Sandy Lee

Thank you. We would be part of or we could sign up to be a part of national research when the clinical trials are ready to proceed. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is any clinical trials or procedures like this have a very set objective process that scientists and doctors follow. They have to be random, they have to be double blinded and it has to be safe. In all of the jurisdictions there are lots of researchers at different university settings that are studying this issue and right now. The information is that science does not indicate that we could do this clinical trial safely. But NWT...

Yes, we do, especially with the opening of the Territorial Dementia Centre and the Hay River Assisted Living Facility. We did review clients outside of the jurisdiction, our clients in other jurisdictions, to see if they can be moved.

Territorial Admissions Committee are administrators who review the files to see where our clients should be best placed within the Territory. Questions about how do they get paid to be moved would be on a case-by-case basis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories and the Department of Health and Social Services is on board with all of the other jurisdictions in Canada. All of the Ministers of Health have agreed that we are supportive of this treatment going forward once there is scientific evidence that would take us to the next level. All provinces and territories have agreed that we will work together and work with the scientists to be ready when the scientific evidence shows that this procedure is ready for clinical trial. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the department and the government is doing a lot of work to put our nurses through our various training programs. We just direct appointed a number of nurses. We support nurses going through this program.

Mr. Speaker, this year’s budget for the CHN Program, we have a contract with Aurora College for $460,000 and we spent $350,000 in salary subsidy for CHNs in their second year program. It is important that we support them through their programming, and we will be interested in taking on new students, but we need to make sure that we have the budget in place to support them.

Mr...

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member. This is a very important program, but like any other programs, it has to work within the existing budget. It went over budget by quite a bit, so our approach right now is to support students that are already there. We are spending $750,000 this year. We will bring in new intake as the budget allows.

On the note of parking, there are lots of government buildings where the employees do pay for parking. That would be the kind of thing that administration would do on their own. I will get an update on that. I am not aware of patients being charged for TV or any other service, but I think anybody who has travelled to southern facilities, all those are charged. So I’d be happy to talk to the authority to see if there are plans like that or any other plan. It hasn’t come to my desk. I’ll share that with the Member when it does.

I’m sure the Member would appreciate that our overarching goal in this House cannot be about reducing the deficit to zero without understanding what the impacts of that would be. I don’t think the Member would support reducing or eliminating programs at Stanton that would impact our residents and the regions across the Territories.

It is important that we work as leaders of the Assembly and work with our health care partners and health care administrators to get advice from them on exactly where the cost drivers are, what are the things that we must have, what additional resources should we...

I would be happy to get back to the Member on the load, the wait times and such. Also, we should be mindful of the fact that the Medical Travel Policy says that we pay for medical travel and treatment of patients where those services are not available in the NWT. It may be that somebody may have to see another neurologist because the service that they provide here is not exactly alike. So we make sure that we have the services there. I will get back to the Member on what the patient load is, wait times.

With respect to grandfathering, that is always not a good idea. I will just get back to the...

I agree with the Member that this is not a simple matter and it does involve patient care and comfort and continuity of care that the patient expects.

Specialist service in the Territories and at Stanton Hospital is one of the most important and expensive services. We’ve spent about $13 million on specialists and they’re often over budget. We also spent a lot of money on out-of-territory services. So it is important that when we get a specialist service such as a neurologist, that we use those resources at maximum.

With respect to wait times, we did review that and I certainly could work with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents, the first entitled GNWT response to Motion 2-16(5), Adult Diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

And the second document entitled GNWT Medical Travel Policy in response to my Return to Written Question 8-16(5). Thank you, Mr. Speaker.