Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The information that I have indicates 38,000 in 2013 from the cards that will be expiring, and the balance of the territory, their health care cards will expire in 2014.

The recruiters from both the Health and Social Services and the health authorities really have not identified salary so much as an issue in recruitment. We have a very good package, probably one of the best in the country in as far as just dollars go. The issue has been more of bringing doctors in and the doctor’s requirement for recreation activities in the centres that they would work in, and education. Those have been the two factors that have weighed most heavily on the recruitment issue with doctors.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The tone of the meeting, in my opinion, was very positive. I think that all of the members of the Joint Leadership Council and the Aboriginal governments that were invited to attend to hear our plans on all aspects of governance, including some on physician recruitment, it sounded positive. The plan is for the department to do a complete debrief of the meeting next week. In as far as recruitment goes, they recognize, people from the authorities and the Aboriginal governments recognize that we are highly motivated to recruit physicians to the Northwest Territories.

I think we can start off by determining between our renewal office in Inuvik and the department and any of the communities where there may be some complaints about applications being lost, and determine that number and then specifically deal with those individuals who may have lost applications.

I guess to the public we can do our best to try to ensure that when they do the proper thing of putting the information in the mail, that it gets to our office, and once it gets to our office that it’s handled with due care and that it’s packaged and sent for printing, and then from the printers to...

Yes, we are looking into any complaints that come in where there’s an indication that perhaps an application was lost in the process. We are looking into those cases. Thank you.

I do believe that there is some form of payment to the doctors, but it’s worked out between the Health and Social Services and the health authorities. I do believe there’s a payment after 12 months and there’s another one after the next 12 months. I don’t actually have the details, but I believe that’s what I kind of recall, but it’s not something that’s very substantial that may be offered in other jurisdictions.

It’s a very unfortunate choice of a word there in the article. I believe that if a doctor recoils at the fact of working in small communities, they probably wouldn’t be working in Yellowknife, either.

Continually, our plan, from the time we had the recruitment support unit transferred back from Health and Social Services on April 1, 2013, has always been to have a plan A, and the plan A has always been to have doctors in the communities where the allocation is. Failing that, with discussion and continued work with the authorities, we would give the doctor the option to live in Yellowknife, in a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department would be prepared to look at other jurisdictions to see what all the jurisdictions across the country are doing in as far as coverage and the extent of which the person can be a resident in another part of the country or another part of the world. We would be prepared to look at that and to look at the cost of that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Nutritious food into the communities is very important to the government, and diet and exercise. A good diet and exercise are essential for the health care system. Affordable, nutritious foods going into the communities that otherwise cannot get nutritious food at an affordable rate is essential, and the government considers this to be a good motion and we’ll vote in support. Thank you.

Yes, I think there is a way that we can improve the communication and I will have that discussion with the executive, and they will, in turn, have a discussion with the people that are responsible for making sure that the lines are open when people want to get a hold of information.

The reason that the applications are often returned is an issue of ensuring that people are eligible for health care cards when they apply for it. There is information that is needed on the health care card that guarantees that those individuals are eligible, and we are trying to comply to previous issues where...