Tom Beaulieu

There is a need to do some consultation. Right now, as a department and as senior management to the department, we feel that this is the way to go. We need to reform governance in order to better take control of the costs. However, there is a requirement for a consultation.

I don’t think anybody that is working in the regions with the authorities or MLAs representing various authorities would be too pleased if the department proceeded with reforming governance without doing proper consultation with the health and social services authorities. Health and social services authorities are usually...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that the method that is used is used by the doctors. I don’t actually know the exact terminology, but it goes to the regular process during the time when a child would be feeling ill. The doctors would go through a process that I’m not familiar with or not an expert to speak of at this time.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I indicated, in the Canadian Blood Service and the cost, the cost of blood and plasma protein products is very volatile, so this huge shift is just a matter of two clients only. I think that initially when we were budgeting this, there was one client receiving some blood services. There are a lot of clients receiving blood services, but with this particular plasma protein there is one client receiving it. We got an additional two clients and then the amount went up immensely at that point.

This is something that would be hard to budget. This product keeps the people...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ll add more to the Canadian Blood Service, blood and plasma protein products. The Canadian Blood Service is a non-profit, charitable organization that provides blood and blood supply products to Canadians. However, Health Canada is responsible for regulating the blood supply system. The high cost of this item really is, like the Minister of Finance indicated, it’s actually just two people, believe it or not, which consume a large part of this budget. Plasma protein products, there are only two people using that product and it resulted in a shortfall. The costs, the...

I will commit to providing that evaluation to the Member for Yellowknife Centre and also to the Social Programs committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On the child and family services review, one of the main recommendations was the child and family services committees in the communities across the territory. We have advised the Beaufort-Delta along with all of the health and social services authorities, starting with the Beaufort-Delta right down to the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority, that we are going to start the training component, that they will work on a training component with the communities to start developing those committees in the communities. We’ve had, in addition to that, some...

Yes, we will work with the John Howard Society, if they were to continue to operate the day shelter, and we can put some of those requests into the new proposal or the new contract with the John Howard Society to ensure that those things do not continue in the day shelter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services has completed an evaluation of the day shelter pilot project. The evaluation has come back to us recently. We have given the evaluation to the John Howard Society for a response. Once we receive the response from the society, in addition to the evaluation, we will be looking at the day shelter for its effectiveness. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The situation with the nurse practitioners that are being trained has been very difficult. The nurse practitioners have worked well in Hay River, as an example, where there’s a nurse practitioner there that they do a little more than the registered nurses. They’re able to do diagnosis and prescriptions. They’re valuable. We have a nurse practitioner in Fort Resolution and in Hay River. We have seven nurse practitioner positions in Yellowknife but a lot of what’s been happening is the nurse practitioners that are advancing from registered nurse to nurse practitioner...

At this time the department intends to continue its funding beyond the three years, that in the business planning process the department has put the $125,000 back into the 2012-13 budget. I understand that the City of Yellowknife will be continuing their funding and that we’re waiting for confirmation from either BHP Billiton on their contribution, or if they are moving their contribution to another initiative, then we will be looking for a third partner to continue. Thank you.