Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will continue with the report, Mr. Chairman.

Barriers To Effective Administration

Throughout the review process, matters were brought to the attention of the Standing Committee on Agencies, Boards and Commissions as issues which were hindering the effective administration by health and hospital boards.

Absence Of Territorial Planning For Delivery Of Health Services

The standing committee heard many comments, for instance, about the lack of an overall "strategic plan" for health services. Health and hospital boards described a sense of continuing uncertainty about the directions which should be taken in the design of new programs and services, priorities for the enhancement of existing ones, and responsibilities for addressing emerging needs. This was summed up at the November 21 consultation sessions by the chairperson of the Inuvik regional health board who pointed out that:

"I think the first roadblock is no plan. I think everybody is working in isolation. We are all working for the betterment of the health of the people of the Northwest Territories and, yet, there is no plan."

The same concern was echoed by all the boards and was well described in the written submission received from the Kitikmeot regional health board as, "...a lack of territorial vision and direction to guide the focus of hospital and community board expenditures and services."

This deficiency was noted, as well, by the Auditor General of Canada who stated that: "Without a plan, NWT health care has no clear sense of where it is going or how to get there."

Health Planning Occurs In Isolation

The standing committee did observe that, almost without exception, each health and hospital board had developed its own process for regional planning. During the November consultation sessions, for instance, the Stanton Yellowknife board of management outlined for committee Members the ambitious and very promising measures it has undertaken to examine the facility's role and needs up to 1995. Larger planning processes will build on this to review current programs, assess the potential for further repatriation of services and assess global space needs.

Similarly, the Keewatin, Kitikmeot and Inuvik regional health boards have also mounted comprehensive planning initiatives to identify regional needs and to develop workable approaches to meeting them. The board of management at H H Williams Memorial Hospital has been actively assessing current space parameters to identify new potential for increased utilization of the facility. And, representatives of the Baffin regional health board outlined a model that would be followed during a regional needs assessment study, scheduled to commence in November, 1992.

While the Standing Committee on Agencies, Boards and Commissions was very impressed with the various initiatives that have been undertaken by the health and hospital boards themselves, Members were concerned that these activities have been pursued largely in isolation and were confined to a regional perspective. There seemed to have been relatively little sharing between the boards with respect to the design and implementation of planning exercises.