Debates of October 13, 2005 (day 9)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services in follow up to the questions that I posed to the Minister of Transportation and MACA yesterday with regard to the ambulance service that is provided by the volunteer fire department located in Hay River. As I stated yesterday, the volunteer fire department provides an ambulance service, which takes some vehicles -- as I stated yesterday, one is 10 years old, I think one is 19 years old -- out on the highway and services quite a wide radius of the road system in the South Slave area. So I would like to follow up on the response that I heard regarding how some ambulance services are funded by fee-for-service, some are funded by contract. I think the communities identified were Rae, Fort Simpson, Inuvik and Hay River. So I’d like to ask the Minister, the $25,000 that Hay River gets for the ambulance service that they provide -- which I said yesterday doesn’t even cover the cost of maintaining the ambulances -- how does that compare to the amount of money whether by contract or fee-for-service that is paid to other communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Return To Question 111-15(4): Funding For Ambulance Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s $25,000 more than the community of Fort Smith gets, but less than other communities. But the Member’s point is a good one, that this is an area where there is policy clarification that’s required. Transportation, Municipal and Community Affairs and Health and Social Services identified this some time ago now, and we intend to be able to bring forward a document in the next few weeks that’s going to lay out some options in terms of rationalizing and bringing some clarity to the whole issue of services both for ambulance services response on highways, and the more routine issue of the medical transportation in communities. It is a complicated issue, and it’s one where there’s been no clear home or ownership, and we’ve recognized that and we’ve taken the steps to try to rectify that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Chair will recognize the time for oral questions has expired. However, I will allow Mrs. Groenewegen to continue her supplementary questions. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 111-15(4): Funding For Ambulance Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister as well, the volunteers who provide this service out of Hay River take their training and their job of going and responding to motor vehicle accidents on the highway and providing ambulance services very, very seriously. It’s all volunteer; they train and they get some funding for training, but what the Town is concerned about and what I’m concerned about is they do this in good faith on a volunteer basis, but what about the liability aspect of it? If we don’t know whose responsibility it is, then how do we know who is liable if half way to a serious accident the ambulance breaks down? I mean this is a day and age of litigation and issues around liability. Who is liable? By the Town volunteering to do this, is the municipality putting themselves in a position of being liable, or who is liable? Thank you.

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Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 111-15(4): Funding For Ambulance Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we take this issue out of the murky shadows where it’s been lurking all these years unaddressed, those are some of the issues that are clearly on the table to be addressed; the issue of liability, of training, of standards, of access to adequate resources, the relationship between municipalities, Municipal and Community Affairs, Health and Social Services, and we intend, as I indicated, to be able to bring forward a document that we will be able to make sense out of that. Out of chaos will come order, as it were, and that’s the plan in the next few weeks, as I’ve indicated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Supplementary To Question 111-15(4): Funding For Ambulance Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that. I don’t think it can happen too soon. In the list of people that he recited who are going to be consulted on this, obviously absent were the people who are involved in providing the service themselves, even the volunteers or the paid contracted ambulance services. I would like to know, will they be included in the consultation in setting up this new and organized system? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 111-15(4): Funding For Ambulance Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in part of the work that has already been done, there has been consultation with communities and service providers, I understand, to get their feedback on the service and how it could best be delivered. But as we proceed towards finalizing any recommendations, we’ll ensure that we have proper consultation both with Members of this House, communities and service providers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen. Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. I would like to commend the Members on both sides of the House for cooperating and observing the rules around question period today.

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