Alfred Moses

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just for some clarification here. I didn’t really want to get into all the super detail about the Midwifery Program, but responses that I’ve been hearing from the Minister this afternoon have really got me concerned, actually. My first question, he mentioned earlier, and I could go to Hansard for clarification, but just for the record, I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, when he made reference earlier to looking at a territorial model as the model that he was looking at implementing, can he confirm that under his leadership that he was confirming...

A last question on this page here. It goes back to the Midwifery Program and some questions that were brought forward by my colleagues here. In the midwifery report there was a standard of practice for registered midwives in the NWT, February 2005. You go through it and there is some really good information there in terms of standards for midwives that would practice in the Northwest Territories. We constantly hear the Minister say that they need this coordinator to develop regulations, standards and competencies before moving forward.

I’d like the Minister to give me his reasoning why we’re...

The question that I wanted to ask earlier was with the Health Promotion Fund. Can the Minister maybe just give us an update in terms of funding for the dollars, if there has been an increase in the terms of dollars specifically towards the Health Promotion Fund over the last, let’s say, maybe three or four years. If he can give us an update on that.

Thank you. Then just moving into another area under the population health division in the area of health promotion, intervention. With the Health Promotion Fund… Sorry; I’m moving all over the place. Sorry. No further questions there, Madam Chair.

Under the territorial health services division, and particularly with home care and home care with seniors and people with disabilities going into some of the communities, I know in Inuvik the home care staff do a great job of getting out to the communities, but they are being overworked in a sense to try to keep up to the demand of home care needs. I’m sure it’s similar in some other communities or smaller communities that might not even have the home care provided.

In terms of Inuvik specifically, does the Minister know if there is a need to increase the home care, either possibly a half PY...

No, that’s a great idea to check with the authority, because I think a BiliBlanket only costs about $4,000, and then if another infant is born with jaundice and they need to be medevacced to Yellowknife, you just have to do the cost of what it costs for a medevac and everybody to come here to just get the baby wrapped in a blanket when it could be preventative measures and investing in, you know, prevention of these babies that have jaundice and, you know, jaundice is pretty dangerous to a child’s health.

With that said, are there any BiliBlankets or phototherapy in the small communities, in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table two documents today. One is the policy statement from the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. It is a policy statement, entitled Returning Birth to Aboriginal, Rural and Remote Communities. I also have a report here from the same organization. This one is entitled A Report on Best Practices for Returning Birth to Rural and Remote Aboriginal Communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Sorry, Mr. Chair, Mr. Bromley asked the questions that I was going to ask. Thank you.

I did make reference to reports, but I didn’t ask the question specifically on the reports. I asked the question: Is the Minister willing to work with these NGOs that are providing good services and programs on a very stretched dollar? Would he be willing to work with them, provide funding dollars so they can provide more adequate and appropriate services for those people that are in need in the regional centres, here in Yellowknife, and doing the work in the NWT? Would he commit to working with the NGOs… Not work with them, support them financially so they can provide the services. I’m not...

How about the regulations? The Minister said he was going to change some of the standards earlier, in the discussions earlier today. I think that is going to have an effect on regulations. And when it has an effect on regulations, there’s going to be something in there that’s going to have an effect on the act. I just want to get confirmation if the Minister feels there’s going to be also some changes needed to be put to those regulations.