Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, the last couple weeks I spent some time at the Hay River hospital, l and I forgot to thank them.
My questions today are for the Minister of Health. Last spring the Minister had talked about making some changes to the authority and giving Hay River some feedback. I’m wondering if we could create kind of a community-driven authority where the community could give feedback. Is there something, a board that they’re looking at setting up where the communities can have feedback? I know right now we have a public administrator, but is there any thought to putting something like that in place?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the thought is to return to a board structure for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. As the Member knows, we are in the process of constructing a new health centre and we’re hoping to be able to provide some medical services to surrounding communities. So once we’ve determined the full scope of what that specific health centre can provide to the surrounding areas, then we are going to talk more with the staff and the public administrator to determine what type of board structure we should have in place for Hay River Health and Social Services. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s answer there. The Minister talked about the new facility. Do we have to wait for that facility to get that kind of feedback from the general public? We’re looking for some sort of feedback that the public can give on the current operations in the current facility, as well, and what kind of timeline we’re looking at in order for implementation of that type of an advisory board.
No, it’s not essential that we wait for the health centre to be completed in order to have some sort of board structure. The public administrator and I did discuss that possibility. He recommended that we start off by maybe asking a couple of people from Hay River on the recommendation of maybe even the municipality, the MLAs or even the Aboriginal organizations’ area to appoint people that he could start working with and having some discussions. That’s something that we are currently contemplating. I’ve had my first discussion on that type of structure, I would say, about two months ago with the public administrator. Thank you.
Thank you. Obviously, in the health care industry it’s very important to have consistency. I guess a question I would have about that authority is also the promotion and recruitment of doctors.
I’m wondering if the department has been in discussion any further. I know the Minister has talked in this House about a centralized doctors’ recruitment facility. I’m just wondering where the department is currently in that discussion with the Hay River authority.
As the Member knows, we’ve recently moved the CEO to a position with Health and Social Services. We have an acting CEO and then there’s going to be a new CEO for Hay River coming on stream within weeks. I’ve had that discussion with all of the Joint Senior Management Committee – that’s all of the CEOs across all of the jurisdictions and some senior staff with Health and Social Services – and made it a priority. One of the top three priorities for the health system is recruitment of doctors.
Plan A for the recruitment of doctors would be to recruit doctors in the communities where they will be working. Plan B would be to move doctors from those communities to live in Yellowknife, but again, our intention is to continue with plan A and push the idea of having doctors brought into a place like Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s answer there and I appreciate the concept, but how much of a priority is it to assist the authority in promotion of the community itself and to get a doctor in place? I understand the concept of a central unit, but obviously in this House we have concerns about decentralization and we want to see that in the communities.
How much is the department pushing the recruitment of doctors in the communities versus a centralized doctor pool?
Thank you. That is the ultimate way to go. We recognize that the doctors will be living in the communities where they’re serving, so that continues to be our push. When I talked to all of the Joint Senior Management Committee a couple of weeks ago, I did talk only about trying to get doctors into a community. The new CEO that will be coming on is very versed in bringing in and talking to doctors and trying to hire doctors and so on. We also have a support system in Health and Social Services that will help the communities and CEOs recruit doctors for their communities. That continues to be the number one priority for us as far as doctor recruitments go. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
QUESTION 380-17(4):
WHISTLEBLOWER
PROTECTION LEGISLATION
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement earlier today, my questions will be directed to the Minister of Justice.
If my memory serves me correctly, the current Minister of Justice was interested in full-blown whistleblower protection or legislation when he was an Ordinary Member. So there should be no big surprises here in the House today. However, one of the surprises is the lack of progress this government and department has undertaken since tabling a discussion paper on whistleblower protection back in 2007.
Can the Minister of Justice please inform this House why there was little to no action on whistleblower legislation after the 2007 discussion paper? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Mr. Speaker, I can’t speak for the actions of a previous government, but I can say that when we came into the 16th Legislative Assembly, whistleblower legislation was a priority for both Regular Members and I as the Minister. Through negotiations with the union, the union requested that we work with them on a memorandum of understanding to put together some joint policies around whistleblowers, which we’re basically used as a pilot study. That work has been done. It was made effective April 1, 2013. I made a commitment that after we ran this program for a year, we’d do a bit of a review, learn lessons from that year and we would move forward with legislation. I will be coming forward with a legislative proposal to committee probably around October 2014, which gives us the year to run the program, a little bit of time to do analysis, which I will absolutely be sharing with my colleagues on both sides of the House and we will be coming forward with the legislation, without question. Thank you.
Thank you. That’s promising news here and I think it’s important that the public hear that as well.
So to truly appreciate what we currently have to protect our public sector, can the Minister please indicate what is the government’s experience so far with the memorandum of agreement with the UNW on whistleblowing within the GNWT? Thank you.
Thank you. The memorandum of understanding and the policy went live on April 1, 2013. We tried to get that information out as best we could. We’ve included it on our website; we’ve got it out in Bear Facts a number of times. We had a joint letter go out with the UNW to all UNW representatives in the Northwest Territories, and to date, we’ve actually had nobody take us up on this policy and program.
I guess just to pinpoint a little bit of the time flying by that the Minister has just indicated, he has indicated earlier that in October 2014 we should be seeing some type of legislative proposal on this side of the House. Can the Minister indicate as to when we might see a draft proposal at its earliest?
As I’ve indicated, we’re running this program for a year. We’re learning our lessons. We’re getting information. Unfortunately, we haven’t had any uptake on it, but we may. We will take that time from April 1st to the following October to draft some draft legislation and we will come forward with the legislative proposal and follow the normal legislative process in the Government of the Northwest Territories, and we will definitely have something through the House, hopefully before the end of this government.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I appreciate the Minister’s response there. I guess we all know how government works here when we see a proposal of this nature, large proposals coming really late in the 17th Assembly. Can the Minister give some reassurances here that we are going to have ample time to have all the amendments in place and to have full-blown whistleblower legislation by the end of our sitting in the 17th Assembly?
I’m committed to taking it through the process. I’ve already made that commitment to the House a number of times both today and previously. We will follow it through the normal legislative process, which includes going to committee, spending 120 days with committee, and then going to the House for, hopefully, first, second and third reading.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Hay River South, Ms. Groenewegen.
