Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement on the issue of operational progress for the Sahtu health and long-term care facility, my question is: can the Minister of Health and Social Services provide an update on the employment positions created by this impressive building? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the creation of the new Norman Wells long-term care facility, which I had the honour of visiting with the Member opposite for the grand opening, 37 positions were created the for this long-term care facility. Currently, as of today, we have 35 of those positions filled. We have one nursing clinical coordinator, seven LPNs, 12 resident care aides, three relief resident care aides, one clerk, one activity rehab aide, six-and-a-half housekeepers -- I am not sure how we have half a housekeeper -- one-and-a-half cooks, and three cooks' assistants. There are still two positions for staff people, but we are confident that we now have enough staff in that facility to open the next wing, and we are anticipating the opening of that wing at the end of this month.
The Minister must have a mirror on the wall. That was leading to my next question on when can we expect the second wing to open up. Adding to that question: when can we see the elderly clients moving into the second wing once it's in operation?
Obviously, we are hoping to open the next wing by the end of the month, so we should start seeing some of our residents moving into that facility in early November. There are a couple of things we want to do over the remaining couple of weeks of this month. We want to make sure that all of our staff are getting the proper orientation, that they are getting the proper training, that they get an opportunity to get into the wing, into the facility, so they see how the facility operates, and getting the other local training or specific job training that they need in order to provide a safe environment, a safe home, for the residents of that incredible facility.
As I live in Norman Wells, I have seen the change and I have seen in particular the changed contributions created by this building, particularly with the staff and the employment and the incoming families that took the opportunity of employment. Now, adding to that: training, in general an important element for sound administration, what plans are in place or going to be in place for the staff created by the institution?
I am not 100 per cent sure I understand the question, but I will do my best. At a territorial level, we do have some standards and standard protocols that we are putting in place at a territorial level, which all of the regional operations have to adhere to when it comes to things like plans of care and different things like that. In-house, there will be some local training, there will be some local policies and procedures that are put together by the staff of that authority. They obviously have to be consistent with the territorial policy and standards, but there is an opportunity to do some custom design, as well. Every building has its own little unique features. This one is no exception. They will certainly ensure that they are providing the best services they can out of their facility.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Question 395-18(3):
Mr. Speaker, I continue to receive complaints about the service at the Hay River Regional Health Centre, and for the most part they are the same complaints I have been receiving since day one. Some are optimistic that the Minister of Health's recent appointment of a new public administrator for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority will spur positive change in service delivery, so I would like to ask the Minister: what changes does he hope to see with the new public administrator? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I answer that question, I want to take an opportunity to thank our previous public administrator for all of his years of service. He certainly helped carry us to a number of milestones in Hay River, including the amazing new facility, the work towards a single-authority approach, a single-system approach here in the Northwest Territories, as well as things like Woodland Manor. I think he was a valuable contributor to making those things happen.
However, having said that, a new set of eyes is always a good thing. I have had an opportunity to meet with the new public administrator to talk about Hay River, talk about the services being provided there. I have asked him to get oriented as quickly as possible, get an understanding of the lay of the land. He is also, you know, a city councillor, so he has a pretty good perspective of what's going on in the community. I have asked him to get oriented, and then we would have some further conversations about what he is seeing, what he thinks we need to be focusing on. Basically, we all want the same thing, Mr. Speaker. We want quality services for the residents of Hay River and the North.
Like Mr. McNeely, the Minister has answered a few of my questions already. So it's become clear that, during the life of this Assembly, the Hay River authority will not be brought into the territorial health authority. I mean, there just is not the political will to get it done from Cabinet, and so the Minister must work with the public administrator to address these recurring issues that I keep hearing about. Since the Minister said that the public administrator still needs to orient himself to this, I guess they have not made a plan. What I would like to see is the Minister and the new administrator, Mr. Willows, sit down and create a plan with clear goals and deliverables so that people can see whether or not progress is being made, because right now people are frustrated and they are giving up hope about the service of healthcare in Hay River. So will the Minister sit down with Mr. Willows and create a plan as I described?
I just want to correct one of the Member's statements. This Cabinet is committed to bringing Hay River into the public service. It is one of our mandate items, and we are doing a significant amount of work to make that happen. It is a big task. It may not happen in the life of this government, but that does not mean that we are not doing important work today that is going to help make that happen in the future.
I did have an opportunity to meet with Mr. Willows. We did talk about the authority, and I have provided Mr. Willows with a mandate letter outlining his role, responsibilities, and expectations as the public administrator in Hay River. The letter explained his scope of work as a public administrator and sort of articulates that, in the absence of the board of management, the public administrator is not involved in the day-to-day activities of the operation but provides guidance and oversight to ensure the compliance and objectives of legislation and policies and regulations are actually being met. He does also have the opportunity to provide advice to me as the Minister on things that we need to do or things that are not happening in the authority so we can make sure that they happen.
I understand that the public administrator isn't running the day-to-day operations. Like the Minister said, he can provide advice to the Minister about what needs to happen. So will the Minister commit to sit down with Mr. Willows and produce a document that identifies the problems in Hay River and ways to address them with clear goals and deliverables so that people can see progress is being made?
The public administrator will be required to do public meetings similar to board meetings. At which point, he will have an opportunity to explain and identify some of the things that he's seeing and witnessing in the community and hear from community residents on where their concerns are. I know the Member has been very good at helping articulate some of the challenges that people are seeing in Hay River, and he has shared those with me. We are certainly attempting to address some of those.
One of the things I think we can be happy about is there have been an awful lot of concerns about wait times and same-day appointments in Hay River. We have tasked the CEO, and the previous public administrator tasked the CEO with finding some solutions on that with some support from people throughout the community. As of September 1st, by way of example, clinics began providing some same-day appointments, and patients can call in or walk in in the mornings for appointments that day. So we are listening. We are making improvements. There are changes that are happening. I believe that the public administrator, with some fresh eyes, is going to be able to look at some of the challenges and offer some new and unique solutions.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason I asked about getting together and creating a plan is because the public administrator isn't responsible to this House, whereas the Minister is. In the absence of Hay River being part of the territorial authority, I need some sort of way to convince my constituents that we are making progress. So further to the Minister's previous point, what progress is being made to bring Hay River into the territorial authority? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There are a couple of things that need to happen. Obviously, we need to determine and quantify the cost of bringing the individuals into the public service. Specifically, what I mean by that is the cost of the pensions and the cost of ensuring those who are already receiving pensions through Hay River who have worked there over the many years are not adversely affected, but that the individuals coming into the new system, our system, with superannuation are not adversely affected or penalized as a result of the pension that they provided in the past. We've had discussions in here about the pension in Hay River and how it's more of a Volkswagen than a GNWT Cadillac, and we have to figure how to roll those wins.
We're doing that work now. We're trying to quantify what that means. That is taking a partnership between Health and Social Services and Finance. We're getting closer to having some better numbers there, but some of it still depends on our negotiations with the UNW. We do need to have a long conversation with the UNW, because they are the bargaining unit for both the GNWT, but also Hay River and its two separate collective agreements. So once we have some of our financial certainty, we'll be able to have more informed conversations with the union, which will help us figure out what the ultimate costs of this transfer will be.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
