Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to identify some of the issues of concern in this department and perhaps give the Minister of Health and Social Services a chance to answer now or perhaps await the detailed consideration of the estimates as appropriate.
Mr. Chairman, I've been briefed on the community-based planning exercise in the Baffin region to plan for the long-awaited new hospital. I am impressed that the work is community-based. I'm impressed with the way existing hospital and community health representatives personnel have been involved in the research that has now started to identify health planning issues and needs. I think it's been a very sensitive and effective process and will lead to a very clear definition of the priorities and the needs for the new hospital. I would like to ask the Minister if, in the course of presenting her budget, she could give an update on the planning process in the Baffin region and perhaps in other regions. This is really the fundamental issue in our region. There are so many needs that are not met by the present facilities and so many needs that can be forecast in future. I will only mention a few: chronic care for the elderly; psychiatric care; hospices for the dying which unfortunately will probably have to include AIDS patients and the range of needs that have been identified in the very good planning work that's under way. I would like to ask the Premier for her assessment of the progress and whether we're on target with the plans to build the new hospital as previously committed to in this House.
Secondly, Mr. Chairman, I made a statement about this yesterday. I'm very anxious to see the very good legislation implemented that's been developed on the Custom Adoption Recognition Act. I think this is an excellent piece of legislation that was developed by Mr. Graeme Garson and we should get on with making it work. I believe, Mr. Chairman, that the Minister's Department of Health and Social Services will have a role in implementing this act; will have a role in identifying the local Custom Adoption Commissioners, which I see as something like Marriage Commissioners; and, will have a role in making the act come into being. I understand, and I may be portraying my ignorance here, but I understand that community social workers may be expected to help get the program off the ground given their closeness to the community and their involvement with family and social issues.
Mr. Chairman, I know bureaucracies can make things more complicated than they have to be. Perhaps I'm naive but to me there are a few simple steps required. I would have hoped that by now perhaps MLAs would have been asked for input into -- MLAs or elders, or both, or local governments -- would have been asked for names of respected people in each of our communities who would be able to serve as Adoption Commissioners and would be knowledgeable of the area of custom adoption. I want to ask the Minister who, I believe, has a role in implementing this act, how things are going and how we can help to get this long-awaited new act off the ground.
Another issue, Mr. Chairman, that is of concern to me -- which I've mentioned in the discussion of the main estimates of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment -- is the area of training in the health professions. Particularly training for nursing in Nunavut. There are some 250 jobs. We've only got some 10 students from Nunavut in the Yellowknife-based program. I'm sure it's an excellent program but I'm also sure that if it's working in Yellowknife at the Stanton Hospital it could work in hospitals closer to Nunavut. Of course I have in mind the Baffin Regional Hospital as a training ground. I know that the Baffin Regional Health Board, through it's health promotion officer, is actively working on nursing training and a nursing training program. I would like to find out if the Minister is aware of this; if training nurses is a priority of her department, and whether or not we can build on the good work of the program that's now been established in Yellowknife and plan for a program that would give a bit more access to students from Nunavut for nursing. It is true and we all know that we've got a long way to go in getting northern people involved in nursing, particularly in our hospitals and health centres.
Finally, Mr. Chairman -- no, almost finally -- I would like to ask the Minister about the thrust of the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Finance in a previous report about making progress on distance technology. About how we're advanced in the Department of Health in taking advantage of the wonderful technology that is now available to transmit electrocardiograms and other medical information through the telephone and using existing telephone communications and electronic communication. I would just like to generally find out what initiatives the department is taking and whether or not we're starting to find ways of saving costly travel and perhaps, on occasion, costly medevacs through distance technology.
Another question I would like to ask the Minister, Mr. Chairman, is about, I think it's called, non-insured health benefits. I have heard the announcement about benefits for the Metis and I heard Mr. Bohnet, president of the Metis Nation, talking about the Metis in communities who do not have employer health plans and who have not been able to afford health benefits and how beneficial this new program will be for them. I know that money is scarce and I would like to ask the Minister, in order to ensure that the medical benefits go to those who most need them, those who cannot afford medical services, what the procedure is going to be for determining eligibility for the Metis? Will there be a means test to ensure that the benefits go to the poor and not people who have the means or health programs in place as Mr. Bohnet described them?
Secondly, now that this step forward has been taken by the Metis, I would like to ask the Minister if she's concerned about others in the Northwest Territories who cannot afford medical services who don't happen to be Metis, status, Dene or Inuit, who don't happen to have the benefit of an employer or other health plan? Is there a plan to do something for those people as well? It seems now, according to the CBC report, that there's really only one class of people now who are not eligible for these basic medical benefits, and those are non-native people in the Northwest Territories who may not have employer health programs or the means to afford those services themselves.
I think the government should look at extending these services to the whole population as an investment in preventive health care. I believe there are still people in the Northwest Territories who do not treat themselves with proper medication, simply because they cannot afford those services. This deteriorates their health and perhaps contributes to problems accumulating later on. I would like to ask whether or not there's a plan to extend benefits to all people who need them in the Northwest Territories.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to congratulate the Minister. I was very pleased that proposals have been put out for the tendering of orthodontic services in the regions of the Northwest Territories. I think the Minister, herself, admitted that it was discomforting that we were spending so much money sending people south with escorts for a procedure that sometimes involves very little time and, in some cases, where braces don't even require adjustment.
I think the tenders have now closed and I would like to get a progress report on whether or not bids have been received to provide orthodontic services, and what the status of that program is. I think it's welcome and now we want to make sure it gets off the ground. There are many people in my constituency who object to the waste of public money that is involved in their travelling regularly to Montreal or Ottawa for these services. I've had a number of people complain to me that they are uncomfortable, since they know we don't have a lot of money in our health system, in taking these benefits.
Then there is another group of people who have complained to me, Inuit who say that the criteria and procedures for getting orthodontic benefits through the non-insured benefits, the system now set up by Indian and Northern Affairs, is extremely convoluted, expensive and difficult to access. You pretty well have to be incapable of eating before you're eligible for orthodontic services as an aboriginal person.
I'm hoping that if we can bring orthodontic services to the north through the tender calls that have been put out in the various regions, we'll also somehow be able to give northern aboriginal people, who are funded for these benefits through the federal government, a little more access to the service than they've been able to get through the convoluted committee approval process they are now subject to.
Mr. Chairman, I apologize for having listed a rambling series of issues. I don't know where they fall in the activities of the department but these are issues that are of concern to me. Generally, I'd like to say, Mr. Chairman, that I was impressed with the plan to base health services and funding to health boards more on a formula, to promote more fairness and equity in the system, and to re-establish better relations with health boards. I guess that relates to my final questions: how are relations with the health boards; is the long-awaited memorandum of understanding between the Department of Health and health boards close to being finalized; and, will we be able to get on with a new, more cooperative partnership between the boards and ministry based on a clearer understanding of appropriate roles and responsibilities? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.