Sandy Lee

I absolutely totally understand that and I think it’s much more difficult for the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley because they had a resident nurse and they now no longer have that since 2003. There are many communities in the Territories of similar size who have never had a resident nurse. What is really important for people to know is that if a community doesn’t have a resident nurse, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the health care they need. The community health reps and other care providers are in constant touch with medical professionals all across the Territories. There is...

For the record, I need to say that I don’t understand where the February 1st came from. The Member is well aware that we’ve been working through many hours in this House to work on our health care delivery system so that we have enhanced services in communities by changing the way we do things. That’s the plan under Foundation for Change. But as it exists now, we give our block funding to the regional health and social services authorities and they are regional bodies who share their resources to provide the best services they can for all of the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. It is financial in one way, but actually it’s much more than that. It’s operational as well. In terms of governance, we deliver our health care services through regional authorities. They’re provided with a block funding. They have services that they need to provide; nursing services being one crucial item. But they do not fund or they do not spend their money per community. They provide nursing coverage for the entire authority, a lot like school boards. Teachers get hired by school boards and they are employees of the...

I don’t disagree with that. I do think that having a dedicated nurse for a community would be helpful for the communities. Right now the Deh Cho authority, like many other authorities, have a high vacancy rate in nurses. They have somewhere up to 30 to 40 percent vacancies in nurses. Like all the other authorities, they look at the pool of nurses available and have to share them around the authorities so that everybody in that area gets the nursing service. But they are working on a proposal to enhance nursing coverage in small communities including Wrigley, as the Member has stated in this...

The Member knows that the Beaufort-Delta authority is in a deficit situation. There is no money for them to fund from within. Secondly, I’m not sure where the Member gets that we’re only spending $60,000 in Tsiigehtchic. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT spends a lot more money than $280,000 in Tsiigehtchic for health and social services. We have a full-time community health rep there; we have a full-time home support worker there; we have visiting nurses that go there for 89 days of the year; we have doctors’ services; we have a specialist service; as well, a social worker that goes there, Mr. Speaker...

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we should be mindful of the fact that all of our communities have a nursing service. The community of Wrigley does have a nursing service and other health care service there. I do understand that for a lot of communities, they would like to have a live-in service, but that’s not always possible everywhere.

I want to advise the Member that the department and Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority are working on a plan to see how they could enhance health care service in small communities within Deh Cho. There are some other very small communities in Deh Cho...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are working on a project to look at enhancing nursing services in small and remote communities. We believe the proposal we have could shed light on what we can do and do services in other communities like the Mackenzie Delta. It is something we are working on with the authority. I have always stated in this House, Mr Speaker, that we are looking to enhance our services in small communities like Tsiigehtchic, but the Member also has to understand that we, at the moment, block fund our regions and we work under a system where the authorities share the...

I have committed that in the past. We understand and we accept that the RCMP for Wrigley is based in Simpson and they have increased their visits to Wrigley and that’s the proposal we have for communities in Deh Cho and that’s what we continue to work on for the region in Beaufort-Delta. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated earlier, the department and authorities right now are discussing a proposal to enhance nursing services in small communities in Deh Cho. This is subject to approval by the board, so this is why I am just giving the Member as much information as I can. Mr. Speaker, I understand that he has made his desire for the community of Wrigley. We are working on the system where the regional board oversees the health and social services for the entire region. So whenever we do anything, we need to do it on a regional basis. The board has given me a proposal to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. For the children, the numbers have stayed quite stable since 2004-05. The average number of children in care back then was 39, the next year it was 39, and the year after, 36. We are projecting for 2009-10, 35. So those numbers have stayed the same. The number of adult placements has increased over the last number of years, but it was 27 in 2004-05, then 29 the year after, 35 in 2006-07, the year after, and then 48 in 2007-08, 51 in 2008-09, and 46 is projected.

Mr. Chairman, the people that are placed in these facilities are usually from either severe disability and...