Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]
I would like to pay tribute to the late Frederick Harold Lafferty of Fort Resolution. Frederick was born August 19, 1939, and passed away on July 3, 2012, at the age of 73. Frederick was a Metis man who lost his wife many years ago and lived his life for his grandchildren, children and great-grandchildren.
Frederick has spent the last few years in long-term care here at Stanton Hospital. Frederick was a family oriented man who devoted a great deal of his time to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He enjoyed nothing more than being surrounded by family, and you could tell that when you attended his funeral, all the pictures of him and his family.
Frederick is survived by his siblings Frank, Gaby, Peter and Alice. His children were: Frank my brother-in-law, Darryl, Elaine, Melvin, Julia, Fred, Greg and Dexter. His grandchildren were: Austin, Jordan, Scott, Jaeda, Destry, Lisa, Darryl Jr., Deborah, Carol, Jackie, Ryley, Nikkita, Bayleigh and Caitlyn. He had three great-grandchildren: Grace, Tristan and Payton. Along with numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and many, many other relatives in Fort Resolution. Frederick was practically related to everyone in Res.
Frederick was very close with his family and spent a lot of time with them. Frederick was the son of the late Victor and Virginia Lafferty. My condolences go out to Frederick’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, siblings and all the other family members in Fort Resolution and Hay River.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two visitors from Fort McPherson: Marion Greenland and Stephanie Ross. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize the members of the Aboriginal Head Start Council that are here with us in the gallery. First, from Inuvik, Teresa McNab and Amanda Bernhardt; from Paulatuk, Alice Thrasher; from Fort McPherson, Stephanie Ross and Marion Greenland; from Behchoko, Louisa Richardson and Marlyss Richardson; from Ndilo, Robin Gladstone, Pam Abramchuk, Fred Tsetta and Reanna Erasmus; from Fort Providence, Joyce McLeod, Belinda Sabourin and Sabrina McLeod; from Hay River Reserve, Rene Squirrel and Trudy Coutrie; from Fort Smith, Janine Rommel. Also their consultants that are here with us: Chalmers & Associates Consulting, Dr. Jennifer Chalmers and Kim Wingert. Thank you for being here with us.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Michael McLeod, former Minister and MLA for Deh Cho.
I’d also like to recognize a long-time educator, my sister Margaret Field and granddaughter Kimberly, and Derek.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the outset I would like to recognize a constituent who recently received in the mail a Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, Lyda Fuller. Congratulations to Lyda. It’s a medal well deserved.
I’d like to also recognize two of our city councillors, Lydia Bardak and Amanda Mallon, who are here with us today.
I cannot ignore Mr. Tony Whitford, so welcome to the House, Tony. I’m sure everybody’s going to do that as well.
I’d like to also recognize Kim Doyle, who is the executive director for the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society, and Jeff Renaud, who is the new executive director for Avens.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a former colleague from the Deh Cho, Mr. Michael McLeod. We got sworn in a year ago today so your cooling off period is over, so get back to work.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my brother Michael McLeod and his wife, my sister-in-law, Joyce McLeod, and my great niece Sabrina McLeod.
Thank you Mr. Premier. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the representative of the Aboriginal Head Start for Fort Smith. Aboriginal Head Start is a tremendous program. Both my grandchildren went there. I’d like to recognize Ms. Janine Rommel.
As well, my friend and colleague, a good old Fort Smith boy who moved to Yellowknife, the Honourable Tony Whitford, and my former colleague, as well, who I had coffee with at 7:30 this morning, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome, as you did earlier, Mr. Anthony Whitford. Welcome again, Tony.
I know Michael McLeod, a former colleague, is here somewhere up there.
I may have missed others that I can’t see behind me. I know Sheila Bassi-Kellett, a Weledeh resident, was here earlier, as well as Amanda Mallon and Penny Ballantyne.
If I could mention the class that was here earlier, the Grade 6 class from Weledeh School, Jenny Reid and class. Good to see them in the House.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize constituents Mr. Jim Antoine and Celine Antoine. We saw in the paper, as well, that Mr. Jim Antoine was also a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award. I worked with him and his daughter Melaw Nakehk’o, who just received a cultural award this morning. I think the Minister mentioned that. I just want to say to Melaw, keep doing what you love with your love of our Aboriginal culture.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize Jim and Celine Antoine, very good friends and long-time friends, as well as Mr. Tony Whitford.
I’d also like to recognize a constituent who was up here earlier, Lillian Elias, who is also the winner of the Minister’s Cultural Circle Award in the Elders Category. She’s not here right now but she was here earlier.
---[Technical difficulties]
Okay, Mr. Hawkins. You can use Mr. Moses’ mic. It’s off? We thought we had this resolved.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the people who solved the technical problem.
It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the people who have already been recognized, but I think it’s important to highlight their contributions to the territory by mentioning them here.
I’d like to always recognize Mr. Anthony W.J. Whitford, a personal friend and long-time friend of everyone in this building.
Mr. Speaker, Kim Doyle is now the new executive director of YK Seniors, and she served me very well as a constituency assistant. With her is Jeff Renaud, who hails from, I believe, Victoria, if memory serves me correct. He’s the new CEO of Avens. He has lots of ideas and I look forward to him bringing his excitement and information to many Members.
Ms. Lydia Bardak; I’d like to use this chance to thank her for her dedicated service and years as a city councillor to the City of Yellowknife.
Of course, another couple is Jim and Celine Antoine. They’ve been long-time family friends. I’ve respected them both for many, many years.
Finally, I’d like to recognize Michael and Joyce McLeod. Michael, I miss your grumpy stories here at the Ledge. At this time, I want to thank everyone.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to also recognize Jim and Celine Antoine and the family. I’d also like to recognize – I’m not too sure if she’s here – Doris Taniton, who was the Minister’s Cultural Award recipient of the youth. Also, Mr. Whitford, I’m always reminded of what things you have told me that you said that made a big difference in life. I also want to recognize Mr. Michael McLeod and his wife, Joyce. They told me some pretty good, happy stories, not like Mr. Hawkins. I would also like to recognize some good people in town: Lydia and some other people that I don’t see here. Thank you for attending this afternoon.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I’d like to welcome a constituent, Ms. Alice Thrasher. Welcome to the House.
I’d like to welcome all visitors here in the public gallery here today for taking an interest in our proceedings here. Welcome.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge the recent death of Ralph Leslie Creed, a long-time Yellowknife resident and a Frame Lake constituent.
Ralph moved to Yellowknife in 1981 with his young family. He worked at the mill at Giant Mine for 19 years and at the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission until he retired when he then worked as a stay-at-home grandpa.
Ralph was devoted to his family but also to his community. He gave back to his community through volunteering, particularly as a member of the board of directors for the Northlands Condominium Corporation.
My condolences and those of this House go out to Ralph’s family and friends. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the increasing concern of a dangerous superbug in the Northwest Territories. It reported in the Globe and Mail, October 13th, on Saturday, that this bug is probably one of the most dangerous superbugs that we can have here in the North. It had quadrupled in the Northwest Territories since 2007. This bug is mostly spread in hospitals, but now they’re starting to find it more in the smaller communities.
I want to ask the Minister of Health what he is doing to help the smaller communities who maybe do not know about this dangerous superbug and how dangerous it could be. What is the department doing to help the smaller communities?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The department is doing their business of advising the local housing authorities through the chief public health officer. The chief public health officer is discussing the clinical practice guidelines with the authorities on what needs to be done to address this virus, the MRSA. That’s the work we are doing right now. The public health officer is working with the authorities to get the information out to the communities.
Since 2012, this year, there have been 142 cases so far. We’re pretty high, according to the people in southern Canada. It’s been noted that it’s quite dangerous. I want to ask the Minister, again, in regard to people who may show signs or symptoms of having this infectious superbug in them, what type of support or medication is given to these people other than letting them know that there’s an awareness campaign going on. What is it that they need to do to take care of themselves?
Like I indicated, the public health officer will work with the authorities, and recognizing that we will advise the communities on the risks of the disease and what type of factors that create an atmosphere in which this virus can spread. Overcrowding is one of the key situations due to the close contact from individual to individual when you have houses that are overcrowded. In some cases, a lot of washing and so on needs to occur and when you have water delivery in the small communities sometimes you don’t have access to as much water necessary to do all of the cleanliness necessary, like as in doing laundry on a regular basis and so on, because of conservation of the water in the household.
We are working with the authorities who are working with the communities to ensure that municipalities are able to provide enough water. The overcrowding situation is something I think can be resolved over a longer term, but in situations like that, we work with the families.
The Minister hit it right on the head: We have a huge problem in our communities with overcrowding and the housing that we have, the quality of housing that we have and the little amount of water that we can receive during the week because of the amount of funding that goes into support. What is his department doing to work with the Minister of Housing or this government to look at the conditions of the housing, the overcrowding? People are moving into their family’s dwelling. It’s really just an infestation ground to continue with this superbug, and it’s going to be awhile if we’re going to look at the long-term solution.
I want to ask what this government is doing to kill the superbug that’s growing. Is it going to get worse? What is his department doing, working with this government on the housing issue? It’s a real time bomb for our people in our communities.
We do recognize it. The department is monitoring the fact that we’re expecting an increase of 44 percent from this year, once we project to the end of the year over last year. There are definitely things that have to occur, and those things are, again, trying to work with the communities and trying to really pinpoint where the issue is greatest. We know that in the Tlicho Community Services Agency we are working closely with them to address the issue of our high rates of MRSA in that region. Any area where we consider there to be high rates by community, we will work closely with them to try to assist the community in addressing the issue of working in the prevention of the spread of this virus. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This deadly virus, this superbug, in the report in the Globe and Mail, penicillin and similar antibiotics no longer work on MRSA. Overcrowding is one of the contributing factors of this deadly disease. Now we are seeing that modern medicine is no longer going to be effective on getting rid of this superbug that we have in the Northwest Territories. Just hearing the Minister say that they are expecting a 44 percent increase on this, this is alarming. This is deadly. Other than antibiotics or penicillin not being the cure for this, how can we get rid of this? We have overcrowding in our small communities. What solutions can the Minister talk with his department to say, let’s get rid of this bug here?
Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; the drug-resisting infections cost the community and health system billions of dollars yearly. MRSA is not a nationally reportable infection.
What we are doing is requesting information just from other jurisdictions to see what is happening, like trying to look at the best practices on a national level to see if we could employ the best practices here in the Northwest Territories by seeing how other jurisdictions are handling similar issues pertaining to this virus across the country. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am just following up on my Member’s statement earlier. I wanted to ask the question to the Minister of Health on the policy that… Is there a policy and can he share the policy on the timeline for getting medical travel approved for patients and the amount of time it takes to get that communicated to patients for out-of-town travel for medical appointments? Is there a policy? What is it and what is the timeline of getting that information communicated to our residents for out-of-town travel? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Medical travel is a clinical decision, first of all. Secondly, the policy is that medical travel, from the office here in Yellowknife, does contact the authority; the authority contacts the patient. The patient would then contact medical travel and make the arrangements for the travel and to make it to the appointment. It should generally be a fairly simple process. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it should be a fairly simple process; however, I am continuing to find problems within the process itself. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a constituent who had to wait over a year to get another appointment. The process might be simple, but getting that appointment, if it is a specialty appointment with a specialist, might not be always available, so that simple process is not always there.
Can the Minister provide some information on how many no-shows the department has incurred over the past year for patients who are missing their appointments in the NWT and southern travel as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
From my understanding, we are moving about 11,000 patients annually through medical travel, so the last number that I have from the Stanton Hospital annual general meeting was that the no-shows are 12 percent. Thank you.
With the 12 percent just for Stanton Territorial Hospital, but we are not talking about appointments that are missed down south or even appointments that got cancelled or people not making their flights because they couldn’t make the arrangements in such a short time period where they were approved for medical travel and approved for their appointments but couldn’t make it because of the late process in getting them the information. That 12 percent alone for Stanton, I am sure, didn’t come cheap. Does the Minister have, for Stanton alone, a cost for that 12 percent, where it cost the government for all these no-shows and missed appointments?
I don’t have the costs here. I’m sure that we would be able to determine the cost of what it would be when someone misses an appointment, but this is a missed appointment for an individual that doesn’t show up at the doctor’s office and a percentage of that time will come down to a cost. Sometimes they replace the patient with a waiting list, but what I can do is develop a cost for the percentage.
That percentage was a percentage that came from medical travel. It was all medical travel that includes the medical travel within the territory coming to Yellowknife, going to Inuvik, or also travelling down south to Edmonton. Thank you.
