Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, as the Minister previously indicated, the utilization rates increased to the tune of about $2.8 million. There’s a four percent rate increase of about $331,000. Then there was some claims processed from 2003-04 for $865,000. I could share with the Members, if they’re interested, the summary of costs by diagnosis, by summary of claims by diagnosis, and by summary of average costs by diagnosis, if that’s of interest. I’d also point out that we’ve also been looking at our costs. Alberta has been looking at our use of their facilities and I’ve indicated to...

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. The Minister of FMBS, Mr. Roland, is correct that we have provided assistance in the past. We are currently doing work with operational reviews, because there are a number of boards that are struggling with their finances as well. It is not strictly an issue of poor management.

The Dogrib board was created in 1997 and, as already indicated, one of the biggest drivers of their deficit was the fact that there was never any funding for ambulance services. Rae is the only community that doesn’t have an airport or have a way to get people to Stanton. They...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, there is an e-mail in my in basket upstairs that I haven’t had a chance to look at, but apparently we’ve got the first specific word from the federal government on the portion of money as it applies to waiting times. I just noticed it this morning. It’s fairly long and I haven’t had a chance to look at it, but that’s the one piece so far that they have agreed to. This is on the Canada health transfer side. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the Member was encouraging or saying that I have to be Minister to conclude all the studies I already have underway, I could probably squeeze in one more.

---Laughter

But the reality is, Mr. Speaker, this doesn’t require a study. This requires a plan of action and, yes, I would be happy to report back in June. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the Member raised the issue during the review of the budget of Health and Social Services, I indicated that I would be talking later that night with the president of the Social Workers’ Association, which I did do. We had a fairly lengthy discussion. One of the topics of concern was what is happening in the college; the need to do a better job in marketing the college program and what other things should we be doing as a department to better support the social work profession.

I have since had meetings with the deputy to pass on some of the concerns...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are resources on the ground in every community that have, as one of the job responsibilities, to assist all the people, including seniors. We have members from across the Northwest Territories on the NWT Seniors' Association that I meet regularly with, as well with the boards. Also, I have very close feedback from many MLAs on issues in their jurisdictions. I believe that we have resources there. If they are not given enough profile on the ground to the services that are available to seniors, then I am definitely prepared to look at that and work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when the seniors’ action plan was done, it was done with that kind of concept in mind, where we had a number of departments -- Education, Health and Social Services, Housing and MACA -- work to come up with a strategy for seniors.

We are anticipating being able to have some federal money to better fund those different initiatives. There is an intent to try to make it as convenient as possible. We work with the territorial Seniors' Association here, we assist them with funding, we assist them with their help line where seniors can call and get services...

Mr. Speaker, very clearly we have an intent to modernize and redo the Mental Health Act, it’s just that it’s not on the top five or six pieces of legislation that we have on our agenda that we have left in the life of this Assembly. Very clearly, it’s one of about 26 pieces of legislation that we have that is out of date and needs to be fixed. At this point, a decision was made where I looked at the pressing priorities to focus on two major pieces, which are the Pharmacy Act and the Public Health Act, in addition to the tobacco and the other personal directives one. We’re not arguing that it...

Mr. Speaker, as the Member indicated in his statement, this piece of legislation is about 17 years old. It does have gaps. It’s not on the legislative agenda for this Assembly at this point, but it is a piece of legislation that is on our list, but we have other more pressing ones like the Pharmacy Act and the Public Health Act, which are very, very old. Generations old. They’re seriously out of date and we’re working on them. As well as the Personal Directives Act, the Tobacco Act that is coming forward, and there’s a piece from the child and family services as well that’s coming forward, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently a collective bargaining process underway that includes the social workers, and the issue of compensation will be dealt with directly through that process. If there are classification issues, then there are processes to look at that as well. Very clearly, we are interested in having a profession that is attractive, that has a good package of compensation and enumeration and we are going to look at all aspects, the same as we did for the allied health professionals, to make sure that we are competitive and that we have our classes filled...