David Ramsay

I just don’t see myself making any progress on this so I’ll give up at that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A few other things. I just wanted to follow up and all I’m looking for is a short, concise answer from the Minister. What assurances have we got that the Graduate Placement Program will be around in the following year? I know the letter stated it’s available this year, the funding is there. What about next year and it’s 65 grads in the next three years, not 70 to 80? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I know the Minister gave me a long answer, but it really didn’t answer the question that I had. That is, where is the CHN program, the Community Health Nurse Program at Aurora College in 2011-12? It’s not there. It’s not on the academic calendar. I’m trying to understand why it’s not there when the Minister is stating all the good reasons why it should be. That’s the issue that I’m bringing up, Mr. Chairman.

The Minister says she didn’t mean to say that northern nursing grads weren’t trained enough to get out of the program and into jobs. She might not have meant to say that, but...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Try as I might, I was going to try to stretch things out a little bit and get some questions in on 29, but I’m going to seek unanimous consent of committee to go back to 8-21 just for a few seconds. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like surgeries are being cancelled because the hospital is waiting for parts. I’d like to think it has nothing to do with increased rates of post-operative infection, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister: have we seen an increase in post-operative infections at that hospital going back the last four months? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, June was eight months ago. I’m wondering, if I could, to the Minister: when did the hospital become aware of the deficiencies with that equipment and once the deficiencies were found, were operations still conducted, were surgeries still conducted at that hospital in light of the findings of that report in June? Thank you.

I’m just wondering whether or not the department did any analysis on the increase to taxes on alcohol and tobacco and if the Minister could share that analysis with the committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about the status of the sterilization equipment located at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to get an understanding from the Minister today as to what is happening with surgeries at Stanton Hospital. I’ve heard that over the past three weeks, with the exception of emergency surgeries, all surgeries have been cancelled. Mr. Speaker, there is also the issue of infection rates in post-operative patients at Stanton. Has there been an increase in infection rates at that hospital? Why have surgeries been cancelled the last three weeks...

I think that’s some work that we have to continue on and that should take priority going down the road, that’s for sure. Like I said, alcohol is the biggest scourge that’s out there.

The other question that I have, I just wanted to ask the Minister whether or not the Department of Health and Social Services, under prevention, promotion, and health awareness, were you consulted with prior to the Department of Finance making a decision to raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions here. I’m just wondering, a couple of years back we had talked about a campaign to curb alcohol abuse. As anybody knows, alcohol is the biggest problem that we have out there, the biggest social ill that we have. We had talked about the department coming up with a campaign much like the Don’t Be a Butthead campaign to try to target alcohol and the ravages that it has on our communities. I’m just wondering where that’s at in the department’s plans or if there’s any money in this budget for that type of campaign.