Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What is the status of these memoranda of understanding between the department and health boards? I understand there is a meeting planned in Taloyoak in April. Prior to this, when they had their initial meeting, what are some of the outcomes of the discussions of that initial meeting? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I think the boards wanted to take the memorandum of understanding away. It was agreed that we would deal with it in April. At that time, I am expecting some concrete results and some decisions to be made.

Mr. Chairman, I am hoping that this memorandum of understanding, that previous Ministers have worked on, will be the solution to the problem that exists between the Department of Health and health and hospital boards at the present time. They merely see us, at times, as a funding agency. We just pay the bills. Through no fault of their own, they have become very independent, so they only look at their own particular region, their own particular area of the Northwest Territories. I am trying to convince them, as have previous Ministers, that we are in this together. There is only a certain amount of money that is available in the Northwest Territories. If one region overspends, then it is really taking money away from another region. If one region does something differently, where it may be the same common treatment or service that is available across the Northwest Territories, then that one region that is out of step is really affecting everybody in the Northwest Territories.

I am hoping that we can come to some terms in this memorandum of understanding to collectively say, "This is how we regard each other. This is what the Department of Health does. This is what we accept the boards will do." Other boards will say, "We understand that all boards are going to do things in this particular fashion." If we are successful in that, Mr. Chairman, then I think many of the problems that are perceived out there right now will go away. If we are not successful in reaching that kind of accord, then we will have to take another look at it. I am hoping to have something fairly certain by April, when we sit down with the boards, and to have that put in place as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In that initial meeting with the people from the regional health boards, are there any major issues that have come forward at that time that might jeopardize the possibility of reaching a mutual agreement with these MOUs? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, Ms. Mike started this process of the board chairs and their staff getting together. I think the meeting that I held in February was only the second time that it occurred. I think this process is to try and get boards to understand us and to understand each other. Yes, there were some problems that came up. One of them was that one of the boards wanted to do some movement around of people and PYs. They were told that has to go to the Financial Management Board, as does any department in this government. One of the boards was quite upset at the fact that we would eventually come to this House, or through the government to this House, to sort of sanction or say no to the particular changes that they wanted to make. So, yes, there are some fundamental problems on what boards feel they should be allowed to do and what the policies of this legislature and of this government are. So, yes, there were a few problems. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On another matter, on dental services in some of the communities, in basing some of the dental professionals in the communities or in the regions, I would like to ask the Minister about the status of implementing that throughout the NWT this stage. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we have just now received the new agreement from Canada about what they will pay in that regard for the next year.

So, again, we are running into a little bit of a difficulty in one of the regions whereby one of the boards is overspending in the dental area. It's becoming a problem simply because those particular funds flow from the federal government, and when we are overspending in one particular area, we are either taking away from other areas in the Northwest Territories or we are forced to pay with our own money for fees that are really the responsibility of the federal government, and yet the federal government does not agree with the level of services that is being provided by a particular board. So in one instance, it hasn't worked out as well as we would have liked, although we are trying to correct that at the present time.

With regard to other dental services that are available across the Northwest Territories, dental therapists are in just about every major centre now, and although that's working for us, what we are now finding is that we are not getting to these children until they are in school, and by then, some of the problems that they have with their teeth are really starting to affect them. So we are now looking at how we can get to those children before they become school age. Those kinds of things are available in communities at the present time.

As far as the other areas of actually basing dentists, or, to raise another two issues that have been very difficult to handle, those of periodontic and orthodontic services in the Northwest Territories, we are going to be addressing that issue fairly quickly by employing an orthodontist to look into what exactly is required in the Northwest Territories and how can we best meet that demand. I have to tell you, though, that the department and I still share the concern about the amount of dental problems that we have in all of the communities, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am glad the honourable Minister informed the committee that regional boards have their own little plans and do their own thing. I guess we realize that the comprehensive plan of the department would curtail, if you will, the problem. It may not be able to eradicate the problem, but, to a degree, it will help to solve some of the problems.

On a different issue, Mr. Chairman, about a week ago, I brought the matter up of an incident that happened at the airport with a mother who was carrying her deceased child. I have more information on this but I will not bring this matter here at this point in time.

Subsequently, the nurse at the hospital indicated to the 7:30 am CBC news, Monday, March 21, 1994, that the hospital was in the process of having a meeting with Social Services, the airlines and Status of Women to try and put a procedure in place so that this kind of incident will not happen again. My question to the honourable Minister of Health is, Mr. Chairman, when is this meeting of such a group going to take place? I hope it is very soon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, this is one area where I would like to point out that it's not the responsibility of the Department of Health. This is a Stanton health board responsibility. They were handling it in what I thought was a very professional fashion. I heard the Member say that he was happy with the fact that it was going to be addressed and it was going to be addressed with the airlines, Social Services, Status of Women, et cetera. I don't have an update on whether or not that meeting has taken place. I trust that Stanton has done the meeting. I anticipate that as soon as they have reached an accord, they will advise us because they are aware of the interest that we have shown in this particular area.

In another way, Mr. Chairman, we are looking at this particular aspect, not only of this person at this particular hospital, but in general, the handling of deceased people across the Northwest Territories. That's what the department is looking at and that's why we're keen on finding out the protocol that's being worked out by Stanton so that we can incorporate it into our overall look at the kinds of facilities that are in communities, the cultural way that people grieve, the things that they do culturally when a person has passed away and at the physical requirements in communities.

We have had a rough cut right across the Northwest Territories right now to see what services are available. We have discovered that, well, in this particular instance, maybe we weren't, at Stanton, explaining to mothers exactly what the rules and regulations were with regard to the aircraft and so on and so forth.

We have discovered that, in many instances, the government has given its jurisdiction to the handling of the dead to the municipalities and hamlets and that there are different procedures in different parts of the Northwest Territories.

So that's the overall picture that we are looking at, and, to answer the Member's question, as soon as Stanton gets back with the protocol that they've worked out, we'll incorporate it in our study and provide the answer to the Member, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we were just trying to remember the name of the person. We know his first name is

Mark. The work is under way, at the present time, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, can I just get this straight? Are we talking about the planning for boards in that area? Is that the question I'm being asked?