Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again, I would like to take the opportunity, on behalf of my constituents, to address many of their concerns, with regard to issues that have been affecting them. I also want to address many of the initiatives that this government has been addressing within my constituency, that my constituents have been very grateful for.
Mr. Speaker, since last April when we met, I took it upon myself this past summer -- with all the problems we've had in our health centre -- to conduct a survey among my constituents. I had a very detailed survey developed and delivered to the homes this past summer. I had up to 420 or so replies to this household survey and there was one survey given per household. I recognize that I had many different opinions from many different constituents in my diverse constituency.
Mr. Speaker, this survey asked many different questions pertaining to the health board that was disbanded, but recently reinstated. And, I thank the Minister of Health for that decision. In addition, towards the end of my survey, I didn't only speak about health issues, I also asked my constituents what they thought about some of the other issues facing Fort Smith and the territories, overall. I asked one particular question, which was, "In your opinion, what do you think are the main concerns facing the residents of Fort Smith?" I also asked them, "What priorities would you like to see our MLA work on when the next session of the Legislative Assembly begins on November 17?"
I got many varied replies, Mr. Speaker, but I was happy to note that, in as much as people were concerned about the health centre and the operation of the health centre -- and particularly about the need for a health board, which has since been addressed -- many of my constituents felt that, as an MLA, I had the ability to priorize the concerns of my constituency and to be able to address them effectively on their behalf. I did have a couple of comments -- I believe there were two, in particular -- that were somewhat critical of the way that I, at times, express concerns. That, I believe, is constructive criticism, and I welcome that.
I do want to let this government know that many of the concerns that I had in my constituency were about the lack of housing and the lack of employment. There were basically no employment opportunities in our community this past summer. However, I can see that, within the next year, there will be a lot more opportunity for employment. I know my constituents will be quite busy doing such things as building the Arctic College academic headquarters. I certainly hope they will also be building a tanker base in Fort Smith.
I certainly believe, as I have said, that many of the people are grateful for some of the things that I have been doing. But, at the same time, they feel that there are many things still outstanding and issues that still have to be addressed. I will attempt to indicate them to this House. Initially, Mr. Speaker, I wanted to read all of my survey reports, but I feel it is somewhat unfair to have Members listen to the responses to my survey, so I generalized the responses.
One of the questions was, do you feel that we need a hospital board? There were very, very few people, out of 400 households that said, no. Everyone said, yes, a hospital board is critical. The next area they want me to work towards is attempting to get these boards elected, so they can be accountable to the community. Currently, the system of appointing board members allows for the accountability process to be somewhat flawed. I use the word "flawed" with all due respect. But, when you try to bring issues to the hospital board, at times, it is difficult. I find I get better results just bringing the issues to the Minister; I find many of these medical and health issues are then addressed.
At the same time, I don't feel that, as Members, we should be doing that all the time. I think the process of a board would allow for these health issues to be addressed. And, I believe that the board, if they are elected as opposed to being appointed, would give them the responsibility and ability -- because they have a mandate -- to make decisions accordingly for the betterment of the community. So, I do want to indicate to the Minister of Health that I certainly would encourage him to look at considering a process that allows the health boards that we have in the communities to be elected, as opposed to being appointed. I believe that, in the Department of Health, if this was the case, you probably would have less problems than you have today.
That was one of the main things I wanted to find out in my constituency, whether or not the board should be elected or appointed. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, the other question I asked was, once we have this board in place, there are different models. One of the main concerns is how you choose the chairman. The chairman, as you are, Mr. Speaker, is an very important position that ensures the proceedings are conducted in a fair and consistent manner.
I asked three questions. Should the Minister appoint a chairperson? Should the members of the hospital board select a chairperson from their own membership? Or, should the community residents vote for the hospital board chairperson? The majority of the surveys indicated that the members of the hospital board should elect the chairperson. Then, you are certainly allowing for a cohesive team to work for the betterment of community health.
I certainly agree that the hospital board chairperson should be appointed by the Minister of Health until the rules are changed to allow them to get elected on the recommendation of their colleagues that are within the hospital board. The other general question that I've asked within my survey, and I'll name some of these questions, Mr. Speaker, as we go through them, is are there any general comments that they'd like to make about the Fort Smith Health Centre. There were many general comments. Many consistent, repetitive general comments that basically said, and I'll summarize it, that we have too many locum physicians in our community and we have to have some type of consistency, with regard to doctors. It's very frustrating for many of the people in the community, every time you want to see a doctor you have to go to a different doctor. I believe that particular concern was also reflected in the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. That was one of the more pressing concerns that was expressed at the public meeting.
There's no doubt that there are many of my constituents that still miss the services of Dr. Viswalingam and are still looking forward to the day that he may be able to conduct his assessment and be able to practice in the community. I know that there are still many patients that just on principle, refuse to go to the hospital for any type of medical services. I believe that is very unfortunate, but when people are convinced of a particular issue, it's very difficult to convince them to change their minds.
My other question was, were there any special health promotion projects or additional services, with regard to health projects that would benefit the residents of Fort Smith? With that, Mr. Speaker, again it's reflected in the Special Committee on Health and Social Services. Some of the comments were mental health has to be addressed, they need more regular visits from specialists, they need more resources, with respect to looking at specialists on hearing aid, speech themologists, deficit disorder -- for children who are designated for special needs. In addition, they felt that there should be, particularly when there is inadequate equipment in the health centre, the ability to address preventative types of health concerns, as opposed to being reactive with regard to health concerns.
There were many, many other concerns, with regard to keeping in contact with patients from the health centre. There were some comments on inadequate deliveries of babies within the community, that many of the deliveries are going out of the community. It doesn't seem that they feel comfortable with the type of health services we're getting.
They have also indicated the hiring procedures of the health centre are, at times, questionable. There are many, particularly of the long-term residents, that remember our health centre as having the ability to do operations, whether it's a tonsillectomy, or any type of appendicitis operation. In fact, I recall, when I was younger, there was a doctor that did brain surgery in Fort Smith. Today, there's a resistance to even deliver babies. It's telling you that since the government has taken over the health centre in Fort Smith it appears, if we sit down and think about it, our services have somewhat deteriorated. I believe that we certainly have to attempt to make use of these facilities because the facility that we now have is certainly a great facility compared to what we used to have, which used to do a lot more. They used to have the old Saint Anne's health centre that was, I believe, built in something like 1911. It's still standing today but it moved into the Fort Smith Health Centre back in the early 1980's. The new facility, which cost millions of more dollars, is not doing a lot of the work that it could be doing. I would like to encourage the Minister of Health to look at this and see how we can address this health care system, particularly with the health centre, so that you're not only going to reduce health care costs in the long term, but you're going to enhance proper services to the community.
