Robert Villeneuve

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to seeing the recommendations of that report. They probably deal with a lot of board representation and community health services, medical travel and stuff for the smaller communities. I just want to make a point to the Minister that I know the authority my communities deal with, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has a very big plate and a lot of the small community issues get lost amongst this big banquet of issues that they have to address on a daily and a monthly basis. I just want to ask the Minister if this report, when it does...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, health and social services, as we all know, is a very important and sensitive issue in our smaller communities. When a community’s concerns on health are brought to the attention of a health authority that is not directly involved with the dynamics of the community on a day-to-day basis, sometimes these issues lose some credibility and their sense of importance.

When issues are brought up in a boardroom that comprises of a majority of members who have not lived in a small, remote, aboriginal community and are not aboriginals themselves, many of these unresolved...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am glad I got a commitment from the Minister for that. I look forward to seeing what gets presented to Social Programs.

Still sticking with the medical travel issue, the issue with medical travel escorts has always come to my attention, also. I know the patients themselves don’t really have much say in whether they want an escort or not. It’s basically up to the nurse practitioner or the community health representative to make the call on the escort and then people are coming here, travelling, they are distraught, they don’t know how to handle a lot of the inquiries...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to thank the Minister for his opening comments. I think this year's health budget is basically going to deliver a lot of good changes that people were asking for and have been asking for for a long time.

I just want to mention something about the medical travel concerns that seems like everybody has got an issue with. First off, I know we had the telehealth line and the toll-free nursing line available on a 24-hour basis. I know it's been mentioned to the department before, of whether they're going to establish a medical travel toll-free line that people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to top up what the Minister was actually alluding, to I realize that there are different caseloads in the communities and should be addressed as such, and funding should go to the communities that are very busy. Just to let the Minister know, different communities have different crime rates. Some communities have low crime rates. Therefore, their justice committees just don’t have the work cut out for them as a lot of my communities do with high crime rates and high unemployment and stuff. What is the rationale in this department’s way of thinking? Why do we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me just ask the Minister a question about the report itself. I didn't see the terms of reference for the report, but I want to ask the Minister, does the report, is it a territorial-wide community report, or is this more specific to my constituency which raises the issue of getting the report in the first place? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As I talked about in my Member's statement, I've got a couple questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Just in respect to the last session when the Minister committed to completing a community health review by January of 2006, which is passed already. I'm just wondering, I want to ask the Minister, has this review been done yet? Thank you.

Thank you. I understand the plight of the government on that side. I think the only way to overcome that is to actually, you know, they have to have a project officer at every site either on a day-to-day basis or on a week-to-week basis to oversee all these projects. I know that even when you get a proficient contract in there, somebody in good standing with the Housing Corp to go in and do the work, but if nobody's there to look over their shoulder to make sure that the work is being done according to standards, even they will take shortcuts and cut back on the amount of materials that...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess just to follow up on that, what percentage of 118 units is going to be public replacement units? That’s just for clarification.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just another scenario, I guess. If a person changes, if their household income is changed and then they reapply for the housing subsidy program but they miss the deadline, the rent goes to the maximum amount of rent, then it goes back to them. Is there an avenue for adjusting and how long does that go back? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.