Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Paddy Meade; and, to my right is director of finance, Mr. Derek Elkin. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I understand his question. I don’t think we can get him that level of detail, in that I don’t think that right now we are keeping, okay, how many hours are we using this. The tools are out there. We are trying to provide the support and training so that more people will use it. As I stated earlier, we will be evaluating and monitoring this program and we will give an update and promise that to MLA Yakeleya too. I will give him a profile of where the machines are right now, where we are going to get more out of and what kind of services are being provided through these tools...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled NWT Hospital Satisfaction Report and Community Health Services Satisfaction Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can advise you that I have, on a number of occasions, been invited by the NWT Seniors’ Society and I have met with them. We share a meal and we, sort of, have a roundtable and they tell me all the things that they want me to work on in terms of seniors’ issues. The NWT Seniors’ Society has membership. The board of directors has membership from all regions of the Territories. They did bring up the issue of a seniors secretariat and they have told us and, in fact, they have written to us to say that they understand that the resources are limited. They understand that to create an...

I’m going to try to tackle this and if there is any technical backup, my DM can jump in.

Mr. Chairman, first of all, telehealth and telespeech, we’re not talking about two different projects. It really is a communication machine. It’s about delivering health care and related services like speech therapy through a TV screen connected to a service provider, whether it be a speech language therapist or a radiologist or even a physician. It is a distance health care delivery method. I can tell you that, I know for a fact, I saw with my own eyes new machines sitting in Deline, Good Hope, even...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The way our system is set up, the authorities get the funding to provide services to the communities. They work as one entity and they distribute their resources in the best way possible. I understand and I have heard, and I have met with the community about the desire of the community to have a permanent nurse physically there all year round. The issues are the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority is stretched, not only in terms of dollars, but in terms of available nurses. They have the obligation for all of the Beaufort-Delta communities to spread their nursing resources...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Member is right; this is a crucial and big emerging issue. It is permeating into all of our program areas. It is not just a long-term care issue.

Seniors population right now -- about 3,500 out of 40,000-plus of the Northwest Territories population -- is the fastest growing segment of our population. It has grown by 54 percent over the last 10 years while the general population only grew by 4 percent. I think that speaks to what challenges and opportunities we are dealing with.

The department, in all program areas, looks at how to support the seniors and how to...

Mr. Chairman, the home care service, the money is provided to each authority under our primary care. Thank you.

...(inaudible)...busy schedule, but we would like at least an hour or two to give you a briefing on what we have so far and seek your input. Thank you.

Thank you. Beyond that I would just like to add that we have had a situation of not having a written contract between Stanton and Nunavut and it was important for us to make sure that we conclude that so that we settle the outstanding receivables and we have made some gains on that. So that’s why it was important that we conclude this and any newer issues that we need to be bringing to this we will deal with that in the next phase.

Also, I think it’s important to note that while Stanton has been experiencing a deficit, it is not correct to think that this is contributing to the deficit to the...