Glen Abernethy

Thank you, committee. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. In front of us today are tabled documents 4, 30, 38, 62, 75, 103, 133, 135; Bills 4, 14, 17, 20; and Ministers’ statements 65 and 88. What is the wish of committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

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

Please provide the statistics outlining the number of births in the NWT over the last four fiscal years; i.e., 2010-11 to date, 2009-10, 2008-09, 2007-08.

Please provide a breakdown of the number of births, identifying the home communities of the mothers.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, in 2005-06, when I sat on the Midwifery Implementation Committee for the Northwest Territories, they were talking about Fort Smith. What they determined -- and I would like the Minister to confirm these numbers for me -- but what I think they determined in order to justify a midwife in a community, they needed to have a community that had X number of pregnancies per year. I believe that number was about 45 or 50 pregnancies a year to justify midwifery services in a community. Can the Minister confirm that number for me and let me know whether that is the type of number that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to just follow up on my colleague’s questions just after the Minister of Health and Social Services. I would like to thank the Minister for her previous responses as well. To be sustainable, any Midwifery Program needs to have at least two midwives, otherwise the workload would be just too over-consuming. In order to determine the capacity in a business case, whether or not a Midwifery Program is feasible in a community, we need to understand the number of births or the number of pregnancies in a community. Has the department begun the process or have we in the...

Thank you, Ms. Meade. Next on my list is Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Chairman, that is good to know. I am happy to hear that there is still some work being done on that. I understand that it will likely need policy change and, as a result of the decision to rescind, I know that you are not planning any policy change now. But this is obviously something that is important, and anything the department can be doing with its partners -- maybe ITI as an example -- to work with employers to find reasonable ways or reasonable mechanisms by which they can provide insurance to their workers where they don’t currently.

I know the chamber offers things and whatnot that...

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I seek unanimous consent to go back to page 8-25 for a short, quick question.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. More of a comment but I’ll go to the Minister for the question.

Mr. Speaker, I was wondering if the Minister could give me a sense of over the last two or three years, how many northern graduates have actually gone into community health centres through grad placement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.