Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my Member’s statement, also about midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. It’s going to be slightly different. I’ll try really hard not to ask the same questions. I’m wondering if the Minister could give me a quick, Coles Notes description of the intended purpose and scope of the review that will be done on the Midwifery Program in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was a petition tabled in this House a number of months ago in a previous session. The Minister of Health and Social Services of the day indicated that there was a need to take a more comprehensive look on a territorial basis at midwifery services across the Northwest Territories, and should resources be available, what would be some of the options for rolling out any potential expansion of those services.
I’m glad the Minister said that. I think obviously the review should be focused on an implementation plan or a roll-out plan. I’m not at all interested in having another report done talking about the value of midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. We already know that. In fact, the Minister’s department had a Midwifery Implementation Committee that was put in place in 2004-2005 which went through all the value of having midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Quite frankly, we know the value. It’s a matter of trying to get them into the communities or regional centres. In fact, back then they actually identified positions and money. There were two positions identified in Hay River for midwifery services. There were two positions identified in Inuvik for midwifery services. I believe there were also positions in Fort Smith and Yellowknife identified for midwifery services. The problem is that we never did it. What I need from the Minister is a commitment that this will be an implementation plan on how to roll out midwifery services in the Northwest Territories as opposed to just another report saying yes, these are valuable. We know that.
The Member and I share something of a common history in this process. I was involved as well in the development of the legislation and the bringing forward of the resources and the plan to try to roll this out. The key is going to be to see, given all the demographics, birthrates, and all the other technical things you have to look at in terms of services and where they should be located, and are they justifiable in terms of economics and the service levels, to see how we do that. Contingent upon, as I pointed out last week, the fiscal constraints that we are working under as a government.
The intent is to have a plan that is ready, that stands the test, that is clear, comprehensive, then as we plan for the day, as we’ve done in other program areas, when there’s going to be some resources and that becomes a priority, then we’ll be ready to see how we put funds to that.
I thank the Minister for that. I think it’s important that its analysis is about implementation as opposed to whether the program has value. We already know that.
My question is still on this topic, and it’s specific. We know that there’s value in putting these positions in regional centres. We also know that there is significant fiscal restraint. This is something that the Minister has talked about over and over again. I’m not sure that I fully understand why, when we have competent professionals in our public service, people with lots of education and lots of skills, why we’re going to go out and ask somebody to do an RFP on this as opposed to getting some of our internal staff who are more than qualified and already have experience through involvement on things like the old Midwifery Implementation Committee. Why are we once again going out and getting contractors to do something that our staff are competent, qualified, and probably interested in doing?
The assumption is that the staff that we do have, skilled as they are, are fully engaged in doing the work that’s before them. This is going to be a very specific, time-sensitive, compressed process that we want to get ready for the 17th Assembly. It’s going to be difficult to take other key personnel away from the work that they’re already doing. The resources have been found to bring in some folks to provide that skill set and get this thing done in a timely way.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for that response once again, but I am still concerned, like the Minister has said over and over again, about our significant financial restraints and limitations. During one of the fiscal updates in this House, the Minister did indicate that we were going to try and restrain and control expenditures from within. Once again, this seems like we’re going once again outside to have somebody else do a report for us when we have people to do it inside. I’m worried that this is going to end up being another report on a shelf as opposed to an action plan. If we have our staff involved, and committed and working, and it’s their plan, I see greater chances of success and rollout as opposed to having another contractor come in and go, you should do this, and it ends up on a shelf. To the Minister: can we have some guarantees that this is going to be a plan of action and how do we get our staff involved so that they’re committed to the project, as well?
The staff will be involved. There will be a whole number of people and groups involved as we pull together the information. The task will be for ourselves as legislators, those that are going to be here in the 17th Assembly, to look at the work as they consider the business plan as a government, their first business plan to see where this ranks on the to-do list.
I would also suggest that as we look at the next contracts document at the end of this coming year, that I would think you’d see a diminishment of use of those services, just given some of the financial constraints and the concerns that have been raised in this House about the reliance on outside contractors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
