Sandy Lee

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This agreement is renewed every year on a year-by-year basis. For the last two years my focus and concentration has been to renew the THAF funding, but we are working to strengthen our position on this particular agreement to see if we could renegotiate the terms. I would be happy to get the Member more information on what the terms of the contract are. There is not a lot of room for negotiating in terms of the escalating clause and such, but we are doing everything we can to see how we can strengthen our negotiating position.

Mr. Chairman, that is part of the Foundation for Change Action Plan. We are looking to enhance our chronic disease management programming and that includes treatment of diabetes and prevention of diabetes. I don’t know if the Member is asking for a precise dollar amount, but this is something that is done in every authority. Our primary care nurses and health care workers are involved in that. Thank you.

The H. Pylori project in Aklavik was initiated by an educational institution. It was initiated by a university who wanted to take a look at it. The Department of Health and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority provided all the support that we could possibly give them to get that work done. My understanding is that the results of that will not come out for another year or two. They need to do an in-depth analysis of the data that they had collected. In the meantime, the H. Pylori tests are available to any resident that might be interested in getting tested for that, if that...

Almost all of these changes have to do with THAF program that’s expiring, that we had to put in the book as being ended. But we’ve already talked about the fact that we’re working on a contingency plan, but we don’t want to prejudge.

I’m not sure if it’s correct to say that we’re subsidizing this care, because every province and territory is responsible for the delivery of health care to their residents. So whether we get any money from the federal government or not, we would be providing health care to every resident, and doctor care to every resident in the Territories. In the case of aboriginal peoples in the Territories, we get money from the federal government. The federal government’s position is that they are funding for the health care for aboriginal people by this agreement plus the transfer payments that they...