Glen Abernethy

Yes.

Thank you. We provide training or, rather, we partner in training for individuals that are taking or interested in resident care. Its primary focus right now is on the facilities, but that training is something that certainly we can look at expanding to other individuals to provide that type of support in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. So, resident care as well as home support workers. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the large things we’re doing is actually the system transformation, which will allow us to focus our resources more appropriately than we have in the past. This will make an actual improvement in all areas of health and social services in the Northwest Territories, including the supports that we provide with home care. It will also ensure that we have a consistent approach for home care across the Northwest Territories. We also have partnerships with the NWT Seniors’ Society and we do provide them with a significant amount of money to run a number of different...

Any time the GNWT has worked with other governments or other bodies to bring staff into our employ, we have always been very, very conscious of these concerns and we’ve always worked really hard with those organizations, whether it’s the federal government or whether it was the Hay River Health Authority or five years ago or almost 10 years ago when we did the initial negotiations. We do our best and we will work with their union. Their union will want to protect their employees and we want to make sure the employees get a fair transition.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill includes amendments to the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act that would require the Minister to:

develop a territorial plan for health and social services;

authorize the Minister to establish regional councils to provide advice with respect to health services and social services;

authorize the Minister to establish a territorial...

No final decision has been made. We are open to any discussion, but I would say at this time it is envisioned that a territorial program will be based in Yellowknife as this will enable a broader scope of women with certain risk factors to assess midwifery care for at least a portion of their care through the easy access to diagnostic services, specialist obstetrics, as well as for ability for immediate access to C-sections and other emergency procedures if needed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We did actually create a midwifery coordinator position in the department that unfortunately has gone through the revolving door as well, been filled, then vacant, then filled, then vacant. That position is a key position and a lot of the funds have gone to support the planning and operational design as well as consultation in communities and whatnot. So a significant number of things were done.

There aren’t hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars that have lapsed, but we are in a position, changing direction and moving forward with this new model, we may have an opportunity to utilize...

We have had some preliminary meetings with staff in the Beaufort-Delta who have been involved in this type of program or who might be involved in birthing services at this time. As the Member has indicated, there have been some challenges raised with the delivery of midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta. To that end, we are looking at envisioning how we are approaching midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta.

Originally when we came forward, there was a multi-part plan which included set up midwifery services in Hay River, move midwifery services to Beaufort-Delta and then move forward with...

As I indicated previously, the territorial model’s primary goal is to support the knowledge and skill capacity of community health nurses through continued interaction and direct clinical support with midwives. This will benefit all NWT communities by raising the standard of community maternity care. This is one of the primary goals of a territorial program. There’s also the secondary benefit of being able to provide some midwifery support to residents of Yellowknife who choose to access those types of services.

The fact is, at the end of the day, if a patient is at risk, if there are any...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the challenges we face around midwifery and providing birthing services in communities outside of Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife and Beaufort-Delta, Inuvik in particular, is that we need to make sure the facilities are appropriate, that individuals can receive the proper diagnostic and specialist obstetric or services such as C-section. Most of our communities don’t have the capacity to provide that type of service. So we need to make sure we focus our attention where we can actually provide birthing services.

What we’re talking about now is pushing midwifery...