David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, we have built health centres in our communities. We have built infrastructure in our communities. We have built schools, health centres, municipal offices. Again, the government really knows that by making those capital investments, we expect there will be some services out of those facilities we have in our communities.

I would like to ask the Premier: exactly where is the money, the dollars, going for those communities to operate and maintain those services so that we have a quality or standard of health care services throughout the Northwest Territories for all residents of the...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know how else to put this. The person is committed. The money is already budgeted for that health centre to operate in regard to its O&M — the cost to operate, the cost of health care — for that community. There are dollars earmarked from this Legislature to run a health centre in Tsiigehtchic.

The community is more than willing to work with the health department to do this, but because the Department of Health or the board in Inuvik, which has 45 vacancies, which they can’t even administer.... They run a deficit.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not too sure how else to put it, but exactly...

Mr. Speaker, like I stated in my earlier question, there was a nurse who basically was there full time about six years ago. She was paid. The money is there for the health centre. She lived in the community for a number of years.

I’d like to ask the Minister: is there that commitment that this position will be committed full time knowing that there’s an individual out there who’s willing to stay in the community for that period of time?

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7.

Again, that is not health service that would improve the quality of life in communities. Having someone go into a community for a couple of hours once a week, in some cases once a month, is not medical service. I don’t know which part of that picture the Minister doesn’t get, but that, to me, is basically not services. I want to actually physically see a nurse operating out of the health centres in our communities. We have built health centres throughout the Northwest Territories, health centres that should be managed by a health professional in that community.

When can we expect to actually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It’s in regard to my Member’s statement on the lack of services in a lot of our communities, especially core services like health care services such as nurses, mental health workers, alcohol and drug workers.

I think it’s very important that this government take this issue seriously. It is having a direct effect not only on our communities but on this government’s ability to deliver other programs and services, as we can see with the major deficits we’re running in different hospitals in different...

Mr. Speaker, you do not have to assure me. I think you have to assure the people in those communities that don’t have policing, don’t have nursing — don’t have services — that they’re just as much residents of the Northwest Territories as the other 43,000 people here. We cannot be discriminated against by communities, simply by where you live. Those days are gone. We are not on reserves. We’re not in other foreign Third World countries. This is Canada; this is the Northwest Territories. But that’s the feeling I am getting by the way treatment is being allocated here.

I would like to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Premier in regard to the issue of capacity in our small communities.

We know we have challenges, but we also have to find unique solutions to our challenges. I would like to compliment the Department of Justice in regard to policing in Sachs Harbour — looking at solutions on how to get policing into the ten communities that don’t have police officers. Yet the Department of Health has had nurses located in our communities. Knowing that those capital dollars were expended, I would like to ask the Premier…. From our small communities we have...

Mr. Speaker, I just got off the phone with the individual. The individual told me herself that she likes working in Tsiigehtchic; she likes the people there; she’s willing to stay longer if that’s the point. Why is it that arrangements can’t be accommodated with a person who’s willing and committed to that community to serve that community? Why is it there are still roadblocks in the way by way of not offering that person a full time contract to work in that community rather than simply as and when?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We had a meeting that we attended in Tsiigehtchic, along with the Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice, in which the issue came up about nursing. The community made it clear to the Minister at that meeting that there was a nurse in the community who’s served there several years. She’s usually there during breakup and freeze-up — six weeks here, six weeks there. She’s presently working up in Holman and also in Tuktoyaktuk.

The community asked her to follow up on that by way of checking with the individual to see if she’s willing to spend more time in the...