Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister might be correct if I lived in Toronto, because the City of Toronto is mandated with health issues; maybe in Calgary, maybe in Edmonton if we lived in that little imaginary answer, but not in the city of Yellowknife. The City of Yellowknife is not mandated to take care of health and social services issues.
If the minister is willing to look into this and if she is willing to talk to the mayor — I can’t make a commitment on behalf of the mayor — is she willing to also look for appropriate funding if she finds that the city wants to take this issue on? Because this is a serious downtown issue for both residents and business owners.
Mr. Speaker, I would think that any reasonable mind would agree with that. It is debatable whether this is a Health and Social Services issue and a territorial issue. I understand the concern. I understand this has been an issue for the downtown merchants in the city of Yellowknife as well as something that the municipal government has been working on with community groups. So I will once again commit to the Member — and I do not need him to make a commitment on behalf of the mayor — that I will call the mayor, and I will talk to him about what plans there are and see what we can do.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Mr. Speaker, just following up on my Member’s statement with regard to the bison issue in Fort Liard, I’d like to ask the Minister of Natural Resources: what steps have been taken in Fort Liard since May of this year when I raised the bison management issue?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Mr. Speaker, since January 2008 there have been ten animals destroyed, and two in the last week. That is the most immediate, concrete and final type of solution to those particular animals. There is other work underway. I know the Member and I have discussed over the many months the issue of the strategy that has been worked on. My latest information from ENR is that they anticipate having a draft that they can finally share with the Member and with the people by November, which I will commit to do. They’re also looking at fencing and hazing, those type of things as well, to try to deal with this ongoing issue.
Mr. Speaker, the herd in Fort Liard is classified as free roaming. That only means that there isn’t a bison management plan, which is what I expect the Minister is referencing. Once again, how much consultation has he been doing with the community and with the community leadership with regard to coming up with an agreeable bison management plan?
Mr. Speaker, there has been ongoing discussion with the community as well. We are working on a change of legislation to look at increasing the quota of tags from the current one to six to allow the community to make their own decisions. So there has been ongoing consultation and we will have further consultation as we come forward with the draft plan in November.
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to know the government’s position on property damage. There’s a lady that had her vehicle damaged, and one fellow lost all his propane, because the propane line was broken as a result of the bison. I’d just like to know the government’s stand on reimbursement for damages by the bison.
I’m not aware of a specific policy that we have that speaks to damage caused by wildlife in the community. I’ll check with the department, and I’ll commit to get back to the Member on that.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Once again I would like to invite the Minister to continue the tour of the Nahendeh riding to address this issue and many others with regard to his department. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. No question there. However, I will allow the Minister to respond to that if he wants. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be happy to work with the Member to complete the tour that was interrupted earlier last spring.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister responsible for Seniors. In my Member’s statement I spoke of some of the elders I had the opportunity to host this past weekend in Yellowknife. I spoke with elders from Colville Lake, Délînê, Fort Good Hope, and I also spoke to some of the seniors and elders in Norman Wells.
I would like to ask the Minister responsible for Seniors: in terms of seniors’ care in the Sahtu as well as the other communities is there a discussion paper being examined or looked at in terms of coordinating all the seniors’ programs under one secretariat or department?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Seniors, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, there is not a plan to set up a secretariat for seniors separately. However, we have a Minister responsible for Seniors who worked with the NWT Seniors’ Society and other seniors in the territory to address the seniors’ issues they advocate for on behalf of the seniors in the Territories.
The NWT Seniors’ Society certainly does a lot of good work in the Northwest Territories. They involve the regional seniors in their meetings.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there are any discussions in the upcoming business plan, any type of discussion on the new initiatives that are initiated by this government in terms of looking at the possibility of putting together a discussion paper on the seniors’ secretariat, because that will benefit the people in the region in terms of how to work with the seniors at a more respectful level.
Mr. Speaker, whether there is a seniors’ secretariat or not, I think what the seniors are interested in knowing is that the government is responsive to some of the concerns that the seniors are bringing forward. The government has worked on and responded to the Seniors Action Plan along with the NWT Seniors’ Society.
Just last year we increased the seniors’ benefits, and it was indexed by communities, recognizing the differentials in the cost of living, especially in some of our smaller and remote communities. Income Security has increased the ceiling for the senior home fuel subsidy, where an increase of $10,000 as the limit that seniors can apply for has helped seniors. In terms of the new initiatives, the Strategic Initiative Committee on Reducing the Cost of Living is looking at reviewing the commercial power subsidy as well as enhancing and improving road access to remote communities.
All of these are geared towards dealing with reducing the cost of living in small communities, which at the end of the day is what the seniors are looking for, I believe.
Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for the overall report. I’m asking again if the Minister would look at a secretariat that would have a little more weight than what we have right now. I know you have to work with other departments, other Ministers, and the different programs in other departments. For the seniors back in our small and most isolated communities, they have to go to different departments, different agencies and organizations to explain what their issue is. I’m looking for a secretariat where they could come to one place. We owe that to them and not let them run around the communities. They could come to one place where they can get all their issues dealt with under one roof by this government. So I’m again asking: would you bring this to your colleagues and to the House to have a discussion on a secretariat that would be more meaningful for seniors?
Mr. Speaker, there is no plan to establish a seniors’ secretariat, because within the fiscal environment that we are working on, we are not able to look at expanding government bureaucracy. Even if there were a secretariat, whoever is working there would have to work with departments across the government, because seniors are looked after by Health and Social Services, by Income Security, by Housing, and in many, many different areas.
I think the point, the more important thing, is that we work together, and the Minister responsible for Seniors does do that. We work closely with the NWT Seniors’ Society on the enhancement of programs. I think that is more important than setting up a separate junior department for seniors.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, the key words that the Minister used are “working together.” If it was working together, I wouldn’t be raising this issue.
I just came out of the Sahtu. These are the issues at Norman Wells. There’s a seniors’ house in Fort Good Hope where the floors totally need replacing. The seniors are going to be living with it through the winter if it doesn’t get replaced.
So I’m asking the Minister, in terms of having some discussion with her Cabinet through the avenues that are available, to work with them and come up with a plan that would have the seniors’ sector reorganized. Mr. Premier said he was not going to have the status quo; he wanted to shake things up and think differently, reorganize the departments, bring them together. This is for the seniors. It’s not for the bureaucrats or me; it’s for the seniors.
I’m asking the Minister again: will she look at a coordinated approach for our seniors, through the avenues that are available to her with the other Ministers, so they cannot run around the community throughout the months and can come to one place and say, “Thank you, government; you did this for us”?
Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate and take the Member’s point that we can always do better to improve our services and efficiencies. One of the things that’s been conducted by the Strategic Initiative Committee on Refocusing Government is to look at how to combine the services of Housing, Health and Social Services, and ECE in the way it’s structured so that at the regional level our communities are able to work together to better serve their communities and the citizens that we serve. Obviously, there’s always room for better coordination, and we will continue to make that effort.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In February 2008 I asked the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions about the palliative care drug approval process for extended health care benefits. In April I received a response from the Minister indicating that the department is taking steps to simplify the approval process for approving coverage of palliative care drugs and that something would be in place by this summer. I was wondering if the Minister could please give me an update on that process to streamline the distribution of medication to palliative care patients.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question. Following up on the Member’s recommendation, we have implemented that. We have a process now where as long as the doctor says in the application for medication to Green Shield or whoever is administrating our health insurance that it’s palliative care, Green Shield has been processing the documents on a 24-hour turnaround basis. By all accounts, I understand that it’s working out really well. It was in practice almost within a month of the Member asking for this to be implemented.
That’s good to hear. I guess my second question is: has that information been shared with the pharmacists? I was talking to a couple of different pharmacists today who indicated that they are unaware of any changes and have seen no improvement in the process so far. It’s great that the process is in place, but has it been shared with pharmacists?
In discussions with the insurance office in Inuvik and the officials I am advised that it has been in effect for a long time. Since the Member talked to me about it last week, I have asked them to talk to the pharmacists to make sure that it’s working well for them. But we have not heard any of the problems in that regard.
I would like to get the Minister to commit to actually providing the Members on this side of the House with a bit of a breakdown of how the process is intended to work. Also, I would like the Minister to commit to actually, like I indicated, getting this information to the pharmacists, because the pharmacists I talked to today don’t know anything about the changes in the process.
Mr. Speaker. Once again my information is that the doctors have been writing on the form that they fill out to get medication and palliative care pharmaceuticals that the doctor prescribes to patients…. They have been notified to put palliative care on the application. Green Shield knows about it, and it’s been running very smoothly. Maybe the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and was not aware of it, so I will make sure that the pharmacists are made aware of that. If a Member knows of any difficulties that any patient in palliative care is experiencing, I would like to know about that too. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure reviewed Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act. The bill proposes to amend the Workers’ Compensation Act to permit the Minister to appoint the chairperson of the governance council to a term not exceeding three years. It also proposes to permit the Minister to reappoint that person as long as the reappointment does not result in a period of consecutive service exceeding six years. The committee wishes to recommend that this bill not be proceeded with.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table two documents. The first document is Taking Care of the Land in the Sahtu Region, August 7 to 9, 2007. The second document is Finding Balance: Strength from the Past, Strength from the Future.
Document 97-16(2), Taking Care of the Land in the Sahtu Region, tabled.
Document 98-16(2), Finding Balance: Strength from the Past; Strength from the Future, tabled.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Canada/Northwest Territories Agriculture Policy Framework Agreement — Small Scale Foods Program and Small Scale Foods/Community Garden Initiative.
Document 99-16(2), Small Scale Foods/Community Garden Initiative, tabled.
Document 100-16(2), Canada/NWT Agriculture Policy Framework Agreement — Small Scale Foods Program, tabled.
I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Coroner’s Service 2007 Annual Report.
Document 101-16(2), Northwest Territories Coroner’s Service 2007 Annual Report, 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) and Tabled Document 93-16(2), with Mr. Bromley in the chair.
Okay; I would like to call the Committee of the Whole to order. We have two documents before us for consideration: Minister’s Statement 80-16(2), Sessional Statement, and Tabled Document 93-16(2), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2009–2010. What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today we would like to begin work on the Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2009–10 with the Minister’s opening comments, general comments and then as far into the departments, in order, as we can get within our time limit.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Does the committee agree?
