Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On the Department of Health and Social Services, I have some comments I would like to make. Again, this is the never-ending saga in my constituency of not having a board. At the same time, this government is trying to provide programs and services to people in the communities. My concern is the type of services that are provided to people in my constituency.
In the past little while, there seems to have been a concern for getting the type of services that people require. I know the Minister has been pursuing this one for some time now, trying to get some sort of accountability in place by the providers of health services in my constituency. There is really no way to do it. There are a lot of problems there, but how do we solve it? I know there are problems that arise out of, for example, Fort Simpson, where there are health concerns coming out. The band there is doing a study now about culturally-appropriate health care in the community. The Deh Cho First Nations is also doing a study on a broader scale for the region. In the meantime, the Department of Health has a hospital there which is providing care to community people in the area.
A lot of my constituents in Wrigley, Simpson, Jean Marie, Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake, and Liard are going to Yellowknife to get treatment. They have to charter or even take a taxi into Simpson and then fly into Yellowknife and stay at the Vital Abel Home to get the care of the hospital here. In some cases we are hearing that people want to come here to get treatment but, somehow or other, they don't have the opportunity to come here. So there are problems like that, where do the people go to now that they don't have a health board to deal with? There is Mackenzie Regional Health Services, but it is really an office here in town. There are appointed people in there. There is a staff of maybe 10 to 13, I don't know exactly. I would like to know how many people are in that department.
With the amalgamation of Health and Social Services, as well there is going to be amalgamation in the regions. My concern is that in the regions where they have health boards, they already have a body in place that will oversee the health services, but in my constituency -- and also in my colleague's, the honourable Henry Zoe's region, and in the Speaker's area, there are concerns that we don't have a board in place. With the amalgamation that is being worked on now, how is it all going to work in? Is there going to be an interim type of body put in place now, in the regions or at the community level, to deal with concerns and complaints that come forward by the health services?
As an MLA, I have received a lot of different calls and letters with regards to health services. I move them forward to the Minister and her department. I am also going to the Mackenzie Regional Health Services. There is no real coordinated place where people can go and feel comfortable about expressing their concerns with regards to health services because we don't have a health board or a community health committee. Only in Wrigley, where they have set up a community committee to deal with health, does there seem to be a body that deals with issues from the community, as well as the health delivers -- they go to this body as well. So it goes both ways.
What I am seeking here is how we can deal with this issue now, before amalgamation happens and before a health board is created, because there is no coordinated approach in how to deal with the concerns that come forward. I have a concern with that.
Keeping in mind that this government is responsible to provide the health care to people in my constituency, as well as constituents in other regions where there are health boards, we don't have it. With the devolution of health care from the feds to the territorial government, this government took over the responsibility of delivering health care to treaty Indians and Inuit people, and the majority of the people in my constituency are treaty Dene people. The treaty rights include having medical checks in the communities. And with these translated to medical services, I want to make sure that they have adequate care, not only treaty Indians but everybody else in my area which the government is supposed to provide. There are many people that come through the system for health care and whenever there is a problem, people think that they should come and get treatment, but they don't. If there's problems in the way, I end up dealing with it. I have no problem with it but there should be a system in place for that. Could the Minister tell me if there's something in place now on how to deal with these issues that seem to be becoming more and more of a problem? How should we deal with it? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.