Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we’re looking at coming forward with some amendments of the Vital Statistics Act that will allow us to include Aboriginal names and appropriate fonts within birth certificates and other documents within the Northwest Territories. We’ve done some early assessment, but we don’t have a full costing of that change at this point. When we have better information on the costing, we will certainly share that with committee and the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, similar to our relationship with Alberta, we have a relationship with Nunavut where a number of their residents do come to the Northwest Territories for different diagnostic and other services that are provided here in Yellowknife, particularly residents out of the Kitikmeot region do come down here for a number of diagnostic and other type of services. We have an arrangement, similar to the arrangement across Canada, so that services provided in the Northwest Territories are direct-billed back based on a formula that’s agreed upon across this country on what...

I don’t anticipate that at this time, but as we roll forward and create this new system, new principles and ideas might come forward that might result in a change in how we’re doing business. I don’t anticipate that, but it would be foolish to say that change is never going to happen.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I saw the same press release that the Member did. I had a quick conversation with the department and staff are getting in touch with Ottawa to figure out what those dollars are, how they intend to allocate them, and what, if anything, may be available to residents of the Northwest Territories. It does not mean that the dollars would go to the GNWT. They might go to the Inuvialuit. They might go to different groups. They might come through us. We don’t know. The department is trying to figure out those details right now.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The two areas that have sort of resulted in this significant increase is some forced growth around some of the standard supplies that are provided to the health centres across the Northwest Territories, but a bigger chunk is actually as a result of the temporary operation of the long-term care in Hay River. The H.H. Williams were staying in the building for two years in a long-term care capacity until we can get the expansion at Woodland finished. As a result, we have to spend some additional dollars there to ensure that our long-term care is still operational. It’s not...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in the previous government, as with this government, I’ve been very careful to say that the health transformation is not about reducing costs of the healthcare system. But, absolutely, we anticipate we’re going to find some efficiencies, whether it’s through purchasing, purchasing together, we’re going to be able to share some finance services, you know, crosstraining. We absolutely anticipate efficiencies, but we don’t anticipate dropping the budget as a result. One of our priorities is actually to do some deficit recovery. Currently, the eight authorities...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I indicated, the way that the mains are presented are to line up with how we are required and needed to report for CIHI for tracking data, so we’re to create a logical system. I hear the Member that there’s some confusion about how it is between the business plan and the mains. We will work to make sure that everything’s lined up. Midwifery services under CIHI falls under nursing services recognizing that midwifery services aren’t exactly nursing services but that’s where CIHI has put them, so that’s why they’re identified in that particular section. We will...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as a Cabinet and as a government, I think it’s important that we have a coordinated approach when we’re dealing with Ottawa so that all the departments are aware of the different issues or priorities that are being brought forth. This is clearly one of the areas. It’s certainly, you know, dependent on how the federal government goes, it could bring some federal dollars into the coffers to help us provide services to residents of the Northwest Territories that we currently fund. We’re the only jurisdiction in the country providing Metis health benefits.

It is an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it was threeyear funding from the federal government. This is the last year of that fund. If there is any money left over for any of the three initiatives that I have indicated, if we haven’t spent all the federal dollars, we can roll it forward into the next fiscal year. As far as the Territorial Health Authority moving forward, that will be our cost and we were designing a system that wasn’t going to cost us any more money. We weren’t asking for more money to move to this single system, but we needed these innovation dollars to help us design, implement.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I’m pretty sure that the situation the Member is describing didn’t happen while I was here because I certainly don’t remember it. It must have been a long time ago that it actually happened. The piece that I said after the mic went off was: Anything we do still has to be within standards, so it has to meet certain criteria. We’re open to that. I’m happy to have discussions with the communities, with the regions. I’ll be travelling with the Member to visit his communities at some point. I’m sure we’ll have an opportunity to have that discussion and hear what the...