Yes, thank you.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Ken Lovely; and the director of finance and management services, John Doyle.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we broke from this discussion on Wednesday, April 5th, I was making some general comments. I had made a point here that the will of the people is always there, Mr. Chairman, that health is always a key issue. There are political bodies in the community, many have been there for many years, the band councils.

I know that in one of the big centres in my constituency, Fort Simpson, the idea is to have everybody in the community work together. We have the band council, we have the village council, we have a Metis Nation office, we have government employees, and health is a very important item in this community. Lately I have been hearing that there are some problems coming forward.

I am not blaming anybody here. Any time there is a situation, problems come up and the idea here is to solve these problems. Some of the problems are related to me as the MLA representing them, and I have forwarded them to the Minister and her department. I also deal with the Mackenzie Regional Health Services with the problems.

My concern is that I know there is discussion about having a board in place, eventually, down the line. We've been hearing about this since 1988. That's quite a long time ago. Recently, there have been some changes within the department, the amalgamation of Health and Social Services. The amalgamation is going to happen at the community and regional level, we're told. This is the work that is going on. But I don't know how long that's going to take. I don't know whether these changes are going to solve the types of community problems and concerns that I have.

I guess I'm seeking some help here to try to resolve the health issues in the community. I've given the department some suggestions about how they could work with some groups in the communities, mainly with the chief and band council; that the local health staff, either the doctor or head of the nursing group or head of the health centre, could meet on a periodic basis with the band council as a delegation to listen to what the chief and band council are saying. The chief and band council are the political leaders of the community who also get feedback from their members. They take these concerns forward through these meetings.

I think a lot of specific health problems could be resolved if the health care givers in the community worked with the leaders of the Dene in the community to try to resolve some of these issues at the community level. I'm saying this because I'm hearing about a lot of specific health problems, as an MLA, and I've forwarded them to the Minister. They go back down the system like that and what I'm suggesting is everyone in the small communities has to live together, they should work together and they should try to deal with some of their problems at the community level.

If the Minister could take that direction and see if it could be done, I think it would eliminate a lot of problems. A lot of them might be misunderstandings within the community, differences of opinions and so forth. You have to remember, too, that the message has to get down to the health care workers that this territorial government is administering health services to a lot of treaty and Inuit people and they have special rights through treaties. Now, the territorial government is going to be administering Metis health benefits as well. These are the things that health care workers in the communities have to understand and be sensitive to so that these different rights are not eroded by misunderstanding. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to assure the Member that it is not from the lack of trying to get something formulated. We'll continue to do that and if there's some way we can work it out and impress upon the community people that it's very important to get together, we will do all we can. We've tried at the regional level and at the community level and I know that the work we do is not routine, it's sporadic. I know the desire of the Member is to set up something that is more stable and ongoing.

I'm willing to give it another try. I know it has not been easy for the Member or ourselves to try to get the different bodies together, but we're willing to deal with whatever the advanced group is. We're willing to do that in the community, we've made that offer before. We've been trying but, as usual, it's the will of the community that really drives it. Perhaps if we're not communicating enough to get our commitment through to them, then let's give it another try. We can do that in late April, after the session is finished. I'm certainly willing to go in, along with the deputy minister. Maybe a commitment by us would give more certainty to the people in the community that we want to support them in getting organized so the health issues can be dealt with.

Agreed.

---Agreed

Line By Line

Directorate

Agreed.

---Agreed

Community Programs And Services

Mr. Chairman, for 1994-95 the revised forecast is $337,000.

(Microphone turned off)