Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Interesting morning. I rise today and follow up on my Member’s statement today on what did the Department of Health and Social Services learn from the Minister of Finance budget housing dialogue 2012 talks this past fall. As indicated, Health is cited by most participants as the area for most opportunities of savings.

I have been critical since day one on this job on the lack of spending for health initiatives and I stand steadfast to this. However, today I want to work on the other side of that equals sign and focus on savings of opportunity, especially medical travel...

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Minister sharing views regarding the physician services and a bit of a glimpse of a renewed Integrated Service Model. However, I believe my question was a bit more at a higher level of governance. If I can use the term loosely, board reform or the new landscape of how the delivery of our health care will look in the future, given the fact that we’ve had, as I indicated earlier, a lot of barriers to accountability. These were clearly notified by the Auditor General of Canada, to which I believe does deserve the right lens and the appropriate intervention to make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m still concerned and confused. We’ve heard the voice of reason of the people. We should treat these as ladders of opportunity to make meaningful changes, especially with what we’ve heard on medical travel from our residents. We’ve heard that the Minister is a great proponent of common-sense approach policies so I’m going to ask the Minister: Will we have a common-sense approach to this policy, in terms of using what we know from the residents and applying those today, so that we have meaningful changes to our Medical Travel Policy at this juncture within the life of...

Thank you, I appreciate the Minister’s response, but I’m referring to the budget dialogue, the voices of the people. More importantly, what opportunities for efficiencies in medical travel services has the Department of Health and Social Services identified as a result of such talks with residents, and are these recommendations in action today or are they coming soon? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A couple of months ago our Minister of Finance took to the skies with his childhood bag of Legos and travelled the territory to talk to the people about the budget. I must admit the format was unique and provided some visual interaction, but months later, after the report has been tabled, one must look back and ask what we learned. What was used from this experience to influence the main estimates we’re currently reviewing? Did we listen? More importantly, did we hear the wishes of our people?

Interestingly, we are currently looking at the Department of Health and Social...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the response. It sounds like we are working towards that end goal. For the record, are we able to say with a degree of confidence that all of the performance agreements with the health authorities will be in place 100 percent within this fiscal year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my last question for the Minister would be: If there was a formal application from an organization or municipality to start up the crematoria functionality, would the department or Minister be willing to look at legislation upon application? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister’s response to that. Seeing that regulation of a crematorium in Canada is a provincial/territorial responsibility, without the proper legislation could NWT municipalities grant status to the operation of a crematorium in the absence of NWT legislation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.