Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the mayor of Hay River, Andrew Cassidy, and deputy mayor of Hay River, Brad Mapes. I appreciate the Ministers also meeting with us today. I think it’s vital that we get a visit in the capital here and see what we can do to help out Hay River. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the Minister’s issues with that. In the interim, the public has no effective way of communicating their concerns in the community with health issues. There is one public administrator, one person. If you don’t know that person… I am looking to see if the Minister would allow for an advisory board. I am not looking for the management of the operations; I am looking for an advisory board to give the public administrator some feedback from the community so that we can branch out the contacts in the community so that the community feels like they’re engaged with their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will continue my discussion on some of the issues in the area of health for Hay River. One of the major issues in Hay River is the fact that, back several years ago, the government removed the management board and replaced it with a public administrator. Although the administrator is doing a good job, there is still a lot of outcry from the community to have some sort of advisory board so that the community from different walks of life can give information and feedback to the health authority so that we can have representation and see what the issues are. We...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to begin by congratulating the Department of Human Resources for the GNWT being named Top 100 Employer in Canada. I think that’s hard work from the department throughout, I guess, but HR being responsible and one of the main leads on that.

My other opening comments would be about the job creation. The Minister talked about decentralization and devolution. We’ve also created a bunch of jobs this year. My indication is 56. I am just wondering what the process is from HR’s perspective on what different departments have to do when they create a new position. Are...

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful to the Minister for looking into that. My other area of concern I had in my Member’s statement was the flexibility of funding. As I indicated, we have funding for permanent doctors in Hay River. We currently don’t have any, but we have been using nurse practitioners, but the funds to fund those nurse practitioners are column funded so we can’t use the doctors’ funds to do that.

Has the Minister come up with a solution and been able to allow the community, the authority for Hay River to do some flexibility in these funds?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I had questions for the Minister of Health. The community of Hay River had a management board in place before; now it has been replaced with a public administrator. Will the Minister look at putting a public advisory board into the community of Hay River?

That’s good. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been asking the Minister this question for quite a long time about this flexibility, and he keeps going back to the FMBS and the solution. I am wondering when the Minister will commit to completing this process.

The community of Hay River wants to have coroners, nurse practitioners, wants to be able to use their funds so that the community can have a better health care system. When will the Minister commit to getting this flexibility in funds?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think most of the information or concerns that I have will come out in the details of each department, but I think my biggest concerns today that I’d like to express is the continuing increasing size of our budget. Our expenditures continue to get larger and larger, even though the Minister and the Cabinet keep indicating to us that we’re on fiscal restraint and we want to keep our expenditures down as much as possible, but we continue to grow the size of our budget every year. Phenomenal numbers for the population of 43,000 people.

I think one of the biggest concerns...

I respect the Minister’s answer and I understand the long-term beds solution throughout the North, but we are dealing with Hay River, one of the largest centres in the Northwest Territories. I am hoping the Minister’s statement doesn’t mean that he’s looking at putting Hay River residents elsewhere.

Is there a commitment from the department? I know the Minister of Health has indicated, in a public speech, that they are looking at solutions in Hay River for those 10 long-term beds.