Robert Hawkins

I thank the deputy minister for that detail. As I understand it, for better or for worse there are nurse practitioners out there on term positions. They haven’t been made permanent, in other words.

That said, I’m under the understanding that this section, through this type of program, goes out to continue to find more potential nurses to become nurse practitioners who we don’t have jobs for. As I understand it, the situation is that you need to be a practising nurse practitioner in order to keep your credentials active and useful. It’s not a question of losing typical RN status. It’s more in...

Thank you to the Minister and the staff for that answer. That’s the type of answer. It sounds like someone put some thought into it.

A number of Members are concerned about the approach we’ve used. Quite often that seems to be the answer that’s missed — how someone did some analysis on potential workload and where they can do this. That’s caused a lot of frustration and some pushback that not just this Minister but all those Ministers over there should be receiving so we get that type of detail.

The frustration we’re receiving here is that…. My fear is, the fear in the public — whether it’s the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under the third paragraph down we have a section highlighted under the recruitment....

I appreciate, and I’ll make special recognition of, the fact that the Minister’s instructions were probably to ensure that whatever impact was going to happen…. I’m sure they were, to some degree, not focused on making sure we created as few ways as possible. I’ll recognize that’s probably an assumption on my part, but I would think that any reasonable person would say, Let’s try to make this as seamless as possible. Assuming that, we would have to come down to a reason as to why these specific positions were chosen over others.

With approximately 117 positions within the headquarters region of...

No, it didn’t seem quite clear. There may have been a position missing or something there. Could we clarify that? If we have 15 positions here, two to be determined, and this is headquarters, that’s minus eight. If I read this paper, there are 15. The paper I’m citing is the one. I just want to make sure.

Well, I disagree with the Minister’s assertion on that, because quite frankly, we don’t have a specialized program that deals with crack. That’s taking over a number of our areas in the community, and it’s becoming the drug of choice, which is a real shame.

Sending someone to intense treatment in a hospital is not an appropriate use of our hospital. Furthermore, when we describe it as “We send them to the mental health unit,” I wouldn’t typically want to describe someone who has a drug addiction problem and wants to seek treatment as having a mental health problem. I would say that’s someone...

Although I’m not on the clock, I thank you for giving me the chance to say, Yes, I’ll take that information. I certainly would hope that every other Member on this side of the House would receive the offer of that package of information the Minister had offered.

I appreciate that. Would the Minister commit to making sure my office is informed? I don’t sit on the Social Programs Committee, but would he commit to keeping me informed of all steps and developments of this, whether it’s in regard to consultation with committee, the general public or other jurisdictions? Any information he can make available to me I’d appreciate.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although I had asked this question, I would just like ultimate certainty.

I have a constituent who uses the services at the dialysis unit, and it's my understanding that that position has been left vacant or unfilled or other — and I’ll leave “other” pretty vague — and I just want to make sure it is fully staffed at this time. What is the exact staff of that whole unit again, just to make sure it’s on record?

Those are excellent words. I’m really appreciative of the fact that this Minister is willing to lead this initiative, although it has had some bumps and grinds on the way. The fact is that it’s an important element of protection. When can we expect something like this to happen?