Norman Yakeleya

My last comment would be directed to the Minister regarding the seniors in terms of future discussions. I know the seniors have been very active in a lot of the business of the GNWT. I make reference to the elders in the Sahtu region and the seniors in terms of their relationship to this government. Has this Minister, in terms of meeting with the seniors as her duties as the Minister responsible for seniors, had some discussions with the seniors?

Seniors can be elevated almost to another level of authority such as a secretariat for the seniors. Right now they’re an advisory council. There is...

Mr. Chair, the telehealth coordinators were funded by the authority agencies. I was just doing some checking and I know my regional health centres, all the communities have telehealth technology. In terms of the coordinators and operations of telehealth, it would greatly be appreciated that at these four health centres and health station, Colville Lake, that if this telehealth would be used for the people. Is this something that the coordinators are going to work on? I am not too sure of their job descriptions in terms of ensuring that...if I’m right. I do apologize. They talked about...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The comment from the deputy minister on looking at the delivery system in the Northwest Territories, because of this issue that we are facing here, would I dare say that are you looking at an overhaul in terms of how we deliver our health care in our communities or our regions in terms of coming to a centralized system of health care delivery as to what the regions and the communities want to see more health care delivery in their communities. I know there are some specialists that come in the regions on a rotation basis, doctors do come in on a certain rotation basis...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to welcome the Assembly of First Nations legal counsel, Ken Young, to the House, and also our national vice-chief of the Assembly of First Nations and national chief of the Dene Nation, Bill Erasmus.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the legal court cases, I think it’s the Delgamuukw court case that puts the issue of government-wide consultation guidelines in terms of affected parties such as the aboriginal peoples and their rights. The Minister has indicated the implementation plan and possibly this side of the House will see some discussion paper on policy in terms of the consultation. I’m very surprised that we have not yet seen, to date, the implementation plan or just how they’re going to be used by this department. I would ask if the Minister would share that with the House...

Mr. Speaker, the framework that the Minister has made reference and about working with the other departments in terms of a government-wide consultation process, I want to ask the Minister, in terms of this consultation guideline, has this guideline been used in terms of dealing with this issue here that we’re talking about in terms of the caribou and the issues surrounding the banning of the caribou in this particular area?

...Mr. Speaker, and the book is on the Sahtu. I was thinking about the discussions we’ve had the last couple of days about the caribou. In this section, page 46 or so, there’s a discussion about the caribou from the Sahtu perspective. In one of the stories the elders have told, there is a story about near Aklavik there was a discussion, the elders say, about some animals. It was a story about the wolf and the caribou that came together and they were discussing how they were going to live together, Mr. Speaker, and they came to an agreement that the wolf would allow the caribou to live, not...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would ask the Minister if she could provide to me a summary on the telehealth in terms of where that’s going in terms of the operations in the Sahtu. I know there’s telehealth speech in 14 sites and all the five communities in the Sahtu are going to be supported through that. The telehealth coordinators, if these machines are in use and they’re going to be used in other communities it will be much appreciated from this MLA in terms of knowing that we certainly can cut down on having our people get on these aircrafts to fly to other locations to be checked in...

Thank you. I certainly look forward to the day where I could see what the deputy minister is saying in terms of improved health care services in the communities.

In the description here it talks about recruitment and retention programs specifically related to health and social service professionals. I want to ask, in terms of the recruitment of the aboriginal wellness workers, aboriginal health care providers such as the community health representatives, you know, people in the communities that have been working in this field but they’re not recognized; some of the elders that we use or we go...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the area I want to focus on is on the recruitment and retention programs. As we know, it’s been noted that the issue of doctors in the Northwest Territories into our regions is very tough right now in terms of having good doctors coming to our regions and there are vacancies in the health care system. I want to ask in terms of have we seen a slight increase in terms of securing some doctors in our communities and some of the nurses in our health boards. I’m not just speaking for my own region but for the North in general. Thank you, Mr. Chair.