Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my constituency assistant Maia Lepage, who is here doing some business this week and learning the ins and outs of the trade of the Legislative Assembly to make our office back in Inuvik more efficient, proficient and more successful in the work that we do for the people of Inuvik. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize my constituency assistant, Myrtle Graham. She’s also helping me here this week from Hay River West Channel. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to go six for six here for Mr. Ed Jeske, who my favourite arena is named after. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Nadli.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to acknowledge the presence of two Pages from my community: Brandon Constant and Lisa Constant. I’d like to acknowledge them. Brandon and Lisa are both in Grade 9. Brandon likes to play badminton, from just speaking with the principal in Fort Providence, and they both like outdoor on-the-land activities. Both completed the Student Initiative Program in Fallis, Alberta, in November. Both are wonderful youth models, and their parents are Manuel Constant and Vicky Marcellais. So I’d like to welcome them to the Legislature. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise to acknowledge and congratulate six Weledeh constituents to be honoured today as recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Being honoured at the presentation ceremony here in Yellowknife are Weledeh constituents Anthony Whitford, Bobby Drygeese, Barbara Bromley – hi, Mom – Patricia O’Connor and Arlene Hache. Gail Cyr is receiving her medal today at a ceremony in Ottawa. Please join me in celebrating these distinguished citizens and their richly deserved recognition. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Thank you, colleagues. I’d like to go back to recognition of visitors in the gallery.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the devolution earlier this afternoon and I talked about the impacts and probably some of the thoughts in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Premier in terms of this devolution deal here, that we have some communities out there, some Aboriginal governments that feel there should be stronger, more meaningful participation in this process. Basically what I’ve been told by some of my people is that the federal government has basically set the time and set the stage for the negotiations in saying the federal government was dictating the process: your team, my team, that’s it. That’s not good enough for the Aboriginal governments. Can the Premier help me understand how the Aboriginal governments can have more participation?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess as part of this process that we’ve undertaken, as the Member may recall, when we all got together as Caucus and set the priorities for the 17th Assembly, one of the priorities was to conclude devolution negotiations and we are in the process of attempting to do so. Thank you.
I actually have a copy right here, and the Premier was right on the priorities. We also have a goal for a strong and independent North built on partnership, and if we don’t have those types of partnerships, how can we build a strong and independent North? We only have a few of the partners on board.
I want to ask the Premier, when they’re looking at the Devolution Agreement, is the Premier and this government going to look at a referendum where people will have a chance to say this is a good deal or not a deal we should be signing?
I don’t think one predicates the other. We’ve been working very hard for the past three months to establish better working relationships. Most of the Aboriginal governments that we’ve met, six out of seven have been very supportive, indicating they want to continue to develop a working relationship.
On the Devolution Agreement, we’re inviting all parties to participate and we’re making sure we keep them apprised of all of the progress or of any discussions that happen.
The Aboriginal governments want to have meaningful input at the negotiation table, rather than just being told this is what’s happening, this is how you can participate. Hence, we got the issue of the Gwich’in taking the territorial government to court. I’m not too sure how far we can have discussions on that, but that’s how our relationship has deteriorated with one of the Aboriginal governments that represent a number of communities such as the Gwich’in Tribal Council.
What costs, as the Legislative Assembly, are we willing to pay to put this deal to bed and say that’s it, this is the deal and this is how it’s going to be done? What are the costs to us?
I guess I’ll answer in a different perspective. The cost to us is it’s costing us $165,000 a day. Over the past five years we’ve seen $300 million flowing to the Government of Canada never to return. So we have a standing invitation to all of the Aboriginal governments to participate if they see fit to do so.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, money comes and money goes. Look at the relationship at a moral cost to us on a government-to-government relationship. Are we willing to pay that cost for some short-term gains for long-term damages?
It’s a heavy cost to this government here. We could use the money, but how bad are we willing to not mend some broken hearts between us and the Gwich’in Tribal Council? That cost is more important to me, so that’s what I want to ask the Premier: What will he do, what can this government do? When it comes to a final agreement, do people in the Northwest Territories have a say in saying yes, this is a good deal? Will we have a referendum?
We’ve been reaching out to all the Aboriginal governments and looking for comments on all of the major issues; devolution is one part of it. We have a basis for our relationship with all Aboriginal governments through land claim agreements and through self-government agreements, and we will continue to pursue those avenues.
As far as devolution, this is something we’ll continue to seek the support of Aboriginal governments and we will continue to provide all of the information that is available on devolution on a go-forward basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just in reference to my Member’s statement earlier, all the good work that the government has been doing in terms of dealing with our Aboriginal governments. I’d like to follow up with raising a concern that’s been brought forth to our Minister of Health in regard to the lack of doctor services, long services from doctors in the community of Inuvik. The Minister stated at our Beaufort-Delta leadership meetings that it is the number one priority to get doctors in the region, and that was on January 10th, I believe, he made that comment. I’d just like to ask the Minister what has his department done since making those strong comments in addressing this issue for the shortfall of services in the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. A question for the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since our Beaufort-Delta meeting I’ve had many meetings, many strategic meetings with the Department of Health and Social Services. I also met with the Joint Leadership Council, which are the public administrators and the chairpersons of each of the health and social services authorities, and we’ve particularly talked about this issue several times and also several times at that meeting. Thank you.
Previous to some of the questions that I’ve asked in the past, we’ve done a lot of talking. We know what the issues are; we need to put action to these issues that have been there for a long time. Since 1994, Yellowknife recruiting staff have not done a successful job in putting a long service doctor in Inuvik. That needs to be taken care of and it needs to be taken care of with this government. One of the main things that possibly can be not having these doctors in Inuvik are the incentives for doctors to live out of Yellowknife but do locum services in Inuvik. Can I ask the Minister how can he change that policy where there are incentives for doctors to work up in Inuvik and non-incentives for doctors to live out of Yellowknife and only do locum in Inuvik?
Our first priority is to have doctors in the regions for easy access for the patients. We need doctors to be in the regions, and Inuvik is one of the regions and has nine positions. Of the nine positions, only 0.8 positions are filled in Inuvik. There have been attempts, there have been websites put out in an attempt to recruit, but as I said, in the Beaufort-Delta we are prepared to work with the community of Inuvik, whether it be the municipality or Beaufort-Delta leadership in order to attract doctors to Inuvik as a first priority. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister of Health for letting us all know that we’re failing in getting staff up into the Beaufort-Delta region. The health authority, 0.8 of nine is not acceptable and I think that needs to change. Even if we had one or two positions filled, that would lead to a lot of success in our region.
Right now the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority is in a big deficit and it’s been accumulating over the years and I believe that the main reason behind that are these incentives that we’re giving locums to come into our region to only work for a short period of time. I’d like to ask for a strong commitment and action plan from the Minister today that this will be addressed and that we can have an action plan before our next session in May. Thank you.
Thank you. I agree. The department has spent a lot of money on locums and at this point that has been the solution, that the locums are coming from the South to address the doctor needs, the physician needs in the Beaufort-Delta. As the Member indicated, only one doctor that works about six and a half hours a day is employed and lives in Inuvik and our attempt is to bring doctors to Inuvik. It’s very difficult to bring one or two doctors into a community. It is a lot easier to bring a fifth, sixth and seventh doctor. So we’re trying to develop a strategy that will bring many doctors in that will attract other doctors, as doctors like to work with doctors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bringing in more locums just adds to the problem of a lack of quality care, a lack of continued services to our patients that need that trust in their doctors, and that’s not being met when we start bringing more people down from the communities. The incentives, bringing more locums from down south just adds to the lack of services that we’ll get in Inuvik. It’s just more incentives for locums to come from down south, get paid more money than if they were living in Inuvik. So that also needs to change. I ask the Minister if he’d be willing to commit to revising or looking at that policy on incentives for locums and getting a long-term doctor in Inuvik. Thank you.
The Department of Health and Social Services is currently working with the Department of Human Resources on a new Physician Recruitment Strategy. The strategy is to bring the doctors into the community. That is the number one priority. We are still using locums from the South. A plan B could be to bring the doctors from Yellowknife and then the doctors from here would work in the Beaufort-Delta and have more continuity, but we’re still trying to work on the strategy to bring doctors into Inuvik and the other regional centres that don’t have doctors.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you. I’m just anxious to dive in on this topic of locums and resident physicians, but that’s not my question today. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
We have excessive and rising costs in delivering health and social services programs to the residents of the Northwest Territories. Over a number of years I have raised this concern: If I’m a resident of Hay River and I’m having surgery at Stanton Territorial Hospital on Monday morning, I must have the pre-op work done on Friday, which means that someone has to come here on Friday, get their pre-op lab work done and then go for their surgery on Monday morning. This has been a long-standing problem and issue. If the person comes over here at their own expense because they’re self-employed or don’t have insurance coverage, they have a choice. They can either fly up Friday and fly home and incur that cost, or they can come up and stay for the weekend and incur that cost, because we all know there’s no place to stay for patients from other communities when they come to Yellowknife, unless you can get into the Vital Abel Boarding Home, and that is limited.
So here’s my question: We have a lab in our hospital in Hay River that does blood work for everything else. Why can’t we streamline the system so that when someone needs blood work and lab work done to ensure they’re ready for surgery on Monday, why can’t that be done in Hay River and those results communicated somehow to Stanton so that we can avoid these problems? It’s ongoing, it continues, it costs us money, it costs our patients money. What are we going to do about it? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Those decisions for lab work are requested by a doctor. As we indicated here earlier today, most of the doctors are located here in Yellowknife. I mean, I’m sure that we can use a system where the lab in Hay River can be used if a doctor goes down there to take a look at the results of lab work, but at this time it’s a clinical decision and made by physicians. Thank you.
May I suggest that getting a doctor to go to Hay River would also be inexpensive? I mean it would be expensive and cost prohibitive; sorry.
I was in Alaska once and had a medical test done, which was then beamed to a doctor at his house in Texas and who responded right back on what the answer was. I mean, we are only 100 miles away between Hay River and Yellowknife. Surely there’s a way that, okay, the guy doing the surgery, the doctor doing the surgery on the Monday morning wants certain tests done and lab work done. Why can those requisitions for lab work not be sent to Hay River, have the work done there, communicate the results to the surgeon that’s going to do the operation on Monday morning, and save the patient all this wear and tear and expense?
As I indicated, the decision is made by the doctor that’s doing the surgery. If we could go back to discuss the change here, I think we would be prepared to do that as a department, to discuss with the doctor why he makes those decisions on how he has the persons tested up here and then the individual doesn’t actually get the operation until Monday. We can, as a department, go to the doctors and find out why that occurs and get back to the Member.
This is 2012. This is the day and age of modern communications and quick communications. It is hard to believe that we as a medical system cannot come up with a better communication system from one health authority, one medical institution to another that could allow this to be done. This is this organization at its worst. This is a subject that has been brought to me on more than one occasion by many constituents. We have to come to Yellowknife. If you want to have a baby, come to Yellowknife. If you want to have surgery, come to Yellowknife. Well then, let’s find ways as a government to make this more affordable and easier for those who are living outside of the capital. Thank you.
Sorry; there was no question there. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could describe for us what communication channel is currently available between the health authority in Hay River and the Stanton Territorial Hospital that would allow the transmission of lab results or requisitions.
The Department of Health or the health authorities have recently improved the electronic health records. Electronic health records can be used and transmitted from community to community electronically.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to considering the surgery schedule for NWT residents from outside of the capital that would allow them, if necessary, to have their lab work done the same week as they’re having their surgery done, to prevent that travel, and if he would also investigate if somehow we could enhance the transmission of requisitions and results from lab procedures between health authorities.
It would be difficult for me to commit on the work of doctors. However, I will promise the Member that we will have a full discussion to ask the doctors why there is surgery on a different week than when the tests are done, so that the tests are done in the same week. We have no problem whatsoever to having that full discussion with the doctors and get back to the Member with those results.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
