Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In April of this year, there was a system upgrade to our Stanton Territorial Hospital MEDI-patient system that resulted in more than 1,500 diagnostic imaging reports not being returned to the practitioner who had requested them between April 1st and August 6th of 2015. Members of this House were flagged on August 11, 2015, by the Minister of Health, and I’ll stress “that some quality assurance regulators and digital imaging at Stanton were noticed and that some health system patients were affected but were never disclosed the exact impact.” It wasn’t until the following week of August 18th, the Minister, through a CBC radio morning show, disclosed the magnitude of the issue. As of this date, there has been no formal press release or formal health advisory to the public.
My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, I think many of us are still concerned about this situation, so can the Minister give the House and the public at large a formal update and maybe indicate what legal risks are still looming? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for bringing this to the floor of the House. This was a significant issue here in the Northwest Territories within the Department of Health and Social Services and very troubling to both the department and the residents of the Northwest Territories, I’m sure. The physicians, the practitioners here in the Northwest Territories stood up and reviewed every one of the 1,500 files to determine who, if anybody, was at risk, who got information, when they got information and how they got information. At the end of the day, there were eight individuals who should have got information prior to us discovering this problem, and those individuals have been followed up with accordingly.
I do want to take this opportunity to applaud the doctors, the nurses and all the practitioners who stood up to address this issue and to resolve it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the Minister giving the opportunity to explain the current situation. My concern today is still about the risk management and the liability when such an issue is before the House and is discovered. So, can the Minister indicate, what is his department’s formal health advisory protocol, given the seriousness of such a situation? Thank you.
When it comes to patient safety and patient care, we will defer to the medical practice on ensuring that the situation is dealt with. At present, when situations like this occur, the first thing that must happen is to stop the problem from continuing, to remove all opportunities for harm. That was done in this particular case. The second step is to follow up with the individuals who may have been impacted, which was also done in this case. At that point we would move forward with some notification to the public, once we understand the magnitude, scope, and the residents have in fact been dealt with. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
I think I had a very specific question there, so I’ll reword it here. Really there isn’t anything in legislation that protects the public in terms of an issue of this gravity, and the only legislation pursuant to a public health advisory is Section 7 and 20 of the Public Health Act, and unfortunately, it is silent on a situation such as a digital imaging mishap.
So, does the Minister feel as strongly as I do, that a more formal process for health alerting protocol is needed for grave situations, especially for such things as this digital imaging mishap? Thank you.
I do agree with the Member. In fact, I agree so much that when this issue came to my attention, I did ask for a formal external review to be done to help us determine how on earth we didn’t know before August 6th, how the situation happened and how we can, as a system, better respond in the future to make sure that our people are informed in a timely way.
I do also want to recognize, having said that, we still have to recognize the importance of the practitioners and their obligations under a situation like this, which is: stop the harm, work with the patients, then communicate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again I thank the Minister here. I just want to make one thing perfectly clear that just still doesn’t add up. So, we were reminded multiple times by the Minister of Health that on August 6, 2015, the Department of Health and Social Services was informed of this digital imaging technical issue, and then on the very same day, the vendor was brought in. So, I believe everyone would be a little sceptic that nothing works that timely and this fast in this government.
So, can the Minister indicate, is it possible that this issue was known by the department prior to August 6, 2015?
The external review will help us identify exactly what was known and when. The department was not aware of this particular situation until August 6th. I have had a couple briefings on this particular issue with staff from Stanton and staff from the department and there have been some rumblings out there. In fact, I understand that there were some issues between Yellowknife Health and Social Services and Stanton, but when they reviewed those they thought those were an internal issue and didn’t realize the territorial scope of this problem until August 6th. At that time, and I just want to correct the Member, the issue with the vendor was ticketed, which means they were made aware. The vendor actually didn’t get into Yellowknife until a couple days later. But as soon as the issue became aware, as soon as it was understood that this was not just a communication error between two authorities but this was a territorial issue, the vendors were immediately ticketed. They were ticketed on the 6th. It took them a couple days to get in, but they started working on the problem on that day, once they were officially ticketed.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Transportation today. It’s regarding our airport road in Inuvik. Any Member that has driven that road or has done any visits to Inuvik over the summer – it’s not even recently but just throughout the summer – knows how bad a situation that road is in.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the plan for paving that road or fixing that road from our airport in Inuvik to the community of Inuvik? What is our short-term and long-term plan for that road?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan is to improve the airport road with the Building Canada Fund. We have that particular project in the second bundle that has gone to the federal government. We’re anticipating that we will have some report back from the government, well, approval back from the federal government early in 2016.
In anticipation of the Building Canada Plan Fund to look at putting money into this project, in the interim what is the government doing now to address this issue? It is quite drastic, and as I mentioned in Committee of the Whole yesterday, there have been incidents where there have been accidents.
I’d like to ask the Minister, in the interim what are we doing to address the severity of this road?
The entire project is $11 million. With that, our intention is to survey – and the survey is commencing now – and do some crushing and producing material and strengthen the roadway. Then we intend to replace culverts where a lot of the culverts have sunk and collapsed. Also, at the end, once the road is built to a strength that we’re happy with, then we’re going to be chipsealing the road. We are going to wait for the Building Canada Plan before the actual construction begins.
Just with our relationship with Infrastructure Canada, we found that it’s better to wait and then they’re more apt to fund the whole project if we wait and start after they provide us approvals.
The Minister made mention of chipsealing the highway there, and you know and I know, coming into the Legislative Assembly the road that has just been fixed over out on the highway here. They chipsealed that this summer and there are already some issues of potholes and those kinds of things. It’s going to be recurring in terms of having to do work and more work on it.
In some of the more significant areas on that access road from the airport to Inuvik, can that work be more permanent in terms of a paving project rather than chipsealing where we’re going to have to continue to do that maintenance work over and over? Can the Minister, while he’s doing his survey, look at areas, especially that one little S-curve where we can get better, longer stability in those roads by paving it rather than continue to chipseal and put money into that road over and over?
Problems with chipseal are not due to the actual chipseal itself; it’s due to what’s underneath. What we intend to do with the Inuvik airport road is to rebuild sections where there are issues. However, we are also open to trying other products that do work better. If we find that there’s a product that works better almost under any condition, then we would look at that, but the plan now is to rebuild the road, strengthen it and chipseal.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister, what’s the timeline that we can see some construction and some work on the road so that residents, visitors and tourists can see that road being fixed? Is there a timeline that we can start seeing the work being started?
We are optimistic that approvals will be in very early 2016. As soon as we have approvals, we intend to produce the material, so we will start the crushing. Probably somewhere in the very first quarter of 2016 we should have the crushing done and then the roadwork will actually begin next summer.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The other day, on Tuesday to be precise, the Finance Minister indicated that considering reductions to the workforce to ensure expenditures do not exceed revenues is part of the obligation they have to provide the 18th Assembly with the best information possible.
Further to that, the Minister of Public Works said today in the House, with a flat revenue outlook and the need to take a hard look at how we spend our money in coming years, operating effectively and efficiently is more important than ever.
In light of what both Ministers have commented on and stated in this House, what is the Department of Human Resources doing in their transition planning with respect to reducing public servants as a cost-cutting option and measure going forward?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister responsible, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, we have an obligation to ensure that the 18th Assembly is provided with the best transition information as possible as to our fiscal situation so that they can make decisions based on the challenges and opportunities that are before them.
The Finance Minister, in his fiscal update just two days ago, said the revenue is flat and, in essence, by the year ’19-20 he had said that we will be down to what we estimate is a $10 million surplus that will fund things like capital, and of course, it will be the short-term cash deficit.
Can the Minister of Human Resources elaborate as to what this government is doing to ensure that we don’t face that type of financial crash in our cash position, so we must be looking at layoffs, as I’ve heard repeatedly in multiple departments? Can he elaborate as to their strategy and details that they’re going through in those exercises and initiatives?
The only budget that we’re dealing with for the rest of this sitting will be a capital budget. The government of the future will be discussing other budget items. This government will evaluate the cost of human resources. The government does want to give the incoming government an opportunity to contemplate all of their options, and part of the options is looking at the cost of human resources.
I can never say enough, but jobs are important, and I know how important they are to not only Yellowknife but to the small communities. They have a major impact on our economy. In the publication we call 20/20: A Brilliant North, NWT Public Service Strategic Plan, we talk about growing the public service. We often hear the Finance Minister directly talking about trying to attract 2,000 new people to the Northwest Territories. Lastly, I’ll say even from the Minister’s fiscal update, he talks about the importance of our flat population growth as the main source of revenue as it begins to decline, noting that only 19 percent of total revenues are ones of our own source. I don’t know how we’re going to do it by cutting, slashing and laying off.
How do layoffs, in comparison to those concerns that I’ve been raising, balance out with the objectives under the 20/20: A Brilliant North strategy to build the public service? Thank you.
This government will not be laying any of the public service off, but we do provide the best information possible, as I indicated, for the next government to look at and for the next government to have all of the information necessary through the complete costs of human resources, the current vacancy rates of human resources. If the next government was to look at the vacancy rates then that would be presented, if they wanted to look at the costs of the public service, how many casuals we’re carrying in the public service, they would look at our workforce planning strategies. We have the Building 20/20 as a recruitment and retention and development of talent strategies. Those are all of the things that we will provide to the next government so they can make those informed decisions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister clearly articulate how many positions they’ve evaluated for potential layoffs as a recommendation to the next government? This work is going on right now. They have said repeatedly it’s not their hand on the rope, but I can tell you they’re giving the next government the nudge and all the material that they need. So I want to understand the valuation and evaluation that they’ve looked at, at this particular second, that they’re billing department by department by department. No one can dodge that question because it’s the responsibility of this Cabinet. That information falls on your shoulders. So, I hope the Minister of Human Resources can answer that question. Thank you.
Thank you. Any of this type of work with human resources will include talking about the 900 vacancies that we’re currently carrying in the books. We don’t have the number of positions that we are evaluating for layoff because I haven’t seen any such plan to lay off certain people who are currently in the public service at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow up to my statement yesterday on the need for hearing aids for all young children in the Northwest Territories for the Minister of Health. Currently, not all NWT children are able to access any programs to cover the costs of the hearing aids crucial to their development. Although the GNWT sees fit to support the early identification of children with hearing loss, they do not provide all children with the intervention they require in order to succeed.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the status of action to address this gap? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising this particular issue. The Member did raise this issue in July and at that point I was able to read the report that the Member has referred to, and the report suggested that we can support this small number of children who are affected here in the Northwest Territories with a very small sum of money.
I have since directed the department to move forward to find the money from within to provide hearing aids to young children that the Member is describing. They’re in the middle of that process now. I was going to wait until a little bit later until I actually had something to announce as far as a completed policy, but I have directed the department to do that and it’s underway now. We anticipate that we’ll be in a position to start providing those hearing aids to those affected children in the next couple of months. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s great news, great news indeed, and I hope the word can get out to families that this is relevant to very soon.
The estimate for the annual cost in 2012, as the Minister knows, was pretty modest. Has he had a chance to update that and is there an explanation of the differences that are anticipated? Mahsi.
Because we have such a small population here in the Northwest Territories and everybody who’s going to need a hearing aid does have to go through the audiology unit at the Stanton Medical Clinic, we know the individuals who are going to be coming through and how many children are going to be affected. It’s been a very small number over the last number of years. We anticipate that the cost in 2012 was around $22,000. The technology prices haven’t radically changed. We believe it’s going to be about the same amount of money. But as I said, once I have more details I will absolutely be sharing it with the Member and with committee. Thank you.
This is a small number of people, and to those involved, it’s extremely important, as the Minister knows.
This week I had a communication with an audiology professional, one of our staff, who said “In the grand scheme of things, it seems so insignificant, but when you are working with these parents and having to look them in the eyes and tell them their child has a hearing impairment and it’s going to cost $2,465, the cost of a pair of hearing aids and ear molds, to give them access to sound, well, it’s a difficult place to be in as a professional and I imagine as a family too. And there is simply no reason why we aren’t supporting these babies and kids.”
So again, I really appreciate the Minister’s action on this and I would ask how soon will you be able to let the front-line staff know that there’s hope on the immediate horizon and they can start talking to families. Mahsi.
Thank you. They probably just heard with the Member’s comments and my commitment to making this happen, but I will have the department work with Stanton and the Stanton Clinic to ensure that the practitioners know that we’re working on this and that the solution is on its way. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wouldn’t doubt they are listening, and the most important question will be, when will this happen? When will this be in place? Mahsi.
We do have to write some policies; we do have to make sure that we have the ability to provide the actual physical hearing aids. I will get more information for the Member. I will get back to you on when we anticipate to go live. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Time for oral questions 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. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure has reviewed Bill 54, An Act to Amend the Forest Management Act. The standing committee wishes to report that Bill 54 is not ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole and that the bill not be further proceeded with. Thank you.
