times for Northern residents who’ve contracted specifically with Capital Health? Is that exactly how it works?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly, once again, accept the offer to review this file. I think that is a good first step for this family. Still, there’s quite a bit of vagueness on whether the Minister will provide a written apology to this family. I certainly hope the Minister will clear this up.

We need to be ultimately clear. Do we allow doctors — and this is certainly not a slight against doctors — to send people to hospitals where they can’t be treated? I want to be clear on that. Do we allow doctors to send patients south to hospitals that have no beds for them? In such cases I’m...

Mr. Speaker, all those hospitals in Alberta, all those hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton and elsewhere, yet there were no beds. I’m wondering who is taking responsibility for sending one of our patients, who was in dire need of serious medical care, to a hospital, or certainly a city, that has no beds. Is the Minister willing to take responsibility specifically for that and write an apology on that issue so this family has some healing and can go forward?

The Minister just doesn’t seem to understand the question. I’m not asking or stating that the problem was in sending her to Edmonton. That’s not the problem. The problem is that she had to wait in emergency 34 hours to get a room. There seems to be no concern about an apology to this family. There seems to be no concern or thought as to saying: well, maybe if this hospital is full and if there are no rooms in this hospital, why could we not have sent her somewhere else, be it in Edmonton or Calgary?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I talked about a woman who had to wait 34 hours in order to be let into a room and suffered from a stroke. She was sent down to Edmonton, as I talked about in my Member’s statement. I felt that this was a disgusting way for government services and funding to show that the standard of health is completely unreasonable and unfair.

My questions will be focused on the Minister of Health and Social Services and specific only to this incident. I want to be very clear. I’d like to know what happened in this situation. I want to know what the Minister is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the Thanksgiving weekend something horrible happened. A young mother in her youthful prime had a stroke, and because of her condition level, she needed to be sent to an Edmonton hospital to meet her needs. So she was medevacked to Edmonton Monday night and arrived around 11 p.m. with her daughter and three month old nursing son in tow.

As anyone can imagine, this is a difficult situation, but what can be noted here at this specific point is that it has the appearance that the system may be working. That is, you get sick, and the publicly funded system, via taxpayer...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the issue seems to elude the Minister. It’s not that she needs to go to Edmonton. It’s not that she needed to go to emergency. It’s that she spent 34 hours in emergency. That is ridiculous.

Mr. Speaker, why are we sending people to Edmonton if they have no rooms? I know the hospital care is the level that we’re concerned about, but why are we sending them to that hospital if they don’t have any rooms? Why did we send her there, and where is this apology that I think this family deserves?

Waiting 34 hours for a room is completely unreasonable. I would not describe that as a reasonable level of care that we pay for with our tax dollars. Two weeks ago this Minister knew there were problems down there. The husband called me to say that they knew this in this department and they understood this in this department.

I want to know what the plan was, because there appears to be no plan if they sent her down there with no room. And is this Minister prepared to put an apology in writing to this family that explains, “Sorry this happened, and it will not happen again”?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. So what happened? Why were there no rooms available? There is more than one hospital in Edmonton that I’m familiar with. Where is the assistance from our northern nurses who work down there to make sure our northern patients are taken care of? What about that great arrangement we have with Capital Health? We pay them. What are they doing? At this moment I’m not sure. It sounds like they’re not doing their job.

So what is the problem? What was the plan? Knowing full well that there might not be room, why did we send her? Why didn’t we send her...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I am raising the topic of safety for students in the NWT. We all know that intercommunity sports and recreation events are an important part of a student’s life experience.

Mr. Speaker, I have many fond memories of travelling with Mr. Rick Tremblay when I was kid to communities for basketball, wrestling and cross-country events. As we all know too well, coaches, team mangers, chaperones and parents often take their teams to other communities in the NWT and Alberta. They make use of their own cars and minivans and sometimes rent vehicles and buses.

Sadly, I need to...