Thank you. General comments, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have a very short comment regarding home boarding within the health system. Firstly, the Kitikmeot boarding home is utilized by Kitikmeot patients, as the name implies. We have patients coming from other regions, mainly the Keewatin region. I am not saying that patients from the Keewatin region are not welcome; I think that more patients justify the need to have more space for the patients. The Kitikmeot boarding home is not big enough at this time to accommodate patients who are coming into the city of Yellowknife, even though other accommodations are being made at this time. I think we should be looking at getting another building or adding an extension to the existing building, but I do not think that is possible, given the size of land that the Kitikmeot boarding home is sitting on. I am not suggesting that we do it now, but this should be in the planning process. We need more space to accommodate patients coming from the Kitikmeot region and other regions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

Mr. Chairman, just to assure the Member that in the use of the Kitikmeot boarding home, patients from the central Arctic get the first call, and when there is room other patients are put into the boarding home. There are occasions when some of the patients who come from Yellowknife for treatment like to stay in private homes, or in another areas, so the first call on bed space is for Kitikmeot residents. Very soon the area in the Kitikmeot boarding home that was for the care person in that facility will be turned into an additional six to eight beds, once the kitchen area can be secured and the caretaker can move to other accommodation. In the long term, in determining the ongoing needs of the patients, this is the total planning that we are doing for all the catchment area using the Yellowknife hospital. We do not only have to do work for Kitikmeot, but for Fort Simpson and the Inuvik region. The overall planning for how their new tracks of patient are coming in, is changing. It is not as we originally suspected. Certainly the people of Kitikmeot get first call at the boarding home unless they request to stay at a couple of the other places, because they like the people who run the private home.

Thank you. General comments, Mr. Ningark.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not saying the Kitikmeot patients should get first call to stay in that boarding home, what I am saying is we should be looking at getting other spaces to accommodate the number of patients who are increasingly coming to this community.

Thank you. General comments, Member for Kitikmeot.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Madam Premier, you know that we have only one native doctor, and he happens to be Inuvialuit, Dr. Noah Carpenter. I wonder if you have thought about bringing him home to work for his own people. He would be a perfect roll model and from what I understand, Mr. Chairman, he is a very good surgeon. If you can entertain ideas of bringing this doctor home it would help our people to say, if Noah can do it then maybe I can do it.

Thank you. Madam Minister.

Mr. Chairman, on a number of occasions over the last several years, we have had numerous discussions with Dr. Noah Carpenter and he did work at the Inuvik general hospital for a short period of time. However, Dr. Noah Carpenter is a well-known surgeon specializing in a very critical area of health care. His services are very specialized and there are a lot of requests for his services. My understanding is that when you come to those qualifications you operate in a very intense, highly technical area of medicine. In that profession there is a lot of people who gain esteem and professional skills. His skills are be coveted in many parts of Canada, and most recently in the United States of America, because as you gain experience in your medical profession, you gain skill. Because of his medical knowledge and wanting to advance technically, he wants to move to higher skilled areas, but we do not have the support system here that he would require. I know that he always wants to learn more and be involved. He has reached a competency level now that would require him to go to the United States of America or some of the United Kingdom countries, where they perform more delicate, specific operations. So we did try, and my understanding is he is still sitting on the Science Institute Board and he does come home every so often. Maybe we can take his picture and give him more profile than he is getting. Thank you.

Thank you. General comments. Would this committee like to go into detail?

Details.

Territorial Hospital Insurance Services

Thank you. We are on page 12-9. Detail of capital on Health. Territorial hospital insurance services, building and works, headquarters, total region $934,000. Agreed?

Agreed.

---Agreed

Thank you. Fort Smith, total region, $125,000. Mr. Nerysoo.

Thank you. I wanted to make a comment under dental services in schools but I will deal with it under another item. I will deal with the matter under Inuvik.

Fort Smith. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to let the department know about the Trout Lake Health Centre. I would like them to take a close look at the facility itself. I have been told that it cannot be used due to the furnace causing fumes in the house. It should be renovated so that it could be used, as well as some of the mechanical facilities so that they also could be used. I was told there was a problem with the furnace and it is not a healthy environment. I was wondering if the department could look into that? Thank you.

Thank you. Madam Premier.

Mr. Chairman, I am informed that the furnace has been fixed and that presently the overall maintenance is being looked at. So I believe it is presently in progress.

Thank you. Mr. Antoine.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am flying to Trout Lake right after this session today so I will check it out myself. Thank you.

Thank you. Fort Smith, total region. Mr. Gargan.

Mr. Chairman, my comment is with regard to the program design renovations of the health centre in Fort Providence. During the finance committee meeting, I thought the amount was $900,000. My problem is not with the change itself, it is in regard to the centre. In my opinion, the change is probably based on the fact that the health centre is in good condition and there is no reason to be wasting money to renovate the centre. We do not have a resident nurse, but we do have nurses in the community. One is married and the other has her own trailer. I believe the renovations were to make improvements to the resident portion of that health centre, but there is no one residing there. I guess there was no justification for that amount of money being spent on renovating that centre, and I have no problems with that. I do have a problem that even if in future years, there may be renovations done, the priority should be given to Kakisa. You should look at having some type of facility for Kakisa. Perhaps a small health centre or at least some space so there is basic infrastructure in place. During the finance meeting I made that point. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.