Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to use my Member’s statement today to trumpet the efforts of one individual in our business community, in our Yellowknife private sector, who stepped up to the plate, when government sometimes is uncomfortable, on environmental education for youth.

That person is Yellowknife’s Chris Johnston. He heard last week the lukewarm answers from our Premier about purchasing the documentary film “Water is Life.” He heard — and I quote from the October 7, 2008, page 22, unedited Hansard — that we will be prepared to “try and see what we can do to get this information out to...

I’m sort of perplexed. It sounds like we’re not getting any additional services than anyone else who would walk in off the street, yet we have a very specific contract with Capital Health. I find it an odd situation that this government wouldn’t try to negotiate some type of preferred experience, preferred customer. I’m certainly well aware that the GNWT makes every effort to make sure we pay our bills in a timely way — to get recognition for that — so Capital Health doesn’t need to sit and wait for payment.

Why do we contract specifically with Capital Health? Why don’t we consider going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still have a few more questions for the Minister of Health regarding our experiences or relationship with Capital Health and our contract.

A lot of people in this House know, I’m sure, that Capital Health is an approximately $13 billion sort of conglomerate of hospitals and whatnot; that’s their budget area. To put that into perspective, the GNWT’s budget is only 10 per cent of that. It’s a sense of magnitude I’m drawing on that.

In negotiating our contract with Capital Health to provide services to Northerners who need services, I’d like to know if the Minister is...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like the Minister to explain a paradox. At one moment she’ll take responsibility, and at another moment she’s not responsible because it’s a doctor’s situation. At the one moment it’s Capital Health’s decision where to send the patient, yet she acknowledges that she spent all day on the phone. I’m really confused. If she doesn’t have control, why does she bother calling? If she’s the Minister, I would think she’d be in charge and respectful and do the honourable thing by providing a written apology to the family. But then she says it’s not her responsibility.

So who’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue questioning, and I certainly want to thank Mr. Ramsay for helping on this issue, because it is an important issue for this family in Yellowknife.

I continued to ask the Minister four times yesterday: would she provide a written apology to this family in light of the way that this family was treated and certainly in recognition of the duration that this process went on? Is the Minister willing to write apology to this family and also recognize what she will be doing to make sure this does not happen again in the future?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the issue seems to elude the Minister. It’s not that she needs to go to Edmonton. It’s not that she needed to go to emergency. It’s that she spent 34 hours in emergency. That is ridiculous.

Mr. Speaker, why are we sending people to Edmonton if they have no rooms? I know the hospital care is the level that we’re concerned about, but why are we sending them to that hospital if they don’t have any rooms? Why did we send her there, and where is this apology that I think this family deserves?

Waiting 34 hours for a room is completely unreasonable. I would not describe that as a reasonable level of care that we pay for with our tax dollars. Two weeks ago this Minister knew there were problems down there. The husband called me to say that they knew this in this department and they understood this in this department.

I want to know what the plan was, because there appears to be no plan if they sent her down there with no room. And is this Minister prepared to put an apology in writing to this family that explains, “Sorry this happened, and it will not happen again”?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. So what happened? Why were there no rooms available? There is more than one hospital in Edmonton that I’m familiar with. Where is the assistance from our northern nurses who work down there to make sure our northern patients are taken care of? What about that great arrangement we have with Capital Health? We pay them. What are they doing? At this moment I’m not sure. It sounds like they’re not doing their job.

So what is the problem? What was the plan? Knowing full well that there might not be room, why did we send her? Why didn’t we send her...

The Minister just doesn’t seem to understand the question. I’m not asking or stating that the problem was in sending her to Edmonton. That’s not the problem. The problem is that she had to wait in emergency 34 hours to get a room. There seems to be no concern about an apology to this family. There seems to be no concern or thought as to saying: well, maybe if this hospital is full and if there are no rooms in this hospital, why could we not have sent her somewhere else, be it in Edmonton or Calgary?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement today I talked about a woman who had to wait 34 hours in order to be let into a room and suffered from a stroke. She was sent down to Edmonton, as I talked about in my Member’s statement. I felt that this was a disgusting way for government services and funding to show that the standard of health is completely unreasonable and unfair.

My questions will be focused on the Minister of Health and Social Services and specific only to this incident. I want to be very clear. I’d like to know what happened in this situation. I want to know what the Minister is...