I agree with the Minister. I think, as a government, we should be all over the federal government when there comes any opportunity to get federal investment in this Territory. Again, Mr. Speaker, I don’t see that happening with this government. I’ve been talking about some ideas here for the last two and a half years and, you know, we’ve been managing, it seems like bouncing from issue to issue to issue without really concentrating on some bigger prizes, Mr. Speaker, and those are the opportunities that exist in trying to get some federal investment here in our Territory. I’d like to ask the Minister, are they currently working... I know we’ve got a strategy to try to attract people here, a national campaign. What are we doing as a government to try and attract some of those federal dollars and federal positions here to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
We go to Ottawa quite regularly. We attempt to meet with federal Ministers on a regular basis, and at every opportunity we talk to the federal government about the fact that, in my view, the federal government has abdicated the North.
Twenty years ago every federal department was represented here in Yellowknife or in the Northwest Territories, and they’ve all pulled back south. This is an area that we need to reverse. I think that we now have CanNor, the economic development agency. I think that working more closely with the federal government on devolution and resource revenue sharing, I think that we’ll have a lot more opportunities in the North. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I just see that it seems to me that the government and Cabinet Minister are afraid to step out of their comfort zone to take a chance, to take some risks and get out there and promote our Territory. There seems to me to be a lack of a vision that this government has, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps we need a visionary type of exercise with Cabinet and with Regular Members to sit down and try to chart out a new vision, or what we think is the vision, where we want to go and the opportunities that are out there, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister, perhaps if the government can commit to re-examine where we’re at and where we’re going, because, Mr. Speaker, like I said, I don’t think we’re making much progress. Thank you.
I’m a big fan of strategizing or developing visions in every sector and, certainly, we can review the vision that was developed when we were all elected. There have been a lot of areas that we’ve been pushing very hard on: the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline, for example, the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Taltson Dam. I could name a whole host of projects that we’ve been working and pushing very hard on the federal government and we can certainly expand our horizons in a whole bunch of different areas, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of ITI. Just to listen to him, he’s a big fan of strategies and visions. I want to ask the Minister here in terms of getting -- I’m going to back to it -- wildlife food into our government facilities or into stores. Right now we have a fish market here. We have good fish in the Great Slave Lake and Bear Lake. How can the Minister, through his department, assist the fishery industry to put fish into our government institutions such as the hospital where they can have traditional foods in that facility?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we’ve worked very hard on over the years and there has been quite a number of initiatives that we’ve attempted. We had a red meat initiative, for example, We’ve had test fishing at the community level, and going back to residential school days, I don’t know if the Member wants to go back to where everybody ate fish three times a day, but we can work at the community level, because we all recognize how that was done, is it was purchased by local harvesters, and I think that we are prepared to do that. We put money in the proposed budget to allow us to improve in those different areas. Also, we talked quite a lot about producing locally. The only area that we have to be clear on is when you start serving or making food available to the public, you have to make sure that it meets all of the healthy tests or health standards, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
I certainly don’t want to go back in time. The residential school days, according to my uncle, they served rotten fish there, so I’d like to just leave it at that there.
I want to ask the Minister of ITI, in terms of even just for the one issue on fish here, in terms of working with the Minister of Health and Social Services at the Stanton Territorial Hospital serving fish for elders who are in the hospital, who want fish broth, who want some boiled fish for their recovery. The Minister is responsible for traditional economy and, you know, they have wonderful fish in Great Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake. Is it possible, through the strategy, that he can work with this Cabinet to see how they can get fish served at the territorial hospital, in his capacity as the Minister of ITI?
As soon as this budget is approved, we have identified funds to allow us to do that to develop local markets for fish, and I think one of the best places to start would be to work with my colleagues that have institutional facilities and get them to start purchasing fish and other commercial country food that is available and start serving it. Thank you.
I’m getting hungry now here. I want to ask the Minister in terms of his development, his process in terms of developing local markets for, say for example, fish, in terms of once the budget now is going to be, hopefully, finalized within the next six days here, in terms of going forward, is the Minister then prepared to put a discussion paper before the appropriate community in terms of getting their input, in terms of having this initiative see the light of day in terms of when we can get something on the go here.
We always work very closely with committee on these kinds of things, so we will put together some ideas and principles to work with committee as to how we could best develop this and utilize minimal resources to develop a very important local fishery or production of local foods. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I take it that the Minister will look at a territorial-wide initiative in terms of just the one issue of fish, in terms of how we can get this into the government facilities.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s our intention, recognizing that not all of the communities have quotas. You need to have quotas, for example, for commercial fisheries, and a lot of times, working with the federal Department of Fisheries, we can get them to set a quota as to what your quota is what you catch kind of approach. So that’s one area that we can work closely together on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today is for the Minister of ITI as well. My colleague Mr. Yakeleya raises the issue of domestic product for a domestic market. We have long had a lately untapped resource in the way of our fishery and for years we’ve been asking the government to do what they can to make the fortunes and life of the fishermen better. I’m, of course, speaking of the fishermen on the Great Slave Lake and the quota of fish that does not get harvested from that lake, which is determined by the Department of Fisheries to be sustainable.
Mr. Speaker, a landmark decision has now been made by the fishers of the Northwest Territories on Great Slave Lake in that at their last meeting they voted to be removed from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. This is something that the government was never prepared to move on until the fishermen voted to have this happen. Now that it has been voted upon and the majority said yes, we want out of this legislation, we want out of this monopoly, we want the opportunity to market our fish differently and through different channels, what are the next steps? What is the Minister going to do next to aid and assist the fishermen to find markets and process their product? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, obviously, the first step is to identify what the legal requirements are. As I mentioned before in previous questioning, there are liabilities that were agreed to at the time that the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation was established. So when you move a motion to remove yourself from an entity, there are some liabilities that have to be dealt with. So that would be the first step, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like the Minister to identify what he means by liabilities. Could he list some of the liabilities of being removed from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation regime? Thank you.
There are some ongoing costs with operating the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. There are liabilities that have been cumulated through the operation of Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. At the time of incorporation, I understand there were some considerations that were agreed to by all of the different parties that agreed to participate as part of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. I understand that there was legislation that was passed by this House to allow our participation as well. So we would have to deal with that part of it also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister doesn’t sound very supportive of the vote from the fishermen to be removed from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. Again, I don’t really understand what the liabilities are. Is he talking about financial liabilities? Is there some outstanding debt that needs to be paid? Do we owe something to the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation? I’m not understanding that. And as far as the legislation passed in this House, what is the department doing to bring forward whatever change in legislation needs to be enacted in order to see our fishery stand alone from the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation? Thank you.
The Member just asked me what I saw as the first steps that would be required. I can certainly sound more enthusiastic, but there are liabilities in it and we are waiting for the formal transmission of the motion so we can determine what is required on our part. As I said, we have proposed in the budget some funding so we can begin to develop local markets and opportunities for fishermen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, pardon me if I sound excited about this, but we’ve been talking about the Great Slave Lake fishery here for years and always felt that a big impediment to the fishermen, realizing the potential in the industry was the monopoly by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation. So I would hope now that with the motion I’m sure that will be conveyed formally to this government, that the government will begin to put together a plan and a strategy to assist the fishermen to process and market their product. Could the Minister please tell me if such a plan will be forthcoming? Thank you.
We’d be very pleased to be able to work with the fishermen to identify opportunities and plans to work with them in setting up their businesses so they can market Northwest Territories fish which, similar to the fur, is some of the best in the world. One of the things we have to do is work with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to determine responsibilities in terms of dealing with fishermen on Great Slave Lake. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services while I have this opportunity today. I’ve be listening to my colleague Mr. Krutko and my colleague Mr. Menicoche talk about the nursing services for Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley and even with all the debate and questions that’s gone back and forth, I still don’t really understand one thing. Is the ability to put nurses in these communities a financial consideration? Is it about the financial resources in order to do this?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. It is financial in one way, but actually it’s much more than that. It’s operational as well. In terms of governance, we deliver our health care services through regional authorities. They’re provided with a block funding. They have services that they need to provide; nursing services being one crucial item. But they do not fund or they do not spend their money per community. They provide nursing coverage for the entire authority, a lot like school boards. Teachers get hired by school boards and they are employees of the board. The same with nurses. They get hired for the board and they get placed and sometimes they are resident in their communities, but in many cases like the Beaufort-Delta, in all our regional authorities, they travel. They provide services in whatever is needed and actually the authorities need some flexibility to make sure where there are vacancies... And the nurses are not all the same nurses, they have all different skills. For most of our authorities, they need to be able to use their resources where it is most needed and for many, many small communities, they are travelling nurses and they try to give as many hours as possible to all communities for nursing coverage and other essential services. Thank you.
So I understand that it is an operational issue to some extent and that regional health authorities have the ability to determine how to distribute those resources. What role does our government play in setting the standards of health care delivery on the basis of a population or a community? Surely there must be some role that our government plays in terms of determining the level of service. I think that there had been some considerable work that had been done on that. What role does our government have in determining that?
Obviously, the money is a big factor, but also our authorities are guided by our direction, such as the service delivery model that I’m sure the Member has heard about for many, many years now; the Integrated Service Delivery Model. The Foundation for Change Action Plan does speak to where our focus is and the goals of that plan are wellness, access and sustainability. So when we’re talking about health care services, we’re talking about making sure all our residents have access to health and social services, and for some communities it is some of the resident support. But the priority is to make sure that every resident in the Northwest Territories has essential services, access to the services, but they may not always have them living in their community. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can fully understand why Members representing small communities would consider having a nurse resident in the community to be a very important thing. Access sounds nice, but it doesn’t address the issue of emergencies and just, I suppose, the comfort level people have knowing that there is a qualified health care professional in the community should the need to receive services arise. It’s complicated, the answer, but does the Minister at least acknowledge the issue around the quality of life that’s realized in these small communities if they had a resident health care practitioner in the community? Thank you.
I absolutely totally understand that and I think it’s much more difficult for the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley because they had a resident nurse and they now no longer have that since 2003. There are many communities in the Territories of similar size who have never had a resident nurse. What is really important for people to know is that if a community doesn’t have a resident nurse, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the health care they need. The community health reps and other care providers are in constant touch with medical professionals all across the Territories. There is no community where local health care professionals are practicing in isolation. At any given time, the doctors and nurses across the Territories are in touch with all the communities and when patients present themselves, they are diagnosed and assessed by all the professionals in an equitable way. Mr. Speaker, there was one more point I want to make, but I’ll just finish it there. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the House there’s been a lot of discussion around the number of days that the health care professional or the nurse or the doctor would visit the community that people could have access to the service that they like, but they do not stay there. It’s not a continuing thing. I understand the resources would not necessarily allow the very small communities to have someone resident there. Has the Minister ever considered approaching this from the possibility that there may be retired, semi-retired people who have been involved in health care their whole life who would really appreciate an opportunity to make a difference in these small communities and maybe work in those communities on a part-time basis as opposed to being a full-fledged full-time position which would cost the government a full person year in wages and support? Has the government ever thought that there may be people out there who consider the North a place where they would like to make that kind of contribution and really have the ability... Maybe they have worked in a big city hospital their whole life and they would like to come to a small community and work there and maybe only be paid on a part-time basis, but have the experience of living in the North and have an impact on the community. Thank you.
Absolutely, and right now at this moment we welcome any nurse: the young nurse, the young graduates, the retired, the part-time. Anybody who wants to work three shifts, we would take any nurse. Mr. Speaker, qualified nurses... We have about 400 nurses registered, I believe, under the Nurses’ Association, but we continue to have 30 to 40 percent vacancy rates of nurses and other health care professionals. Communities like Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley have the equivalent of one PY and that’s equivalent to 2003 and that is a part-time position. So the community of Tsiigehtchic gets half a year nursing service and that would work out to what you would spend if you had a nurse four hours a day. Since 2003, since we adopted a new model, our labour practices have changed. So if you want to have one full-time nurse in any community, you really need the equivalent of two and a half PYs. So if the Members are willing to consider having a part-time nurse, half a day in a community, we could accommodate that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you. The question I have, Mr. Speaker, is to the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the issue of nurses in small communities. Can the Minister tell the House how many communities do not have a full-time nurse?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, every community has nursing services. I believe the Member is asking how many communities have nurses that don’t live there. I don’t know exactly what number. I believe it’s four or five, perhaps six. I have to get back to the Member.
The community of Colville Lake has community health representatives. It’s not a health centre; it’s a nursing station. These good dedicated people work throughout the year. They have needed some training to just do the basic health care services in Colville Lake. I want to ask the Minister as to the level of comfort... As Mrs. Groenewegen has indicated, when people know there is a nurse in the community, there is some level of comfort for people. The people in Colville Lake are also trained throughout the year. Regarding training our community health representatives that don’t have a full-time nurse living in communities, is there adequate training for these people to take on the job 24/7 in the communities?
Colville Lake is one of the communities, along with some others that do not have a resident nurse. They have a half-time homecare support worker and a community health rep. They are very closely supported by the nursing centre in Fort Good Hope. They do visits to Colville Lake regularly and I am aware that they are in constant touch by phone and the community health reps in Colville Lake are trained to provide services. That is the case for all of the other facilities in the Territories. Not only for community health reps, but even for other health care professionals like nurses, because everyone in the field needs constant training and support. Thank you.
The health care services to Colville Lake by the Sahtu Health Board, mainly the community of Fort Good Hope, has provided an increase of health care into Colville Lake. I spoke to the health representatives and they are happy they are seeing more regular visits by the nurse. Also they made mention that they would like to see more training for an additional position, because it gets quite heavy in terms of their responsibility as a health care professional. Would the Minister look at program funding in terms of having an additional person in Colville Lake to help out and offset health care services in Colville?
Once again, the Sahtu Health Authority does review the workload and, in fact, they have tried to do a different model of delivery where the community health rep and homecare support services were combined in some communities. I believe the authority is reviewing that, so I will undertake to discuss with the authority and get back to the Member.
