Thank you, Mr. Speaker. About my Member’s statement in regard to the notices that have been issued to communities on the cancellation of services, especially in the areas of health care and the clinics, which will not take appointments or be able see a doctor…. I would like to ask the Minister: exactly what is her department doing to deal with the nurse shortages in our small communities in light of the desperate situation we are having in Inuvik? Again, the health and well-being of those residents are critical. Ensuring that they have health care being provided will ensure that we have healthy communities and healthy people. I’d like to ask the Minister: exactly what are you doing to try to resolve this situation where we are shutting down health centres for emergency cases only?
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I want to advise the Member that notices that the Members get and the Member for Nunakput gets with respect to any reduction of services in health centres — I get a copy of them, and as soon as I get them, I inquire to find out what is causing those reductions in services. Sometimes those causes are very…. We had a water situation, in fact, or sometimes it’s a scheduling problem and other situations.
But I do agree with the Member. By and large, we continue to suffer from a lack of nurses and other health care professionals in the Territories as well as in Canada. We are looking on a daily basis to make sure that reductions of services are avoided as much as we can. Having said that, I consider this my number one priority is to address the service needs in smaller communities.
We understand that we have a fiscal environment that we have to work in. We understand that we have the pressures from national and international environments with respect to health care professionals, but I consider it’s the most important job I have as the Minister of Health to look at everything possible. I believe that the only change we can really make is to look at the territorial staffing model of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. I am working on a proposal to come to our Standing Committee on Social Programs to work with our Members and perhaps a joint committee on rural and small communities to see how we can improve the access to services and levels of services in small communities in all social envelope areas for which I am responsible.
Mr. Speaker, this issue has been around for some time. I know that the Inuvik Health Board had looked at some alternatives. One of them was looking at the possibility of recruiting professionals from Asia, the Philippines, and bringing them to the Inuvik region. They would work in those communities if those positions were available to them, but because of the collective bargaining agreement and under the Health Act, there were some challenges there. I think that was one of the solutions that was looked at to resolve that issue.
Has the department considered revisiting that situation, especially for the Beaufort-Delta region? Because this seems to be a systemic problem specifically to the Beaufort-Delta region.
That will be one of the things that will be looked at, understanding, though, that Nunavut tried that method and that it didn’t quite work out as well as they had hoped. Obviously, that is one of the considerations, but we want to make sure that we do it right.
The second thing is the nomination program that Minister Miltenberger has talked about, bringing more people from southern jurisdictions. That has an implication for making it easier for the professionally trained people to come from other areas. We have to work on the licensing issues. We have to work on making it easier for them to come.
Another thing we need to work on is to provide incentives for people to practise in rural communities, and that is not easy to do because of the collective bargaining situation and the financial restraint that we have. But I’m committed to looking at everything we can to see how we make this happen. It will not be easy, but I am working on a proposal.
Mr. Speaker, on a recent tour to Tsiigehtchic along with the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice it came up that there was an individual who is presently working in Holman who does fill in, in Tsiigehtchic during breakup and freeze-up, but the nurse says she’s willing to stay longer. I think that if the nurse is willing to do that, why is that not happening? We have a committed individual who’s willing to stay longer in a community. We should do everything that we can to accommodate that person to stay as long as they can in a community if they’re willing to do so.
Has the Minister looked into that to find a way to accommodate that nurse and the community, who seem like they get along pretty well? She’s there every breakup and freeze-up. She’s willing to stay longer. So I’d like to ask the Minister: has she had an opportunity to look into that and see if that individual can stay for four months or six months in the community of Tsiigehtchic?
Yes, I have looked into that and I am looking to extend her stay in Tsiigehtchic. The only thing is that she fills spots in other areas of the Beaufort-Delta service area because she’s employed by the authority. So if she’s taken away from somewhere else, there’s that whole picture.
I do have a communication going to the Member indicating that I’m looking into that. Hopefully, I’ll have a precise answer before I get back to you.
Thank you, Minister Lee. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give me a breakdown on exactly how many times these notices have been given in regard to the shortage of nurses in the Beaufort-Delta communities so we can see how often the nurses aren’t available versus being available and also the movement of nurses from one community to the other just because of the fill-in?
I’d just like to ask the Minister: can we get that information as to exactly when the health centres are on emergency watch versus the communities that are functioning versus the communities that aren’t?
It should be noted that all centres in Beaufort-Delta right now are fully functional. We have never had a situation where we have no nurses. We have nurses where there are supposed to be nurses. We have nurses; it’s just that the services are reduced to poor services because they can’t get a backup — they’ve had too many hours working and they need a break — or there is a breakdown in water facilities or something like that.
But I will get back to the Member on maybe over the last six months how many times the services had to be reduced and in which centres.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
