Daryl Dolynny

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, Madam Chair. Again, welcome to the Minister and the health team here.

I’ve got two broad topics within the area of the directorate here. I’ll start with the first one here. Just to set the lay of the land to the question, we’ve got three health boards that have been dissolved over the years that are run by public administrators. That’s Stanton, Hay River and Inuvik. What’s interesting is that through our budget dialogues, the back and forth that I have seen in the last 16 months, there have been many areas where we talked about barriers to accountability when it comes to the delivery...

Thank you, I appreciate the Minister’s response, but again, I want to focus my questions and response to the medical travel and the concerns the residents have. So a medical travel review has been promised for years now. What assurances can the Minister of Health and Social Services offer and to the people of the Northwest Territories that we will see an improved and more efficient service and travel policy in the life of the 17th Assembly? Thank you.

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...

Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Yakeleya, I’m going to let the Minister respond to that. Just so that you’re aware, we’re on active positions and health and social services authorities, so we’re on 8-11, but we’ll ask the Minister to reply to that one question, but I’ll ask you to redirect future questions to the page. Mr. Beaulieu.

Page 8-10, Health and Social Services, information item, active position summary. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. I’d like to turn your attention to 8-7. We’ll be deferring this until after consideration. Page 8-8, Health and Social Services, information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions?