Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to make a motion. In accordance with Rule 50(a), I move that we continue to sit beyond our normal hour of daily adjournment to continue consideration of Bill 44, Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, we have a motion on the floor. The motion is in order and is not debatable. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Committee, general comments. We’ll allow the Minister the opportunity to reply to general comments. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is one of the aspects of consensus government that I really like. The department went out and did a bunch of work and did consultations around the Northwest Territories on how to improve the health and social services system with a focus on the client, and we drafted a bill based on all that consultation. Then the Members got a hold of the bill and they went back out and they did some consultation and they offered amendments and motions that actually, I believe, truly have made this a stronger and better bill. For instance, the Members have talked about the need to enhance the bill in areas around critical incidents and ministerial power, and I concurred with those motions because I believe they added strength to this bill and made it a better bill.
I know that there are still questions out there. We have put together a team consisting of staff, members, professionals from across the territory from all of the existing health and social services to help us do the implementation planning, and we have got commitment from all the authorities. There is some question about the one authority that will remain outside, the Tlicho, how are they going to be incorporated in. Ms. Bisaro asked, “How is it going to work when you have an advisory board and a management board?” With the Tlicho, we’ve been working closely with the leadership in the community and the leadership in the TCSA who have agreed that we will develop some administrative protocols that will allow us to work together in a seamless way to ensure that, although they may have a slightly separate legislative base, they can still work together and be part of this collaborative integrative team, with respect to the advisory boards.
The Members have heard the same thing that I have heard, that we want to make sure that we have the right people on these boards who can offer significant input, value and guidance moving forward so that our residents get the best health, best care, best future possible.
I had a recent meeting with Aboriginal governments and organizations across the Northwest Territories to talk about how we’re going to set these up, and I heard exactly the same things. Get the right people, make sure they have some knowledge, make sure that they can bring value to those boards so that we can get real, meaningful, solid advice, and then those chairs, the chairs of those advisory boards, as the Members know, will be the chairs or the members of the territorial board. Some people have said, as Ms. Bisaro pointed out, “We don’t want to lose our regional voice.” In this model, in fact, the regional voice, I think, will be stronger because the regions will have a voice at a territorial level to a degree that they’ve never had before and communities will have a voice at a regional level. It’s really building from where our people are, really building from where the constituents are, where the residents are, where the patients are. This system really truly is focused on the patient and providing the best services that we can.
Every one of the Members has mentioned Hay River, and I believe there’s a reason for that. As Mr. Bouchard pointed out, Hay River is a bit of an anomaly, and it has always been our intent to conclude a meaningful process of negotiation with the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Union of Northern Workers with regard to the collective bargaining process for Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. When the committee came forward with a motion to add some wording to provide some clarity and certainty to our employees, our valuable front-line workers and the members of the Hay River authority, we agreed wholeheartedly. The motion really laid out what we’re intending to do but provided a whole lot more clarity than we originally had in the bill, so I truly appreciate the advice that we got from committee to make that stronger.
In my mind, the motion added some certainty to this process, and it will enable this system transformation to proceed while negotiations are ongoing with the union and the employees of Hay River. Ultimately, what we want is one system. We would love to see Hay River come in, but we’ve got to negotiate a fair and reasonable deal. I believe that’s what the employees want, I believe that’s what the union wants, and I believe that is what we want, and working together with a focus on providing the best services we can with the focus on the client, I believe we can get there.
We’re looking forward to doing that work. This isn’t the end of the work. We have put together, as I indicated, a large team of professionals and front-line individuals and leaders from the authorities who are actively engaged in this fulsome transformation, and we will be coming to committee to provide updates as appropriate. I look forward to continuing to work with committee as we move forward with this important transformational change with a focus on, once again, the clients, our residents, our people, because we all want better health, we want a better future, we want the best care.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Is committee prepared to do clause by clause?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Does committee also agree that we can consider clauses in groups of 10?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, I ask that we’ll defer Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, until after consideration of the clauses. Committee, this bill also contains two schedules, so we will defer consideration of the clauses and we’ll need to deal with the schedules first. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, if I can get you to turn to page 48 in the bill. We’ll start with Schedule A. Schedule A, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Schedule B.
Agreed.
Now, I’d like to consider clauses. Moving forward, I ask you to turn to page 1 of the bill, and again, we’re going to go in groups of 10. Clauses 1 to 10. Committee?
---Clauses 1 through 10 inclusive approved
Clauses 11 to 20.
---Clauses 11 through 20 inclusive approved
Clauses 21 to 30.
---Clauses 21 through 30 inclusive approved
Clauses 31 to 33.
---Clauses 31 through 33 inclusive approved
The bill as a whole.
Agreed.
Does committee agree that Bill 44, Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Bill 44 is now deemed ready for third reading. Does committee agree that concludes consideration of Bill 44?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. At this time I would like to thank our officials here today, Ms. DeLancey and Mr. Druyan, for joining us. Thank you very much. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses out of the House.
