Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly, once again, accept the offer to review this file. I think that is a good first step for this family. Still, there’s quite a bit of vagueness on whether the Minister will provide a written apology to this family. I certainly hope the Minister will clear this up.
We need to be ultimately clear. Do we allow doctors — and this is certainly not a slight against doctors — to send people to hospitals where they can’t be treated? I want to be clear on that. Do we allow doctors to send patients south to hospitals that have no beds for them? In such cases I’m concerned about the level of service that will be provided.
I think the Member is quite incorrect in saying that the patient was sent where the patient was not being treated. That is not correct, and that is questioning the capacity of doctors to do their work, Mr. Speaker. This patient — and I keep saying this — was monitored. She was being tested. It was important that she was monitored. She was being treated.
I think it’s quite inappropriate, actually, for us to talk about individual health situations, and I think it’s wrong for the Member to say this person was not treated. It is just that she didn’t have her own room. I understand, given her circumstances — she had a young baby and another daughter — it would have been much better for her to have been in her own room, but the decision was made that it was better for her to stay in emergency until she could get her own room. If she checked out — and she had the option to check out — she would not be on that waiting list.
So it was a medical decision that was made, and I think that we as the political masters have to be careful about questioning the practices and work of medical professionals.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate this opportunity to actually ask a question that my brain remembered shortly after I sat down.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment this question. I’d like to say that I appreciate that there are funding implications to raising the minimum wage. I do want to say, though, that I think there are likely very few people who are currently working at minimum wage in our territory. If it was a large percentage, I’d be very surprised. People simply can’t survive on that amount of money.
My guess is that even an increase of $1.75 per hour to the minimum wage could relatively easily be funded by finding efficiencies and savings within the department. I love to use this example: doing reports electronically instead of printing them and distributing them. It’s a good example and one I’m fond of.
So to the Minister: will he attempt to do the necessary analysis to see what it would cost to increase the minimum wage to, say, $10 an hour before we meet to review business plans in November?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we need to gather the latest and updated information. It’s been five years since we’ve increased our minimum wage. That information may not be accurate today. That information we need to gather from, whether it’s the employer sector, the change that we have in the restaurants and so forth…. Certainly that information is needed to move forward on this. We need as much information to deal with this issue as possible.
I won’t belabour this, but I do need to say to the Minister that I don’t think there’s much to be gathered. We haven’t raised the minimum wage, so I’m not too sure what information he feels needs to be gathered. Any expense we will incur by raising the minimum wage, I suspect we’re going to save in income subsidy and savings in various programs that we have.
I guess I’ll ask the Minister again: is there any possibility that even if we don’t do a comprehensive analysis or evaluation, we can get something to consider in the business plans in November?
Mr. Speaker, as I stated, we need to consult with the small businesses in the North. I do believe that during the last round of increases there was an outcry from the small businesses. We need to consult with them as well. We can’t just say we’re going to increase wages at this time.
That type of information will be crucial to us to proceed, if we need to proceed forward, to increase the minimum wage. That is the information we need to tackle and consult with the small businesses on. We need that information from the Member as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Premier in terms of the initiatives he announced earlier in the life of this Assembly. The initiative I’d like to talk about is a small community committee that he initiated. There are certain challenges these small communities that we represent have to deal with.
I’d like to ask the Premier, in terms of the status of this specific committee, when we could see some light of day in getting this committee off the ground.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Hon. Premier, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The small communities committee the Member is speaking about…. We did have correspondence with the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning, and we’re awaiting their response to the proposal that was put in front of them.
The policy of the small communities committee in terms of its membership as initiated by Cabinet…. I’ll ask the Premier if he has the authority to say that this committee needs to be implemented. Does the Priorities and Planning committee need to initiate it to get it going?
The process we’re involved with is when the joint committee works with Priorities and Planning and awaits their response. If it was an internal committee of Cabinet, we could undertake our own work. Between now and then I’m prepared to sit down with the Members, unofficially, to discuss concerns that are out there for Members. For the actual process of coming up with membership on the committee, we’re awaiting, again, the response of Priorities and Planning.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still have a few more questions for the Minister of Health regarding our experiences or relationship with Capital Health and our contract.
A lot of people in this House know, I’m sure, that Capital Health is an approximately $13 billion sort of conglomerate of hospitals and whatnot; that’s their budget area. To put that into perspective, the GNWT’s budget is only 10 per cent of that. It’s a sense of magnitude I’m drawing on that.
In negotiating our contract with Capital Health to provide services to Northerners who need services, I’d like to know if the Minister is aware of how this government defines service levels that need to be provided to Northerners when they are sent south for treatment in southern institutions.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, we have a contract with the Capital Health Authority. They guarantee that NWT residents will receive the same level of medical care that Alberta residents will receive.
Is that the actual statement in the contract, or does the contract actually take the time to identify what is considered reasonable wait times for Northern residents who’ve contracted specifically with Capital Health? Is that exactly how it works?
My understanding is that we get the same service that Alberta residents receive. If the Member would like to have a briefing on what kinds of contracts we have — what kind of service agreements we have with Alberta Health or any other organizations or governments that this government has contracts with — I’ll be happy to provide the Members on the other side with a briefing or any background information.
I’m sort of perplexed. It sounds like we’re not getting any additional services than anyone else who would walk in off the street, yet we have a very specific contract with Capital Health. I find it an odd situation that this government wouldn’t try to negotiate some type of preferred experience, preferred customer. I’m certainly well aware that the GNWT makes every effort to make sure we pay our bills in a timely way — to get recognition for that — so Capital Health doesn’t need to sit and wait for payment.
Why do we contract specifically with Capital Health? Why don’t we consider going somewhere else where we’d get recognition for our Northerners and make sure our tax dollars are actually recognizing their importance?
Notwithstanding this particular situation, most of the feedback we do receive is that we get very good service from Capital Health. Capital Health Authority and the services that the Government of Alberta provide are, I believe, among the best. I just don’t know where else we would go to get the services that our residents receive.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I’ll help the Minister: there’s Grande Prairie; there’s Calgary; there’s Saskatoon. There are other places if the Minister is looking for suggestions to consider.
What is the Minister doing to make sure we have recognizable service levels defined in our contract with Capital Health? If she chooses to do nothing, why isn’t she doing something on this issue?
As I stated already, I’d be happy to meet with the Member or the Standing Committee on Social Programs to go over the contract we have and to have further discussion on it.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if she is aware of a rating system that rates all hospitals in Canada. If she is, could she tell us where the U of A sits on that rating? I think they sit at the top.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that information. I’ll be happy to get that information to the Member. My understanding is that U of A and the Government of Alberta are investing a huge amount of money to make the U of A and the University hospital a centre of excellence and research in the country.
I realize we’ve had an unfortunate circumstance here, but I do want to say, too, that I have constituents who have received medical services through Capital Health Authority and thought that if they moved to Edmonton, they would get better service. They found out it was better to move back to the Northwest Territories, where they were given a priority status when receiving services at the U of A.
For the Minister’s information, the London, Ontario, and Edmonton, Alberta, university hospitals are the top two rated in Canada. I guess I’m just a little bit concerned that maybe with the rich economy in Alberta, they might decide to give us the heave-ho hearing a discussion like this. I mean, they’re very busy with their own people, and they have a lot of money in Alberta. It’s one of the richest provinces in Canada now.
I’d like to know: has there ever been any tone from the negotiations with the Capital Health Authority that maybe they’re just too busy to take us on?
In light of the Member’s statement, I have to say I was quite surprised when I went to the FPT Health Ministers meeting to hear the Alberta Health Minister talking about the pressure on their system. They spend more money than anybody else in the country, but they have a growing population and a huge demand on services.
Obviously, the Minister took some drastic measures to address that. I don’t know the details of the government’s plan, but I took every opportunity I had to let him know of the importance of that Capital Authority and Alberta service in delivering health care services for the North. He’s well aware of it, and he assured me that if they were ever to contemplate any changes, he would talk to and consult with us.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to opening address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation 2006–2007 Annual Report.
Document 104-16(2), NWT Business Development and Investment Corporation 2006–2007 Annual Report, tabled.
I wish to table the following document entitled GNWT Response to Committee Report 3-16(2): Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2006–2007 Annual Report of the Languages Commissioner. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Document 105-16(2), GNWT Response to Committee Report 3-16(2): Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2006–2007 Annual Report of the Languages Commissioner, tabled.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Minister’s Statement 80-16(2), Tabled Document 93-16(2), Bill 14, Bill 15, Bill 16 and Bill 17, with Mr. Krutko in the chair.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Minister’s Statement 80-16(2), Tabled Document 93-16(2), Bill 14, Bill 15, Bill 16 and Bill 17. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe the wish of the committee is to continue on today with the capital acquisition document. I believe we’ll start off with the Legislative Assembly and then resume where we were on the list yesterday. I believe we’re going to ECE next.
Okay. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
With that, we’ll begin with the Legislative Assembly after a short break.
The Committee of the Whole took a short recess.
I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. Prior to the break we agreed that we would begin with the Legislative Assembly.
At this time I would like to ask the Speaker if he would like to bring in his witnesses.
Yes, I would, Mr. Chair.
Is the committee agreed that he brings in his witnesses?
