I will commit to having a conversation with my colleague in Education, Culture and Employment. Again, $7,000 was the figure I’d heard, and I’ve also committed to the Member that I will check the criteria of some of the money we allocate to the community to see if any of this qualifies under the money we supply to the community. Again, we are looking at $7,000 which may not seem like a lot and would be very important to have that service established again in not only the Member’s community but all the other communities where they rely on the local radio stations. Thank you, Mrs. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. McLeod.
---Laughter
The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for busing students to Fort McPherson. I remember when the government started extending the grade levels offered in small communities so families didn’t have to send their children away. In the Minister’s opinion, how does that work for students and families?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Grade 10, Grade 11, Grade 12 extensions into the communities have worked out well in most of the communities. Some of the communities are still struggling, especially isolated communities where they may not be able to deliver academic courses. At the same time, there is a model in play in the Beaufort-Delta, e-learning. It’s a new topic of discussion we are having now. We feel we need to expand that more into the communities, especially the isolated communities. So those are areas that we are currently exploring, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
What is the cost of supporting the student who has to be housed and schooled away from home in Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t have the detailed breakdown of the actual cost per student to be housed where they are attending school, but I can provide that to the Member. Part of the formula funding would cover that. We work closely with the DEAs and DECs to capture those students that may have to go to Inuvik to attend school, or McPherson or surrounding communities. Those are areas where we continue to work for the school boards. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Will the Minister ensure that funding is provided to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to pilot the busing project between Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson starting in the fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Very direct. This is an area that I need to work closely with the DECs and DEAs. If there is a requisition from the DEA, whether it be busing services, then it goes to the DEC and then we sit down and discuss the priorities for the region. Part of the formula funding would cover assets such as busing and other programming into the communities. I need to work closely with the school boards to make this a reality, and if it’s the wish of the DEA, then we need to work towards that.
It sounds very promising. That sounded like a yes. Was that a yes?
The busing, it is covered through the formula funding, and again, I need to work closely with the school boards. If it is a priority of the school board, then they need to identify the funding. We also, through the school boards, provide additional funding to small communities where enrolment may be not as high, so they can provide the funding towards that, busing and other such services. I will continue to work with the Member and also the school board to make this a reality.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It came to my attention here that in an article regarding doctor recruitment to be centralized, something that we’ve talked about and the Minister has alluded to on many occasions, having doctors come out of Yellowknife to do work in the small communities. I know they had a meeting last week with all the education authorities. So I’d like to ask the Minister of Health if he wouldn’t mind giving us an update on the outcome of the meeting, in terms of recruitment of physicians and how we’re going to be putting that towards the small communities that don’t have the physicians in place right now.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The tone of the meeting, in my opinion, was very positive. I think that all of the members of the Joint Leadership Council and the Aboriginal governments that were invited to attend to hear our plans on all aspects of governance, including some on physician recruitment, it sounded positive. The plan is for the department to do a complete debrief of the meeting next week. In as far as recruitment goes, they recognize, people from the authorities and the Aboriginal governments recognize that we are highly motivated to recruit physicians to the Northwest Territories.
I want to make reference to something that the Minister had stated in his interview, and he says that doctors who recoil at the idea of working in a remote and isolated community and don’t want to work in those communities for a long period of time can have a home base in Yellowknife. That means that he’s saying that doctors who don’t want to go and live in our communities can live in Yellowknife and move back and forth. We also have the Minister of ITI who promotes tourism, and we want to promote living in our small communities and have all that good stuff of living in a small community.
Can the Minister please give us a direct answer, saying is this the route that he’s going to go or is he trying other avenues to get doctors into Fort Smith, into Hay River and into Inuvik?
It’s a very unfortunate choice of a word there in the article. I believe that if a doctor recoils at the fact of working in small communities, they probably wouldn’t be working in Yellowknife, either.
Continually, our plan, from the time we had the recruitment support unit transferred back from Health and Social Services on April 1, 2013, has always been to have a plan A, and the plan A has always been to have doctors in the communities where the allocation is. Failing that, with discussion and continued work with the authorities, we would give the doctor the option to live in Yellowknife, in a sense developing a territorial pool as opposed to relying on southern locums for the most part at this time.
If we have doctors that recoil by not going into isolated and remote communities, I’m not sure if that’s the type of physicians we want taking care of our residents of the Northwest Territories or any positions in government, for that matter. So when we do the recruitment, if that comes as an option, I think that health authorities and the Minister should look at that twice before making a job offer.
The Minister did also mention about salary packages. I want to know what our package is in the NWT, how our salary package compares to other jurisdictions throughout the NWT that prevents us from getting physicians up into the North.
The recruiters from both the Health and Social Services and the health authorities really have not identified salary so much as an issue in recruitment. We have a very good package, probably one of the best in the country in as far as just dollars go. The issue has been more of bringing doctors in and the doctor’s requirement for recreation activities in the centres that they would work in, and education. Those have been the two factors that have weighed most heavily on the recruitment issue with doctors.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Just a simple question, yes or no. Saskatchewan and B.C. do give out bonuses to their physicians as they hire them. A simple question, yes or no, is the NWT looking at offering bonuses for physicians that come out of school to entice them as an incentive to take a job here? Yes or no. Is that an option they’re looking at?
I do believe that there is some form of payment to the doctors, but it’s worked out between the Health and Social Services and the health authorities. I do believe there’s a payment after 12 months and there’s another one after the next 12 months. I don’t actually have the details, but I believe that’s what I kind of recall, but it’s not something that’s very substantial that may be offered in other jurisdictions.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information that I have indicates 38,000 in 2013 from the cards that will be expiring, and the balance of the territory, their health care cards will expire in 2014.
There have been a lot of complaints about health care card applications being lost in the renewal process. It’s come to a number of MLAs’ attention that the integrity of this information sent to Inuvik was lost and the Department of Health has no idea how many applications were lost and has no plan. Perhaps the Minister can enlighten the House, is there going to be some type of investigation as to what happened to all this lost information that was either mailed or faxed in, and I would like to know and the citizens would like to know. Thank you.
Yes, we are looking into any complaints that come in where there’s an indication that perhaps an application was lost in the process. We are looking into those cases. Thank you.
Does the Department of Health and Social Services have any idea how many applications were lost in this renewal process, and does the Department of Health understand what type of integrity of information may be at risk if this information was misplaced and got into the hands of people who do various activities or whatnot? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we likely have a list of the individuals who are indicating that their application has been lost, but I don’t have the number. The information, integrity of the information there, would be the information that would be needed to renew the system. We’re using the same mailing system that Transportation is using for drivers’ licences, so we don’t understand why this specific item gets lost in the mail more frequently. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’d love to take on the drivers’ licence relationship issue, but to stay clearly on topic, what type of public process will be engaged to ensure all the public knows what the Department of Health has done? I’m acquiring maybe strong language, but there needs to be some type of credibility brought to this case. Private information has been sent and lost, and there seems to be no credibility as to what or where it may have gone to.
In short, what type of public process and engagement will the Minister develop and inform citizens of the Northwest Territories that we found what was wrong and this is how we’re fixing it? Thank you.
I think we can start off by determining between our renewal office in Inuvik and the department and any of the communities where there may be some complaints about applications being lost, and determine that number and then specifically deal with those individuals who may have lost applications.
I guess to the public we can do our best to try to ensure that when they do the proper thing of putting the information in the mail, that it gets to our office, and once it gets to our office that it’s handled with due care and that it’s packaged and sent for printing, and then from the printers to ensure that mailing is done through the regular system. I don’t know what else we can add to that, but we can definitely try to find out who lost applications and contact them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
---Interjection
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, titled “Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Annual Report 2012-2013.” Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Aboriginal Achievement Initiative Education Plan - Status Update March 2013.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, June 3, 2013, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that this Legislative Assembly supports the efforts of the federal, provincial and territorial Justice Ministers to better protect children by combatting cyberbullying, including changes to the Criminal Code of Canada that would make it a specific criminal offence to share intimate images without consent;
And further, that the Speaker transmit this motion to the Prime Minister, federal Opposition leaders, and federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Justice. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, June 3, 2013, I will move that Bill 23, Supplementary Appropriation (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2013-2014, be read for the first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Colleagues, let’s call a 15-minute break.
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