Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge the exceptional achievement of one of Weledeh riding’s world-class athletes: speed skater Michael Gilday.
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Michael Gilday produced a solid performance for Canada during the first World Cup races of the season held October 22nd to 24th in Montreal, Quebec. Michael took home the silver medal in the 1,000 metre event and the gold in the men’s 5,000 metre relay. Just this past weekend he received his first individual gold medal win in the 1,500 metre event in Korea. Michael has now medalled four times in World Cup competition.
Mr. Gilday’s sights are set on gold at the 2014 Olympics. I invite all Members to join with me in saluting his achievements and wishing him great success in future competitions.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Transportation and getting back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the realignment of Highway No. 4, the Ingraham Trail, due to the remediation work ongoing at Giant Mine. It was three years ago that the department came forward with some possible options on the realignment of that road. We don’t have to look too far to see the potential that is out there, when roads are constructed, to allow for opportunities, business opportunities. If you look at the Yellowknives Dene, we could provide opportunities for the Yellowknives Dene and the City of Yellowknife by properly addressing this realignment.
I’d like to ask the Minister what has happened. The road was supposed to be constructed, the realignment was supposed to be conducted in the summer of 2008. I’m just wondering, it’s two years later and we haven’t heard anything. Maybe an update on where that project’s at.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct; the consideration for realignment was introduced, I think, in 2007 and we’ve been working towards moving that forward. Of course, we can only move as fast as the process will allow us. Our plans now are to move forward over these next couple of months to do further consultation. We still plan to have the construction of realignment commencing the fall of 2011. We’d like to see the traffic starting to flow sometime in 2012. There is still some discussion that needs to take place and the timing and opportunity has to be worked out with the Giant Mine remediation team.
The realignment was to take place as a result of the freezing in situ of the arsenic trioxide storage vaults underground at Giant Mine. To my knowledge, that is going to happen here sooner rather than later. The switch might actually be turned on on one of those storage vaults being frozen in place. I’m just wondering if the Minister can explain what the roadblocks are in getting the realignment done. Is it DOT? Is it the federal government? Where is the snag in trying to get this addressed?
I don’t believe there’s a snag in the process. This is part of due course. We are working towards reducing the options to one that will be accepted by all parties. There is, right now, a variance of opinion, of course, on the three routes. The Member has stated his arguments for his preference, however, the responses that we’re getting are fairly even. We’re getting about 30 percent on every option in front of us. There are more meetings that need to be conducted and we need to start doing the engineering and work on the route that’s going to be selected and start construction in due course, which is next fall.
If there’s varying degrees of interest in each of those three options, I’d like the Minister to explain to me how a decision is going to be arrived at, which of those corridors is chosen for the realignment and what process the department has for coming back to Members of the House with that decision. It’s been three years since consultation was conducted on that. I’m just wondering if we’re talking about a new round of consultation on the realignment or not.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain the process to consult with the Members in this House. The Member is quite aware of that. We have been consulting and talking to stakeholders and different groups over the last number of years. We plan to continue doing that and do further discussion. We’d like to narrow down the options to one and start engineering and environmental reviews that need to be determined in some of the outcomes. That’s going to be done in short order. I just have to ask the Member to be a little bit patient, I guess. He’s anxious to get going, but the work is moving forward and we still plan to continue that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got lots of patience; I’ve been waiting three years for this to happen. Maybe the Minister could give us a firm timeline on when a decision is going to be reached on what that realignment is going to be so people can line up the opportunities, if there are any opportunities that come out of it. I’m talking about the City of Yellowknife and the Yellowknives Dene, for example.
We have been talking with the Yellowknives Dene since 2007 and I’ve indicated to the Member that the schedule is for the construction to start in 2011 and open to traffic in 2012, with the final surface completion in 2013.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask my questions to the Minister of ENR with regard to the buffalo issue in Fort Liard. During my constituency visit last month it was raised again and residents are continually raising the issue of damages to their vehicles, their property, et cetera. Part of the buffalo management plan was to have more resources available for the community to manage the bison and buffalo issue there. What is currently being done to assist the community of Fort Liard with their buffalo issue?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that this is an ongoing issue. I have raised the matter with the deputy and his officials. We’re looking at some options. There’s going to be contact with the community to see the depth and degree of the community concerns. One of the options I mentioned possibly to the Member is if there is a bunch or number of incorrigible buffalo, as there are on Highway No. 3, for example, when the hunting season starts, the buffalo are not to be seen after the first couple of shots or the first couple of bison are brought down. We’re prepared to consider something of that nature in the Fort Liard area as well.
It sounds like one possible solution. It would be like culling the herd, I guess. In terms of numbers, how many buffalo are around Fort Liard?
I don’t have the exact number before me, but clearly too many.
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We’re prepared to work with the Member and the community to resolve this issue.
Certainly there is one too many. The Minister is talking about going to the community and providing some options. When would he be doing that? Hopefully sooner rather than later.
Given the length of time left in the life of this government, I will assure the Member that it will be sooner rather than later.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Definitely before Christmas would be a good time to get to the community and provide these options and how it’s worked in other jurisdictions such as Highway No. 3.
One other option, as I was watching the news, is that there is a revitalization of buffalo herds in Saskatchewan. I’d just ask the Minister if he and his department could check that out. I believe they were looking for some buffalo. Residents of Fort Liard are really frustrated enough that they’re saying to get rid of these buffalo, move them out of here. They’re not local to here.
I will confirm with the Member the time. We’ll try to work with the before-Christmas date suggested by the Member. The Member has mentioned the possibility of a buffalo drive to Saskatchewan. Once again, we want to check with the community to see the degree of their concern and is that the best option. We’re not going to rule anything out at this point.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I spoke earlier in my Member’s statement that 2,300 people in the Northwest Territories are without health care coverage today. I want to ask the Minister if she’s, in her government, working on any type of information implementation plan so that they can get health coverage as soon as possible.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my statement yesterday, we will be working hard on a number of fronts as per recommendations of the Supp Health Joint Working Group. That includes encouraging employers to provide employment insurance or employers insurance, encouraging our residents to get private insurance where it’s possible, and to look at some savings through use of generic drugs. The department will be pursuing all those three options, and we will be doing some cost-benefit analysis and looking at ways to see how we can help those who are not without health care coverage or health benefits coverage but are currently without minimal dental or vision care.
I want to ask the Minister about some families and children who are in the working poor who are today, as we speak right now today, in the last couple years do not have basic health care coverage. Again, I hear from the Minister that they’re working hard in this government to see what kind of coverage they can implement, but as each day that we sit here and talk, these families have to deal with this type of issue that they’re not covered like the rest of us are. I want to ask the Minister, can she and her government implement a plan as soon as possible to help those poor families in the Northwest Territories. The number 2,300 rings a bell. Can the Minister tell me when?
I do appreciate the Member’s strong advocacy for the protection and provision of services to the working poor. He’s been a strong advocate throughout this supp health benefits review process and in the last Assembly as well.
Mr. Speaker, we need to work this in a package. We need to address all of these things at the same time, because the Member knows already that our Supp Health Program is already over-expended and we need to find some savings and find ways to help those who are without minimal dental and vision care at the moment. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I know that there are some things within the Health department that we certainly can do without in terms of putting some coverage to these people. There are children, there are families in the Northwest Territories, as we speak today, that do not have the basic health coverage that we in this room enjoy in terms of our own coverages. That’s the one I want to ask the Minister. What will it take for her to, by the end of this month or next month, say, yes, we will have coverage for those families who are the working poor, children, who do not have coverage?
Mr. Speaker, I grew up poor. I know what it’s like. That’s who I’m advocating for. What can the Minister do to help us get coverage for these low-income families?
What we need from the Member and this House is continued strong support for the government to implement the recommendations that were made by the Joint Working Group. We’re going to need some really strong fortitude to implement the third-party use and encouraging people to get third-party insurance where they can afford to. We need to find some equity and parity between NIHB programs and Supp Health Programs. We are going to need to be strong to implement some of the changes to the pharmaceutical strategy so that we would encourage the use of generic drugs. All those things will require strong support from this House. We are moving as expeditiously as possible. We want to make some progress by March/April. That’s a very aggressive timeline. We need to do a lot of work on that, and I look forward to continued support from the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister in terms of what is preventing her from implementing the use of the non-insured health benefits rules right away for the various supplementary health benefits programs that we have made suggestions to. What’s preventing her from making these changes right away?
The work is underway, so nothing is stopping us from moving forward on this. I made a commitment as per the advice from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. I believe we have strong support from the Members on the other side to move forward in finding solutions on the recommendations made on the report. We are committed to working out the plan and implementing it. I will be working closely with standing committee on that. We need to lay out the plan and we are working on that. We are following an aggressive strategy and schedule. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services. I talked earlier about the consolidated clinic here in Yellowknife and, once again, I think it’s a great facility and there are great programs that are being offered out of there. But as with new programs, there are some growing pains. I know the Minister has probably heard a lot of these concerns that are brought up by the public. I know that I’ve taken a couple to the Minister and they have been addressed.
What I’m interested in now is in order to ensure that this facility continues to be the excellent facility that we hope it is, we need to have some sort of mechanism that will allow individuals who are utilizing those services to get their comments and concerns straight to the authority, right to the individuals who are front line, who can start making some of those changes to improve the efficiency. I’m curious whether the Minister has directed the authority to put in some sort of mechanism where information can flow to the right people. Or is it more of an open process where they contact their MLAs and we take it to the Minister? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’d like to thank the Member for the positive statements he made with regard to this important project. It is an important initiative for our health and social services system, because the Yellowknife primary clinic services not just Yellowknife residents but residents from surrounding communities.
I agree with the Member that the facility is going through, and has gone through, some growing pains, and I agree with him that we need to be able to give that feedback. What I’m going to suggest to the Member is, I’m going to ask the authority and the management there to have a suggestion box, suggestions on the website, and get all of the feedback that people have been giving us and giving the Members about some of the things we can do better there, and I will report back to the Member on what changes they could implement to improve that. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that. One of the issues that has come to my attention, and I know it’s come to some of the other Members, has been the telephone system at the clinic itself. There appears to be a lot of frustration. Some people phone and they get busy signals or they get put on hold for extended periods of time. Now, I know that we have some staff issues and we’re trying to staff that place up, which might be part of the problem, but has anything been done to start addressing the amount of time that people are waiting on the telephones or have we put in more people to ensure that the calls are answered in a more timely manner? Thank you.
The steps are being taken and have been taken to address that issue. The phone system they installed at the clinic is quite sophisticated, but we have been running into some trouble. The authority has been working with the provider and the main person from the headquarters. They have been meeting. It’s a sophisticated system that’s able to evaluate and take all of the numbers of the calls being made, how long people are waiting for and how they can improve. As the Member knows, because we have met with the authority, they’re observing all of that and will be analyzing that and I expect to get some reports on that very quickly. I will get back to the Member and inform the public as to what steps are being taken to improve that. Thank you.
The Minister actually hit on something incredibly important there and I’m glad she’s going to provide the information back to me and my colleagues; that’s important. But more importantly it’s about getting the information to the public, because they’re the ones who are using this clinic and we need to make sure that whatever we do is clearly communicated and articulated to our residents, the ones who want to use it. So I look forward to that.
Another area of concern, and I’ve touched on it briefly, is just the number of staff that we have in that facility. I had one constituent come to me -- and I’ve shared the information with the Minister -- where they went to the diagnostic side and there was nobody there. There is a waiting room there, and they waited for what they felt, and what I feel, is an extended period of time before there was even somebody in there, which kind of is a little worrisome, but I know that there are some staffing issues. I’m wondering what kind of timeline is in place to ensure that we get that facility fully staffed so that there are people at the front counters when people come in to both the diagnostic and the clinical side. Thank you.
As we get further into operating this facility, the authority is, and will be, reviewing the staff makeup and the presence of staff at the front office. The way it’s designed, because of the physicality of the floor, we couldn’t have everybody in one place, so it just necessitated having two different stations. We have been able to train and staff additional personnel on the lab side. I have also talked to the management about using some of the equipment and TV screens and other things to advise and inform the public about how long they have to wait, why they are waiting, what’s expected to happen while they are waiting. The authority is constantly evaluating the operation to see how we can improve them and I will keep the Members advised as well as the public as we move forward.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just two quick things in closing. I mentioned earlier that I had a constituent who mentioned some difficulties they had accessing the building, especially the interior doors. The individual was in a wheelchair and there was no electronic opener on the door, so it was very difficult. I believe that’s been rectified. If I can get the Minister to confirm that that has in fact been rectified.
The second part is that the Minister has mentioned that this facility is not just a Yellowknife facility, that it is a territorial facility. My question to the Minister is if they have ever considered renaming the authority. Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority doesn’t seem like the appropriate name if we’re providing territorial-wide services.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Two questions there. Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that the automatic door situation was really unfortunate. As soon as that was made apparent to us, DPW and Department of Health and Social Services and YPCC worked immediately to rectify that.
To answer the naming of it, the authority did have public consultation and the board decided that they would like to stay with the Yellowknife name because that’s what even the communities outside of Yellowknife recognize the facility to be. Mr. Speaker, I... Oh. System off line. I will talk to the authority about a possible name change to reflect the operation, but that might be too soon, seeing as it just came into operation in June.
System off line. But the lights are on.
