Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's also a lot of things that are right in Stanton, and I think there is a lot of good work being done. I've committed to the Member from Range Lake that we will set up a process where there can be consultation with the front-line workers to get feedback unit by unit on issues that may be out there. We are addressing a lot of the issues. For example, the janitorial contract has recently been rewritten and the standards increased. That is in the works. So we continue to work on this on a regular basis. This is not only a staffing review that's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware that the Member has been in contact as well with the CEO of the Inuvik Health and Social Services Authority with these specific questions. I can commit to the Member that I can hand him that specific information. I haven’t seen any copies of any replies that the Member may have received, so I will commit to the Member that I will have the information for him for the start of session tomorrow morning.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have been working on the issue of wait times for some time now. We have added doctors. We are putting in a new OR system. We have added nurses. We are trying to get more OR nurses. We have in the plans a consolidated clinic in Yellowknife that is going to, we believe, take significant pressure off of the emergency ward in Stanton. When it is complete, it will allow access for the very many people inside and outside of Yellowknife that come to Yellowknife looking for services to be able to go into the clinic and get a lot of the basic testing and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the majority of the recommendations were followed up on. I've asked the department to dig out the last report that was done in terms of reporting on that particular consultant's documents. I'd just like to point out as well that, yes, there are some issues that continue to be of great concern at Stanton, but we've also made significant investments and progress in the services there and I don't believe that they are the same, as extreme as they were back in 2001. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has an obligation to raise the issues with his constituents, and my responsibility as Minister is to look at that and make sure that we respond to circumstances and to issues in a very measured and careful way. We are doing that. I've committed to the Member for Range Lake that we would have an outline of how we intend to proceed to honour the commitment to have the staff consulted in a free and open environment where they could get full feedback, and we would provide the preliminary feedback that we are getting within two weeks. So it's within that time...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that information is available and collected through the HR system. We monitor that on a regular basis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will give it to the Member before the start of the House tomorrow with information on each of those positions and the status of where they may be in the hiring process, recognizing that I know the importance of this. The Member is talking about this, and I will commit to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Clearly the Member must have been a negotiator at one time. I/m not sure how many questions she has left, but, yes, I'll commit to that as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we did a review of all hospital facilities across the Northwest Territories, we worked with Dr. Peache and the medical association to look at do we have the appropriate mix of doctors, not only Stanton but in all the other health facilities that have doctors. As we were doing that, it quickly became clear that we also needed a similar kind of review done with the nursing complement as well in Inuvik, Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Hay River and Simpson. So that review is looking at all those particular facilities to make sure that the mix is right for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member makes some very sweeping statements. She indicated in her Member’s statement she met with six people at her constituency meeting. Stanton has over 500 employees. While I recognize there are employee concerns out there, very clearly we also have, for the most part, a facility that is running very well. What I am prepared to offer the Member is if the Member is interested as a chair of the Social Programs committee, I would be happy to set up a full briefing for the committee and bring in the deputy minister, we could bring in the folks from Stanton. We can...