Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Lucky 13. I would note that this board seems to have been doing its work fairly well. It is representative of the population the hospital serves. Can the Minister tell us why she feels it is necessary to interfere by appointing somebody who will disturb the regional make-up of the board? Does she have the location or the community from which that person would come in mind?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not attempting to disturb the make-up of the board. I am attempting to put in place a vice-chair appointed by the Minister to work closely with the newly appointed chairman, who was the recommendation of all Yellowknife members. I took this into consideration, and appointed a Yellowknife chairman. Mr. Speaker, I am not attempting to disturb the make-up of the board. As Members know, there is somewhat of a turnover in the chairmanship of the various boards and this is a significant budget. It is around $40 million.

The Member says that the board is operating well. The board is operating all right. I do not think it is a secret that there is projected deficit or there is a deficit right now on the Stanton board of about $900,000 which is going to have to be addressed. There is significant work that is going to be carried out by this chairman. I thought that, for the sake of continuity, it would be good to have a vice-chair in place who could work closely with the chairman to carry out this role. Yes, I did have someone in mind, but it would be tentative and hypothetical at this point to say who that is. It does come from the list, as I indicated before, of nominations that came forward for the position of chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that the Minister has chosen to turn this into a Yellowknife versus the regions issue by mentioning she has chosen a Yellowknife resident as chair. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has confirmed that there is a regional balance on this board, by saying it is six and six right now. I think that I have not yet heard a compelling reason for the Minister to break with tradition and ensure that the deputy chair is appointed from within the board. We know that we have people on the board who are interested in health and social services. They are already serving on health and social services boards in their regions. If we need a deputy chair from one of the regions, why not ask the board to consider someone from the regions as deputy chair instead of trying to interfere with appointment practices? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not trying to interfere in the appointment practices. As a matter of fact, as the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, I am responsible for all the boards and the appointment of all members to all boards. I would hardly call this interfering in the appointment process, seeing as I appoint all the members. However, it is a request that has been made to the Stanton board and I will await their response on it. It will be decided democratically by a vote from the board and the majority will rule. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are addressed to the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services on a different issue. It is the issue of palliative care. It was raised in this House earlier in this Session by my colleague from Hay River North. It was in regard to what services are available.

Mr. Speaker, in Fort Smith, through our Home Care Program and local nurses that are trained in this area, we are able to offer palliative care. I would like the Minister's assurance that as she looks at this issue, she will look at palliative care on a community by community level basis and not contemplate any centralized service for palliative care out of headquarters. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are no plans for regionalized palliative care services. I have been able to determine that every physician has the ability and certainly a level of experience with dealing with patients who are terminally ill in the control of pain. What Mr. Delorey raised earlier was whether or not there were specialized services in this area.

I have also been able to determine that I do not believe that there are any physicians in the Northwest Territories at this time who have received specialized training in this area. There are no plans to provide regional services at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we all recognize, based on the numbers of projects we have seen with an aging population, that this particular component of care for people is going to be increasingly important. It is increasingly important and necessary that we start planning for that and try to focus on this level of care at the community level where the families are. I would like to ask the Minister if she has any plans, recognizing the trends and the upcoming projected need for this service, to develop training components so that more caregivers can be trained in this area at the community level?

Fort Smith has indicated some of the nurses have taken specialized courses. But it is going to be critical we gear ourselves for this need by training local health care givers, using Telehealth and other available training mechanisms. Could the Minister indicate whether she will be putting that into her plan for the department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, through the agreement we have in place now with the Alberta Medical Association, we have access to a pool of doctors who could provide services on a locum basis. If any of those locum physicians have specialized training which is very current and up to date in terms of the latest research and methods for dealing with palliative care patients, it might be something our department could look at. We could look at bringing someone in who could offer in-service training to physicians and nursing staff, providing them with the most up to date information for the care of Northwest Territories patients. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is very important that we focus our attention, when we talk about palliative care, on more than just the doctors. The actual round-the-clock care will be provided by the community caregivers. The doctor plays a critical role, but the people who live in the communities that are hopefully trained are going to be the ones who are going to be very fundamental to the success of this service.

I would like to ask the Minister, as they look at this particular area, along with many of the others like nurse practitioners and such, will she ensure that it focuses on more than just the doctors? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my previous answer, I referred to in-service training being made available to doctors and other health care professionals. I would expect that would include nurses as well. One of the key areas why it would be important for doctors to partake, of course, is because they would be the ones who would be prescribing medications and those sorts of things. But certainly it would be provided for nurses. They are there around the clock delivering the services. Both levels of caregiver would be extremely important to be aware of the most recent information in this field of medicine. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Final supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is an important issue. It is an important issue to every community, and I think every Member.

My final supplementary is, can we anticipate, as we gear up for the business plans in May, to see a reference to how the Minister intends to address this particular issue in her business plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in cooperation and a collaborative effort with the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and the department, I would be pleased to see a reference to palliative care services in the business plans. Thank you.