Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to put for the record that this Minister does have a heart, and three and a half years of being the Minister of Health did not lessen that power of the heart. I don’t think we could do this job without feeling for what our people go through.

Mr. Chairman, I was just commenting on the latest information that I remember having about some of the challenges we have with social workers’ positions in the Sahtu, and I just want to put, for the record, that the department and the authorities are committed to having our workforce on the ground. For a community as big as...

There are a couple of questions there that I need to get back to the Member on. I don’t know how long it has been vacant and I don’t know how much money it costs to use a locum as opposed to having our own. Thank you.

The three pillars of Foundation for Change are wellness, accessibility and sustainability. There is a section in Foundation for Change about working to support children, to enhance services for children, and as I said in my Minister’s statement on Friday, we support the direction and the general spirit and intent of the standing committee report on the review because it’s very much in line with what our department’s goals are under Foundation for Change. I see no gaps there and it’s very much in line. We are, I believe, moving in the same direction.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I take his comments. These are ongoing files that I’ve been working on and I will get back to the Member.

As the Member stated, this is an issue that is very much alive among our Cabinet. It is an issue of discussion. This is the reason why we have a Deputy Ministers’ Steering Committee set up. That’s where we have directed for the officials who work on the technical side of the increasing demands of this program and Health is making their case on absolute necessity into expanding investments in this area so that we can continue to increase the accessibility of health care programming and service delivery in small communities. There is a steering committee set up to work on that and it’s very much...

We do have the position, but it is not filled. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Foundation for Change is a pretty straightforward, clearly written document about what the department is proposing to realign the way we deliver our services and what we are focusing on. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that over the three and a half years I’ve been here working with MLA Bisaro, she has an insatiable appetite for details. So instead of making a broad statement about lack of information, if the Member could tell me exactly what detail she is looking for, I’d be more than happy to provide her with the details she needs. Thank you.

That’s a government-wide work that we’re undertaking and it is a priority for our department. Our director of policy sits on the steering committee and we are involved.

Thank you. We will undertake to provide the Member with all the answers to the questions he raised.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The first item about nurses and how we’re going to make it possible for them to work here, obviously, as a government we are committed and wanting to make sure that we hire and keep as many of our northern nurses as possible. One thing the nurses are actually doing, we have communicated to the nurses who have written to us, is that they should not, actually they should, it’s not a bad thing if there’s local nurses being hired because that means there are jobs there for them to take. Secondly, they wouldn’t be responding to jobs advertising for nurses positions. They...