Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Soon some of the staff at Stanton will be vacating the hospital to move to a new mall here in Yellowknife. This may free up some space that can be modified to allow for additional colon cancer screening. This may be a great opportunity for Stanton and the Stanton Foundation to mobilize to raise funds for increased screening which may help reduce wait times in the Northwest Territories.
Would the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to meeting with representatives from the Stanton Foundation and work with them to help address these challenges, specifically space, equipment, and staff, facing colon cancer screening in the Northwest Territories?
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m always willing to meet with any group or organization to hear them out and see what we can do in terms of working together. I can tell the Member that I have met with the Stanton Territorial Foundation executive director and chair quite early in my mandate. We have also learned that in fact the deputy minister of Health and Social Services is a member of that board, which has not been exercised in a while. We are certainly willing to work with the foundation and see what projects we can work on together.
I’m happy to hear that. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me when she might actually have an opportunity to meet on this particular issue about finding ways to reduce wait times for colon cancer screening in the Northwest Territories.
If we were to, well, I mean, I know that the deputy minister is planning on meeting with the foundation as a member of the board or invited member of the board. With respect to cancer screening, that’s a service issue and it involves... The wait list is not necessarily because of the spacing issue but is because of the lack of specialists. Part of the work we are doing is we’re looking to see if we can offer that service not only in Yellowknife at Stanton but also in Hay River and possibly Inuvik. That’s part of the Territory-wide service plan that we’re working on. We would certainly be happy to work with the foundation on capital projects that they want to have to raise funds.
Once again I’d like to thank the Minister for that. I hear what the Minister is saying, but at the same time there are a large number of residents in Yellowknife, a large number of people who are going through or scheduled on the waiting list, waiting 12 months or 18 months or often longer for colon cancer screening in the Northwest Territories. The foundation has an opportunity to help raise money, not cost the government money but help the government raise money to actually facilitate some of this screening. I’d like to hear the Minister tell me today that she is going to meet with the foundation and work with them to help identify ways or help them target money and fundraising that could help us help our residents get the screening that is required in the Northwest Territories, specifically at Stanton.
As I’ve indicated, the deputy minister will be participating in that board and any proposals they may have for raising money for capital, obviously we’re willing to work with that and see how we can work together. I think we should be careful that raising money for capital equipment is for capital equipment. Often it’s the O and M and the ongoing funding that is a lot bigger than the capital funding itself. We should be mindful of that when we are talking about fundraising projects. Obviously, I appreciate and value the work that the foundation does and any idea they may have that they want us to look at, we’ll be happy to do that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
