Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Just over the course of a few years, there has been a trend of people moving to the winter crossing. These are people that have gone through the housing programs, and most of the time they have been evicted or else they have arrears with the Housing Corporation. There have been noticeably several houses that have been sitting empty in Fort Providence that the Housing Corporation owns. How much longer will those empty houses sit there idle and empty? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a few empty houses in Fort Providence. There are a number of reasons people are evicted. Arrears is one of them. There could have been noise and disturbance, and a number of other issues that they are evicted from public housing. Usually there is opportunity there for them, if they enter into some kind of agreement, to try and get back on to the public housing waiting list and hopefully back into public housing.
Our goal as NWT Housing Corporation is to house people, not to evict them. But at the same time, as a partnership, they have to work with us. Many times we have exhausted all other options and eviction is the last resort. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’d like to thank the Minister for outlining at least the process of trying to exhaust all options. The focus of my questioning is not so much the eviction practice but to try and highlight just the issue of arrears. Most of the time people are facing obstacles in small communities as it is, so it becomes an obstacle.
Will the NWT Housing Corporation remove the barriers of these obstacles standing between homeless families and empty houses in Fort Providence? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the NWT Housing Corporation will do our part in trying to get people into units. At the same time, the clients themselves have to remove some of their own obstacles. In many cases all we ask is that they enter into some kind of an agreement with the LHO, and not only enter into it just to get back on the waiting list, but we would like them to honour it. We’ve seen situations in the past in a number of our communities, where a lot of clients that have been evicted have entered into a repayment plan or some kind of option with the LHO and they have honoured it. We’ve seen some success stories in that. A lot of times it is just a partnership that has to be worked out between the client and the local LHO.
Mr. Speaker, will the arrears be adjusted for previous public housing tenants as they will be for current tenants, so they have at least a starting chance to restore their credit ratings and eligibility for housing programs? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, no, we will not adjust their arrears. There have been opportunities in the past through a number of different programs where the arrears have been adjusted, the latest one being when it was transferred. The role of the assessment was transferred back to the Housing Corporation or the LHOs from ECE. A lot of adjustments were made at the time and there was a significant decrease in arrears.
Again, a lot of times it’s a matter of the client coming in, verifying their income, because if you don’t verify your income, you are automatically assessed at market rate and that tends to have their arrears build up. But there is always opportunity for adjustment. Again, verification of income is the biggest one. If they feel that they have been charged too much, then they can verify their income and adjustments will be made. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Aside from evictions and looking at a repayment plan, at least there are options for clients or previous clients, what level of assurance can the Minister provide in terms of looking at some immediate options in terms of addressing people with arrears that want to get into the housing system? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the first thing that could happen is the tenants themselves could make a point of going into the LHOs and working out some kind of plan with the local housing authority, and then they can honour the plan. I believe that once they do that and they show good faith, I think good faith will be shown on the LHO’s part.
As I said before, it is a partnership. We will work with them, but they have to be willing to work with us also. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The realignment of the Tlicho winter road was Premier-directed, not a Cabinet initiative or brought forward by the Members-at-large as Caucus. It has been my understanding that there has been some type of formal instructions with Fortune Minerals about creating a year-round road out all the way to the community of Whati and even to Gameti.
I would like to ask the Minister of Transportation, if this is the case, what is actually happening out there that Regular Members have not been informed of. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We continue discussions with the Tlicho Government on the winter road realignment and trying to identify monies going forward to allow us to carry out that work. As far as the road the Member talks about to Fortune Minerals, nothing has been decided in that case. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as many of us know, this is approximately a 120-kilometre road which could run anywhere about a $2 million project. In speaking to some people who work for Fortune, they’ve coined it as a deal has been struck to work on a framework to do this road and that they’re planning for investment.
I’m trying to find out what has been struck in the form of a deal with Fortune Minerals in order to either build a road, lease back a road, or create a road. What is happening on this issue? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, in my role as Minister of ITI I do meet frequently with industry representatives. I have met with Fortune Minerals a number of times in the past. Certainly, a road to the project is really fundamental to the project going ahead.
We haven’t signed any agreements. We haven’t entered into any negotiations on a road. None of this has happened. It’s all, I guess, just guesswork on the Member’s part. When that does happen, you can rest assured Members of this House, the Member and his committee will know about it. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister can say it’s guesswork on my part, but it was a Fortune Minerals person who told me they were in discussion with the Department of Transportation on this. So if he would like to change departments on the discussion, that’s up to the Minister. In this case, it happens to be the same person which obviously can mean it is.
Maybe for the record officially in this House, what work is being done on that road to the communities of Whati and Gameti and, specifically, how much has been the investment on that work to those communities, because I’m not aware of anything specifically asked for in any budget. I just want to make sure that’s clear in the House today.
Thank you very much. I’ll get that information for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue I’m raising here is not that I’m not in favour of the road. The fact is, is it seems like we’re in the dark. So I guess my next question is the issue of what threshold of work agreement, compliance or negotiation is needed in order to bring Members into the fold of the discussion. It seems as if there’s some type of discussion and work going on behind the scenes, but Members, in the context of transparency, are in a position where we don’t know anything, but yet industry is coming to tell us work is being done. Thank you.
Thank you. The Member would know the Government of the Northwest Territories is not in a financial position to spend $150 million on a road to Fortune Minerals. That’s not something that we have the financial wherewithal to accomplish. I’m not sure who the Member is speaking to at Fortune, but I will talk to the folks at Fortune Minerals, and the next time they are in Yellowknife, I will set up a meeting through the Member and have Fortune Minerals sit down with the Member and his committee, and I’d certainly make myself available to attend the same meeting so that we’re all on the same page. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my statement. I mentioned a number of statistics in my statement and I want to provide a few more.
Diabetes prevalence rates among Aboriginal populations are at least three times higher than the general population. Aboriginal populations face higher risks for prediabetes and obesity, and Aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable to diabetes. They have four times the rate of non-Aboriginal women. They also have a higher risk for gestational diabetes.
I spoke to the cost of diabetes to our system, to our health system, to our government, and in the NWT those costs are fully borne by the government. Diabetes treatment is fully covered as an insured service. So I would like to say to the Minister that we are managing this problem and this is an opportunity to solve the problem. I’d ask the Minister to explain to me and to the House the rationale for the exclusion of bariatric surgery in the list of ensured services for the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services recognizes, and also in discussion with many people recognize that bariatric surgery and other issues or other medical services that could address obesity are something that we are looking at adding to our insured services. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I’m glad to hear that this is something that may be on the horizon. The Minister mentioned he’s in discussion and that the department, I gather, is looking into this. I’d like to know from the Minister what kind of discussions are these, are these taking us forward to action and when might that action be. Thank you.
Thank you. As Minister I have the authority to add, delete or amend insured services. In May 2012 we had put a committee together with the NWT Medical Association, and now we’re in the process of developing the terms of reference for that so that we can look at making those changes to the medical services through looking at the regulations of the act. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I didn’t mean a committee that was established almost a year ago. I hope he meant terms of reference for including bariatric surgery under our insured services.
Since we don’t currently provide insurance coverage for bariatric surgery, I’d like to know from the Minister if an individual in the NWT chooses to improve themselves, chooses to go and get the surgery done on their own and pay for it on their own, why do we not then assist them with any follow-up procedures, follow-up consultations that are required because there is very often, following the surgery, several visitations to doctors that are necessary and we refuse to do that. So why do we do that? Thank you.
That committee will be looking at bariatric surgery. Why currently the physicians are refusing to assist individuals that have bariatric surgery, I don’t know, but it’s on the agenda for that committee to look at, at specifically the whole area of bariatric surgery, the whole area of obesity and how it impacts and how it has a direct correlation on chronic disease such as diabetes. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I don’t know if the Minister understood my question. I’m not asking him at this point to cover the cost of the surgery, but following surgery there are very often follow-up consultations and follow-up procedures that are required and the Minister says physicians are refusing that. If the Minister gives direction for the system to cover the costs of follow-up, if people are trying to improve themselves, I don’t understand why we would not assist them in doing that. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, I did misunderstand the question. I thought she was telling me that the physicians were refusing and I said I didn’t know why that was happening. But again, we are looking at that. We think that is one of the emerging issues in the whole issue of chronic disease management, and we recognize that this is an issue and we’re hoping that once the committee is able to discuss this, that changes can be made in the system and it can become part of the insured services. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise as a follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, which put into light last week’s devastating deadly highway crash near Fort Providence. However, before I proceed, I wish to once again indicate our prayers to all families involved.
I realize there is still an RCMP investigation involved with this. However, my questions today do not deal with this accident, but more importantly deal with the level of first responder care, patient immobilization, dispatch, medical support and transport.
Of course, I realize that there are really three Ministers involved with such questioning: the Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Minister of Health and Social Services. Therefore, today I will begin my questions with the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services describe the role of medical travel in the event of a highway or road accident that requires immediate triage, patient immobilization and medical support? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the information here that specifically provides the role of the whole medical travel area, the medevac area. What I know about that so far is that the medical travel, essentially, is taking people from the communities into a medical point where they need to go to get a service and that could be done through a medevac or it could be done through regular medical travel. But I don’t have any information indicating that we have to go away from the outside of the range of where there might be some ground ambulance service and how we go and get those people. I don’t have that information with me. Thank you.
I appreciate the Minister’s response. Can the Minister indicate what protocol or what algorithm of care is used by medical travel to make decisions of highway air ambulance patient extraction, and is this protocol communicated with all levels of NWT first responders such as RCMP and fire departments across the Northwest Territories?
Again, if there’s an accident and someone is in an accident that is on a highway that is out of one of the communities and it’s not something covered by medical travel or medevac services, as for the information I have, I’m not familiar with what the protocol is for getting people on the highways for such an accident as this. The first responders recognize that we’re trying to put regulations in to add emergency medical services in the medical professional umbrella legislation so that we can have that, so that we can have ambulance services where people would be qualified and insurable to be able to do that kind of work on the highway.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services also indicate what criteria are used by medical travel when making a decision to abort a mission for highway air ambulance patient extraction?
All calls on medical travel, whether it be medevacs or medical travel, are made by a physician. If a physician has made a decision that they are going to be able to get to the patient quicker through another avenue, that may be a reason for aborting a medical travel or medevac. If we’re talking about something that’s outside of a community, not moving from one point within a community to a point where an individual can get medical travel, then I’m not familiar with why or what the protocol is to abort such a trip.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the limited information and criteria provided today by the Minister of Health and Social Services, it is clear that the public and Members need a better understanding on the role of medical travel in highway and air ambulance situations. Will the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to a proper inquiry of the role of medical travel in situations of highway air ambulance call events, and will the Minister report and table these findings to this House?
I’m not sure I would commit to doing an inquiry, but I think we could check out, to keep it simple, to determine whether or not it’s our responsibility to go on to the highways through the Medical Travel Policy, medical travel to be able to go on the highway and get people through that service or if we’re using the system where we are trying to enhance certain ground ambulance services and key strategic communities throughout the North. I’m not sure if I could call for a public inquiry, but I could get that information and find out how this process works and get back to the Members.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to follow up on some questions that were being posed here in the Legislature last week on midwifery. I want to say in my preamble that I was very glad to hear the Minister of Health and Social Services not agreeing with everything that was being suggested about midwifery, and using words like “common sense” and “basically pushing back” a little bit on this theory that midwifery is the panacea of birthing opportunities in the Northwest Territories.
Being from a community where there are currently no resident physicians, certainly the desire of people to have their children in their home community is real, and I understand that. I had three kids. I had them all in Hay River not two blocks from where I lived at the time, and that is wonderful when those children can be born there. I think we are deluding ourselves if we think that midwifery in and of itself is the answer to all of that.
I’d like to ask the Minister, even after midwifery is in place, will people who are having a first child, a high-risk pregnancy, will they still need the conventional medical services in order to birth?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
