Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week Dr. David Butcher, the president of the Northwest Territories Medical Association and Paula Lessard, executive director of that association, presented a briefing on the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Draft Strategic Plan to Members of the Standing Committee on Government Operations. I attended that meeting and will paraphrase the comments and remarks Dr. Butcher presented on behalf of his association.
The Medical Association submitted a written report to this government a while ago and is awaiting a response from the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Honourable Kelvin Ng. The work to prepare a strategic plan was sole-sourced to Med-Emerg International. The Northwest Territories Medical Association advises us it was not informed nor consulted that a contract of this nature was to be awarded. The association expressed its concern with the very short notice from the time of the announcement of the project to the completion of interviews. The medical profession in particular was to be interviewed on a very ad hoc basis and by only one or two members of the total team.
It therefore begs the question, was the whole interview process conducted in a whirlwind tour of northern communities. I understand that the bulk of the consultation and preparation of the report was based on interviews with departmental staff and review of reports and documents previously prepared by departmental staff or commissioned by the department. If this is correct, a critical review and analysis of the strategic direction with regard to reform was therefore limited. The Medical Association had concerns regarding the lack of specific northern experience of the consulting team. The choice of team members was left to Med-Emerg. Only four of the 16 member team listed any prior work in the Northwest Territories and familiarity with northern health care. This of course leads to a specific concern that the report could be potentially biased in favour of health care reforms currently under way in southern jurisdictions without an adequate reflection of the unique geographical and cultural environment of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.