Frederick Blake Jr.

Last year the Minister announced the Regional Recruitment Program which was supposed to link on-the-job training to a permanent job.

How often has this been done in the Mackenzie Delta and what are the results so far?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a few comments and concerns here. Under the Community Access Program there are a lot of great projects that fall under there, but one of the ones that I wanted to touch on was Willow River. Recently we purchased a bridge just this past year here and we were hoping to have that bridge in place this season. We are drawing near to the end of the season here. There’s less than two months to go. I presume there are no funds secured for that at this point and I’d like to hear something positive on that.

Also, I did do a statement in November, I believe, with regards...

This week we’ve been discussing the Health and Social Services budget and hearing quite a bit about system transformation. Also, in some of my past exchanges with the Minister, he has stated that system transformation will include a review and renewal of the Service Delivery Model. So, taking this a step further, I’m wondering if the Service Delivery Model specifically addresses home care workers. In other words, does the Service Delivery Model include a population base formula for determining the number of home care workers assigned to each community, and if not, where are the decisions about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Chief William Koe isn’t the only one concerned about elders in Fort McPherson; we are all worried about them. The simple fact is that Fort McPherson needs more home care workers. A single worker cares for more than 30 people. On average, that means that elders receive only four hours of care in an entire month. It’s not enough, Mr. Speaker, and as the population ages, the situation is only going to worsen.

The community really needs at least one more full-time worker with up to four home care workers available on a rotational basis.

In December 2011, at the outset of the...

I know the department tracks a number of performance measures. I’m wondering: does it track patient satisfaction and program effectiveness, specifically for home care. If so, I’d like to ask the Minister to give the numbers for the Mackenzie Delta communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. We’ve heard plenty in this House about the impending demographic shift, the rapidly increasing proportion of elders. Even before the 17th Assembly, the department was talking about moving away from long-term care facilities and toward more cost-effective home care programs.

In the Mackenzie Delta there are more than 300 elders over the age of 60 and yet there’s a chronic shortage of home care workers.

What is the Minister doing to improve health care in Fort McPherson and other communities in the Mackenzie...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to acknowledge a long-time Northerner who recently retired from flying 747s and 737s. Mr. Speaker, Cecil Hansen hails from Aklavik, and this Saturday a huge retirement celebration will be held in his honour in Aklavik.

The celebration will be in recognition of his service to his home community and for his service to Reindeer Air Services of Aklavik and also to recognize him for his years of service with Canadian North providing air transportation to the whole Northwest Territories.

Cecil Hansen was born and raised in Aklavik. He was one of 12 children born to...

The last thing I wanted to speak about is under the programs for residential care, specifically under the adults, because you know a number of our elders have to go to Inuvik for long-term care. Just recently one of our elders from one of the communities had to move to Inuvik because of illness and hasn’t been given much time actually. The sad thing about it is we’re actually billing this elder every month. You know, that person is really frustrated at the moment with not only having to deal with his illness but also being charged up to $800 a month to be staying at the long-term care.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have three topics I’d like to talk to today. First under health centres, I know it’s an ongoing issue in Tsiigehtchic. If they can’t have a nurse, they’d like a licenced practical nurse there or some specialist in that community on a full-time basis. Many times, during the weekends especially, we get emergencies. It’s left up to our residents to respond to the majority or pretty much all of these incidents. So we are really putting our own residents in our community at risk here, having to deal with a lot of traumatic issues at times here.

Moving forward, we did get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Leading up from my Member’s statement, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a couple of questions. What programs do we offer for youth in the area of depression? Thank you.