Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for the question. Mr. Speaker, I can advise you that Stanton has identified three definite and two possible post-surgical site infections. In June a quality audit of all processes from the CSR to patient care units was conducted to ensure that Stanton was following best practices. Dr. Kandola, chief public health officer, reviewed the audit and has endorsed the practices Stanton has followed. Surgical site infections are a risk for all surgeries.

I can also advise the House that Stanton’s SSI rate has been within the national average of 3...

Mr. Chairman, I don’t think it precludes any grads from Aurora College to apply if they want to. I think they noticed that there are not enough of them posted to apply. I want to let the Members know that we worked in the last year to put the students through the Graduate Employment Program and many of them were direct appointed. Those jobs were not advertised.

Mr. Chairman, I think our records show that the government is committed and it is incumbent on the students to work with us so that we could help them be placed into positions. There is a process and there are rules to follow. I...

I am going to have to ask Mr. Elkin to give that information. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the investments that the department has been making through HR has stayed consistent over the last number of years. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we do, and that program was highly successful, a lot of people went into it, it was oversubscribed, we never have enough money to meet the demands of everyone. It is oversubscribed now and we have an obligation to deliver our programs with the money we have. We’re not allowed to just oversubscribe. So we are using the money we have now and we do support our community people to go get trained. There are all kinds of programs for that. So, Mr. Chairman, I don’t think there’s any question about that. Thank you.

Thank you. I’m going to invite my deputy minister to add details, if she feels they’re needed.

I think we’re mixing up a whole bunch of programs here. First of all, I want to say, because I received an e-mail from a student who was I think offended, maybe she was, that I was suggesting... She thought that I was suggesting that a graduate out of a Nursing Program from Aurora College is not ready to be a nurse. That’s not in any way what I meant. I think what we’re talking about is being practice ready. In any profession, whether you’re an engineer, lawyer, doctor, nurse or whatever, you learn...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s not part of the budget we have here, but the Member has raised that before and I committed to him last week that we will revisit that. It would take major changes, actually, because most of this money is already... That $2.931 million, most of it is going to, well, all of it is going to Nats’ejee Keh, Salvation Army and Tree of Peace. That’s the budget. If we want to use that money to do something different, it would take, you know, changes in doing things, but I think we need to look at that. I’ve committed to the Member that we will do that, and we need to do...

Mr. Speaker, I will make sure that that is part of our review process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I answer that question, I just wanted to comment that the Member mentioned something about that the administration is denying or somehow hiding the deficit. I want everybody to know that we do regular reporting of the deficit situation of the entire structure. Every three months Members get briefed regularly about the deficit situation, so nobody is denying anything about the deficit situation.

Secondly, Mr. Speaker, while I believe it’s important for us to have important discussions here, it is important for us not to be abusive towards the staff. Mr. Speaker, we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year we recognized NWT Mental Wellness Week from February 6 to 12, 2011, with the theme Mental Health for Everyone. It is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of maintaining good mental health and to work towards reducing the stigma of mental illness.

The NWT celebrates Mental Wellness Week several months earlier than the rest of Canada. We can all appreciate that during the cold dark days of February, good mental health should be on our all our minds.

Mr. Speaker, in Canada, one in five people will experience a mental health issue such as bipolar...