Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It has only been a few days since we read the detail of Interim Report #4 - Talking and Working Together into the record, so my remarks will be brief leading up to presenting motions recommending the adoption of our recommendations by the Legislature. These recommendations arise from the meetings we held in January in Hay River, Nahendeh and the Deh Cho constituencies.
Mr. Chairman, the first of our recommendations calls for the establishment of a regional health board in the Deh Cho region. In our public hearings, we heard many residents in the area tell us they had a general lack of trust in the system of health delivery and felt their input was not being considered in some of the decisions that were being made. They wanted to have much greater control over the delivery of health services. There was a feeling expressed to us by many people, at the public hearings, that they should be the ones making the decisions regarding health services in their own region.
Mr. Chairman, I should point out, when the committee travelled to the Keewatin in November, where the Keewatin regional health board does exist, while we heard some frustrations, we did not notice the same degree of frustration and mistrust of health policies and services. I think the people of the Deh Cho region basically were telling us, they feel they need to have at least the same input and control that is in place in other regions in the Northwest Territories. A regional health board would be able to better reflect the regional health needs and priorities.
Fetal alcohol syndrome and fetal alcohol effects will impact on government services to a great degree. The number of children who are affected by FAS and FAE will drastically increase the needs for special services in the schools to deal with children who are impacted. We feel, in order for the government to address the problem most effectively, it is very important that we have the most accurate estimates possible.
The last of our recommendations was to ask the government to fund a pilot project to offer community leadership development assistance. We heard from people that communities want greater local control, which related to our first recommendation. They recognize that in order to be prepared to take over the delivery of programs and service, they need leadership training to implement these programs and services effectively. With the government's community transfer initiative process under way, it is necessary to develop local leadership skills right now. To be successful with community transfers, local leaders need to be able to feel comfortable in determining their priorities and future directions.
Mr. Chairman, the pilot project we propose would involve three or four communities. Trainers could work on a rotating basis with community workers in each of the communities and trainers could then spend a month in each community, initially, returning once a month for about a year to train and support local people. In return, the local community workers could then train and support others in their community.
Mr. Chairman, that is a general overview of what we found during our travels in the Deh Cho region. I would now like to introduce our recommendations in motion form.