Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS the chair of the Stanton Elders’ Council has called upon the Department of Health and Social Services to include a wellness centre at Stanton Territorial Hospital to provide a blend of traditional Aboriginal and western medicine;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues, for allowing me to speak to the motion.
I spoke on this issue last week, and I felt it was deserving of a motion to speak about a wellness centre to be included in the Stanton Renewal Project.
I think at that time, too, Mr. Francois Paulette, the chair of the Stanton Elders’ Council, had been calling upon the Department of Health and Social Services to include a wellness centre at the Stanton Territorial Hospital for about eight years, and now the Stanton Elders’ Council is in full support of designing a facility like that.
I’m pleased to hear that the Department of Health and Social Services is supportive of the concept and has identified and set aside land at the Stanton Territorial Hospital, but, regretfully, there are no resources there right now, and that’s what this motion is calling upon the department to do, is to work with Aboriginal governments.
I would also like to say to work with other wellness groups that should be invited. In fact, while I’m speaking, I’d like to call upon the other groups to assist the Elders’ Council with their plans for a wellness centre.
It has been said times are tight and GNWT resources are limited, but we’re not talking about a full facility right now, just the resources to do a planning study, even assistance to cost out the cost of a planning study. I think that’s what they’re looking for, how much this facility is going to cost, what it’s going to look like. They really need assistance in that. That’s why I am bringing forward this motion. Let’s get assistance to cost out a planning study.
I too, about 10 years ago, was at the Alaska Native Medical Center and I saw how that facility works, how homey it is. They have Aboriginal culture, paintings, and it really looks homey and gives people a sense of a northern facility and of belonging in the North. It gets away from a facility that’s so square and institutional. I really believe we have to get away from that because we’ve been living that way too long.
Further, I believe it is an idea whose time has come. We have to support it and get the political ball rolling, as it were, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion. Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department and Stanton recognize the importance of culture in health care and works to incorporate Aboriginal wellness programs into the delivery of health care services.
The department and Stanton have planned for the continued delivery of Aboriginal wellness programs within the hospital as part of the technical and program renewal of Stanton. However, we also recognize that a stand-alone wellness centre could accommodate traditional activities and act as a gathering place for patients, family and friends. Some aspects of Aboriginal wellness cannot be accommodated within the walls of an acute care hospital due to Building Code and safety requirements.
Concurrent with the Stanton Hospital Redevelopment Project, we are looking at best practices that are occurring in other jurisdictions in this area. Over the next few months, we will be reaching out to stakeholders, including Aboriginal governments, the Stanton Hospital and Elders’ Advisory Council, to seek their input on what kind of programming would be important to provide at the territorial hospital.
This is an essential first step in developing a proposal for the Aboriginal wellness centre. We are all well aware that in the current fiscal environment, funding available for capital projects is limited and that there are many competing priorities and we are going to have to think outside the box.
We will obviously be reporting back to the House in 120 days, Mr. Speaker. As this is a recommendation to government, we will be abstaining from the vote. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the movers for bringing this forward and the remarks from the Minister and the support for the general concept. The issue of resources certainly comes up on both sides of the House whenever we are talking about these things. That is why I think the Minister will note in the “therefore” that we said “work with Aboriginal governments” that we know now are being resourced through our net fiscal benefit and other means, that they now have the opportunity to participate in the issue the Minister raised.
I just wanted to mention that that wasn’t omitted in our thinking. Again, thanks to the movers. I will be supporting the motion. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to say, for the record, that motions are not taken lightly by Members of this House or the Priorities and Planning committee where the motion was talked about.
In closing, I would like to thank the honourable Member for Hay River North for seconding this motion and getting it into the House to talk about.
I am pleased to hear the Minister’s response with regard to taking it seriously and moving forward. Certainly, that’s where I want to go with this motion. It’s about considering it seriously. Let’s continue deliberations about the planning. I’m a realist. I’m not asking for capital dollars, but I think we should find some resources to help work on a planning study about the size and content of the building. I believe it will be a stand-alone facility, because having it in the new Stanton Territorial Hospital, there are so many technical aspects required for health and safety in a new and modern hospital.
In closing, I, like everybody else in the North and everybody else in this room, think it’s time for a wellness facility that we can call our own, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 42, An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act; Committee Report 13-17(5), Report on Bill 42: An Act to Amend the Residential Tenancies Act; and Committee Report 14-17(5), Report on the 2014 Review of the Official Languages Act, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.
