Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, we always do and we will. I would be happy to appear before the committee in December. Thank you.

I have talked to the Member privately and I’ve responded to any parents that I’ve had a chance to talk to recently, and I say it again, that the Department of Health and Social Services considers the respite care program a very important service, and that I’ve stated in answering questions to the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins, on Monday, that we have a resolution that we are working on. The important thing is that we work together to get the support that the families need. I intend to do that and the government intends to do that as well. Thank you.

I do appreciate the Member’s strong advocacy for the protection and provision of services to the working poor. He’s been a strong advocate throughout this supp health benefits review process and in the last Assembly as well.

Mr. Speaker, we need to work this in a package. We need to address all of these things at the same time, because the Member knows already that our Supp Health Program is already over-expended and we need to find some savings and find ways to help those who are without minimal dental and vision care at the moment. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, investment in HealthNet tools such as the interoperable Electronic Health Record (or iEHR), the Diagnostic Imaging/Picture Archiving Communication System (or DI/PACS), and Telehealth are critical to delivery of health care services for residents of the Northwest Territories.

These tools are resulting in better access and outcomes across the Northwest Territories. In the words of a local clinician, “This is transforming how we deliver care.” In the words of one patient, “For 10 seconds, everything went terribly wrong. Then for the next four days, everything went very right. The...

Thank you. Sustainability is a question on all health care programs, including the Supp Health Benefits Program, and this is why I believe that the recommendations made by the Supp Health Benefits Joint Working Group is timely, because it’s tasked us to find ways to encourage people to get third-party insurance.

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated many a time in the House, this is one of the few government programs where some people can get the assistance elsewhere, and we need to encourage that. So a part of our work is to encourage employers to offer health care benefits and then individuals to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe I’ll have to get back to the Member on that. I believe it’s about $8 million, but we often ask for about $3 million for supp health.

The Member is right when he says that medical travel is an essential part of delivering health care in the North, and this is why we fought for and got, and we have a federal Minister who understands the importance of medical travel in the North and all across the North. That’s part of our additional funding we got under THSSI. What we need to do on the medical travel is that we use the money wisely so that anybody who needs medical travel gets to their medical care. So part of what we’re doing is using technology to make sure that we have the money available to those who really need to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member’s statement and question speaks to the importance of thinking territorially, that whenever we are planning the business plan, programming, we need to look at our work as being territorial. We need to make sure that all of our residents are treated fairly and equitably. This is why in our Foundation for Change we put so much focus on access, because what the Member is talking about is that every resident needs to have access to essential medical and health care and that’s one of the three pillars of the Foundation for Change. Thank you.

As we get further into operating this facility, the authority is, and will be, reviewing the staff makeup and the presence of staff at the front office. The way it’s designed, because of the physicality of the floor, we couldn’t have everybody in one place, so it just necessitated having two different stations. We have been able to train and staff additional personnel on the lab side. I have also talked to the management about using some of the equipment and TV screens and other things to advise and inform the public about how long they have to wait, why they are waiting, what’s expected to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’d like to thank the Member for the positive statements he made with regard to this important project. It is an important initiative for our health and social services system, because the Yellowknife primary clinic services not just Yellowknife residents but residents from surrounding communities.

I agree with the Member that the facility is going through, and has gone through, some growing pains, and I agree with him that we need to be able to give that feedback. What I’m going to suggest to the Member is, I’m going to ask the authority and the management...