Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lee.

Page 8-35, Health and Social Services. Mr. Beaulieu.

All these questions started when it came up about some of the grad placements and our true need, our true area of focus here, is we need to get nurses into community health centres. Nobody could deny that. We’ve got continual turnover of locums, we’ve got continual turnover of nurses in there and we need to find solutions and solutions to train Northerners for northern jobs.

The Community Health Nurse Development Program is a great program that puts indigenous Aboriginal and non-Aboriginals in community health centres with the training and the skill they need to be competent and professional. I...

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my Member’s statement and are related to the consultation process currently, or just finished, with the Wildlife Act.

Public consultations are an important tool to the GNWT. They allow us to go out and meet with our constituents and residents of the Northwest Territories and hear what they have to say and allow them input into our important acts and legislational programs. Could the Minister tell me -- and he started to go down this road a little bit -- how he intends to provide some comfort to those groups that feel that their voice was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Could the Minister in cooperation with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, please provide the complete statistics on admission and graduation rates for the Aurora College Nursing Program from 1999 to present?

Please identify the affirmative action status of these students and graduates by year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think ultimately we both want the same things. I agree with what the Minister is saying. We need to have services available for people in communities because midwifery does not only provide birthing services, they also provide pre- and postnatal care. What I am concerned about is maximizing dollars. If we have a community that only has three or four pregnancies a year, it does not justify midwifery services. I want the Minister to provide me with some of the data on what justifies, what level of pregnancies justifies a business case which does involve money and it...

Mr. Speaker, that information is incredibly important in building a business case. I look forward to seeing the information.

I am curious if the Minister can confirm for us whether or not that data is being utilized to help determine what is a reasonable number of births to justify a midwifery service in a community. If she does, can she tell me how many pregnancies in a community justify the business case scenario for midwives in a community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On October 24, 2008, I made a statement and asked some questions in this House on the value and importance of midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Since then, no additional support has been made available to these services in the Northwest Territories.

In 2008 there were three midwives practicing in the Northwest Territories: two in Fort Smith and one in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Dettah. Unfortunately, as predicted back in 2008, the workload for a sole midwife in Yellowknife was very exhausting. This has resulted in the incumbent having to go on an extended...