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...

As I’ve indicated, the deputy minister will be participating in that board and any proposals they may have for raising money for capital, obviously we’re willing to work with that and see how we can work together. I think we should be careful that raising money for capital equipment is for capital equipment. Often it’s the O and M and the ongoing funding that is a lot bigger than the capital funding itself. We should be mindful of that when we are talking about fundraising projects. Obviously, I appreciate and value the work that the foundation does and any idea they may have that they want us...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m always willing to meet with any group or organization to hear them out and see what we can do in terms of working together. I can tell the Member that I have met with the Stanton Territorial Foundation executive director and chair quite early in my mandate. We have also learned that in fact the deputy minister of Health and Social Services is a member of that board, which has not been exercised in a while. We are certainly willing to work with the foundation and see what projects we can work on together.

Before I begin the Member’s new set of questions, I just want to say the Member is right from the last question that there are two parts to this funding request, the biggest being what’s in front of us now under capital funding for $904,000.

I also want to address why, when we knew this for a year and a half or so, why did this become urgent and is it lack of planning on the department’s part. Mr. Chairman, the answer to that is this came as a surprise to us, but it does happen when a vendor decides that they will not support software, and, obviously, software, the support is important, that...

The input will come from the feedback that we would receive in the town hall meetings. As well, we will be posting questionnaires on the website and we would advertise that so people will be able to go in there. There are some checkbox kind of questions, but there are also spaces where people can write their opinions on the questions they ask. So it will be designed in a way that will allow people to give their feedback on the information they see and what other suggestions they might have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The meeting being planned is a town hall meeting so that any interested parties can attend. The location and time will be advertised well in advance. I believe it’s on the website and, if not already, will be advertised in the paper and other medium, so that as many people can come and they can have the information in front of us and give us their feedback based on the facts that we have on things like whether there should be some sharing of costs.

We should remember, everybody should know that we’re not talking about the range of benefits that are available. Those are...

I tabled in the House about three weeks ago satisfaction surveys from residents all over the Territories about the services they’re receiving in health centres and hospitals. Over 80 percent of people say they are satisfied with the services they have. It is wrong... I understand the Member would like to have a resident nurse in Tsiigehtchic. A lot of our services, even in bigger communities, are by referral services. We’re not able to have resident doctors, resident nurses, resident radiologists, resident everything in every community. We do spend $326 million for 40,000 people scattered in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect, the information that the Member just read should be read together with other information that we have provided. The information on nurses-in-charge, we know that we’ve had at least 36 weeks of nursing coverage in Tsiigehtchic for a community of 170 people. The Member knows that I am committed to enhancing nursing services in Tsiigehtchic and all the small communities. That is the work we are doing with Foundation for Change. It is wrong when we tell the community members that they don’t have nursing services. We have nursing services in Tsiigehtchic. I...