A decision on procurement will be made by Cabinet sometime this month. To the dates, I wouldn’t want to pin it down to a certain date, but certainly by the end of the month we will have a way forward on the procurement of the Highway No. 4 realignment, at which time we’ll gladly convey that to the Members of this House.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my questions that were posed by Mr. Hawkins from Yellowknife Centre with respect to that welcome news that we read in the media recently that there is an alternate airport to the Municipal Airport being contemplated as a landing point for medevacs out of the North, that being the Garrison. Now, I can’t say that I heard every single answer that Mr. Beaulieu provided, but might I suggest that the cooperation and the agreement… The contract between our government and the Alberta Health Services for medical service for our NWT residents in Alberta is an extremely integral piece of the infrastructure of the services that we provide to Northerners. I’d like to ask the Minister if he is going to take a proactive role in the discussions to identify a more suitable landing location for medevacs from the North than the Edmonton International Airport and pursue this idea of the Garrison Airport and be involved in that.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the discussion previously that involved the Municipal Airport and International Airport, the GNWT provided input to the Health Quality Council last winter. From the Territories we had our deputy minister, the Stanton Senior Management Team, we had the Joint Senior Management Council representative, we had a medical director, we had the emergency physician and personnel representative. We also had representatives from the medical travel people involved with this. So we have been involved in that discussion. This is a relatively new thing and we’re aware of some of the information but we haven’t engaged at this time.
From anything that I heard, and I don’t pretend to be a professional or extremely knowledgeable in this area, however, from anything I heard, the time between getting people from the International Airport to the hospitals that are in city centre, basically, was a concern. The time factor, if weather was an issue, the ground transportation, these were all concerns. If there is an alternate landing site for medevacs coming out of the North, will the Minister ensure that he puts his voice forward in promoting something that may well be in the interests of Northerners travelling?
Yes, as I indicated earlier, we feel that this airport at Garrison deserves, warrants full consideration and I will ensure that the Department of Health does fully consider this as a viable option for landing.
I’m sure that the Alberta Health Services is very interested in having a say in this as well. Certainly, we do spend millions of dollars on a contract with them and they give us excellent service and have over the years. This Municipal Airport closure is something that could prove to be problematic. I would like to ask the Minister if his department would not be bystanders in this discussion but will really put some resources into examining the viability of this Garrison alternative and take the first step and a proactive step to determine if that is a better solution than Edmonton International Airport.
Yes, we will contact the appropriate people. My understanding is the Department of National Defence are the owners of the strip and we’ll be in touch with them to see if this is a viable option for medevac flights.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we continue I’d like to welcome back Ms. Regina Pfeiffer, former analyst with the Legislative Assembly research branch and current executive director of the Local Government Administrators of the Northwest Territories. Welcome back, Regina. It’s always good to see you. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I spoke about the need for a compassionate policy and I want to ask the Minister what special accommodations, if any, does the health system make when a person is dying of a terminal illness.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At this time the various health and social services authorities approach this from different angles. We don’t have a standard policy across the board from the various health and social services authorities at this time on handling the area of compassion.
Would the Minister work with his department and the government to see if there is a way to look at a compassionate policy that would handle situations such as this and this nature to help out the people in our communities?
Yes, we have, based on some recent deaths and how we recognize that the authorities are handling the compassion, the assistance to the families and so on. We’ve looked at a policy that was once developed but never signed by a particular health authority and we are looking at that to develop a policy for the sick, dying and also in the area of compassion.
Would the Minister of Health and Social Services look at this policy, this compassion policy we have within the next, say, before the business plan so that we can have some discussions with the appropriate committee and see if it meets the needs of the people? Bring forth the policy maybe by May or June, if that’s possible.
The intention was to look at this right away. The direction has been given to the department through the deputy minister and other senior management to look at this policy, and if I know the department and senior management well, I am expecting some drafts soon. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Member Groenewegen picking up on this medevac issue. The Minister, earlier today in some of my questions, had pointed out that his department has no involvement and no role, so all that boils down to is simply that it’s none of NWT’s business. But the fact is, medevacs landing safe in a good way, in a timely way in Alberta are very important and we should be having an active role. We’re really faced with a complexity here. We can either be driving the bus on this issue, we can be behind the bus on this issue, or we can take the Minister’s approach, which sounds like we’re under the bus as it keeps on going by.
I’m asking the Minister how much money does the Northwest Territories, through the Department of Health and Social Services, spend in Alberta health. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the exact amount but I do know that if we’re talking about medical travel, medevac planes landing in Alberta, we land there approximately 350 times a year.
Although the Minister didn’t answer the question, I will thank him for the point he emphasizes, that we need that service in the size and the magnitude of the problem. That’s only just one element. We’ve got lots of health services that go there. My point being is that we have an active role and you’d think as their client that they would be very interested in our opinion. I’d like to reaffirm my question, similar to Mrs. Groenewegen’s earlier, which is: What type of active role is this Minister going to take in this particular problem and will he join the lobby effort by the Alberta government to get DND to turn over the Edmonton Garrison as the medevac solution? Thank you.
Yes, as I said to the other Member asking questions, yes, we will take an active role in this process. Thank you.
Will the Minister commit to do this and report back to the House on his particular activities as well as report to standing committee? Because this is an active issue and many Northerners care. Will he make that commitment? Thank you.
Yes, I would be more than willing to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of ITI. We were talking about procurement. Can he inform me when the last review of the Business Incentive Policy was completed?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was done last year.
My question is about the involvement as we discussed about the… I think Mr. Dolynny had also discussed about the involvement of northern companies in government contracts. Is there a way to maximize those? We have some of the big projects: the Mackenzie Valley, the Tuk to Inuvik highway coming forward. Is there a way that we can maximize through procurement the northern content in those projects?
To a large extent, socioeconomic agreements and IBAs cover off a great deal of that. I think, as a government, we have to continue to again maximize opportunities for local companies and persons looking for employment here in the Northwest Territories wherever possible, and we will continue to do that. Thank you.
My next question is concerning the northern manufacturing policy along with the BIP. Has that part of that policy been reviewed as well?
That was recently updated as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today the Honourable J. Michael Miltenberger, Minister of Environment, talked about an update on the barren ground caribou management and a particular question that’s come regularly from the constituency is the outfitter problem. We can see significant growth in the population of the herds. I’d like to ask the Minister of ENR when the outfitters can expect to get back into the business of providing outfitting opportunities. Because the caribou setback and moratorium had done considerable damage to the reputation of the North, and certainly these outfitters are bleeding when it comes to financial support, because they have had to shut their lodges down. When can the Minister of ENR expect to lift the ban so these folks can get back to business?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I tried to indicate in my Minister’s statement this afternoon, once the surveys are done and the information has been collated, we will share that information with the co-management boards. We will share it with the stakeholders and the public. At that time we will be able to see what the information tells us and if we, in fact, have room to move in terms of adjusting any of the restrictions. Thank you.
That still leaves the outstanding question as to when can we expect that type of result to be publicly delivered. These outfitters are sitting, waiting patiently. Their outfitting lodges are in mothballs. You know, they still have to pay the mortgages and they’re sitting there without any revenue. They’ve been sitting patiently a long time as partners to this problem. When can we expect that type of answer to be delivered?
In the fall of 2012, once the work has been done and the results are before us, we’ll make sure we collectively look at that information and make that determination. Thank you.
If we’re waiting until the fall into 2012, which is obviously still good. I mean, it’s good to hear that we’re going in the right direction, how are we supposed to work with the ITI counterparts about getting out there, from an outfitter point of view, of selling some of these packages? Is there any way to work early with these outfitters and draw some early indications so they can actually get out there, sell their packages and get back to business, which, by the way, brings a lot of money into our economy? Thank you.
It’s only with the most current information before us that we’ll be able to sit down in the fall and determine whether there is an ability to re-examine the current limitations and make any adjustments that may be appropriate, based on that information. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what type of programs are there for people in the Sahtu that are dealing with diabetes.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
