Mrs. Groenewegen.

I think those guys in the white suits that were going around, and they were certainly around Hay River as well, they were picking up radioactive material. I think the area was fairly well scoured at the time. I do not think there has been post-Cosmos 952 work done to determine if there was any radioactive debris that might have been left behind as a result of that. Interestingly, I do have that question raised occasionally when people talk about rates of cancer and things like that in the South Slave or in the area where that was. You do hear people still refer back to that and wonder what impact it may have had. Whatever these guys in the white suits did physically in terms of picking up the material, it does not seem like it allayed the fears of the people in the region for the long-term.

To my knowledge, there has been no subsequent search for radioactive debris. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, my question also falls in line of the health and well-being of the people in the communities. I would like to ask the Minister or someone in her department, are you aware of any research projects or studies that are going on in different communities? Especially research proposals that have been put forth by different doctors to look at the area of different types of cancers, preferably stomach cancer. Do they have any knowledge of research projects that are going on at the present time in communities in the North, particularly in my riding?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, not that we know of in specific relation to any region or any specific type of cancer, no.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is interesting that the department does not know what is going on in the communities. I was at a public meeting in Aklavik a month ago. There was a request made by Dr. Morris regarding the concerns he has had with the high increase of cancer, especially stomach cancer in the community of Aklavik. They had something like 21 cases in less than two years.

He is the one who recommended the proposal to do a study on the whole community. His concern was the statistics he sees. There is a high case of these different types of cancer, especially in Aklavik. He wanted to do research on the whole community, from all of the family members, testing all the people with saliva tests, blood tests, testing the water in the community in all the homes, to see if there is a direct connection to the families and the communities and the lifestyle these families are living.

How come you are not aware of this? They have already started public consultation, public meetings, having people sign up for tests. This work is already going on. Is there money available to carry out these different types of tests? The World Health Organization is now considering, and I do not know if I will get this right, but heliobacter pylori, which is a carcinogen which causes stomach cancer. That is where they are concentrating their efforts, on that particular brand of cancer. As I said, it is a carcinogen. Many people have been complaining about pains in their stomachs and chest pains. They are always being told they have ulcers. Now there is a direct connection with this type of disease to cancer. That is the research project I am talking about.

I would like to ask the Minister again, what do you do as a department to keep tabs with the different departments? The letter I have is from the Inuvik Regional Health Board. There is one to the mayor and one to the community manager, stating this is what they are doing. Since you are not aware of it, how closely do you follow these different research projects and ensure they have adequate money to be able to do these surveys and tests to try to pinpoint some of the concerns, especially when the recommendation is coming forth from a doctor?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the research project the Member refers to could have been funded by the Science Research Board, which is a territorial board. This study could be undertaken and it is possible it could be done without the knowledge of the department. Certainly within the department, there is a very comprehensive registry of various types of cancer throughout the Northwest Territories. There is research that could go on outside of the department, which we would not necessarily be aware of unless we were advised.

The Member refers to a letter to the Inuvik Regional Health Board. If we are not cc'ed on there, it is possible this could take place without our knowledge. Perhaps there does need to be a better linkage or communication mechanism on research projects such as this so our department can be informed to follow up, if nothing else. It does have an impact on the services we are required to deliver, but we are certainly not the funders of this type of research at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I find it odd that this department is responsible for the health and well-being of all residents of the Northwest Territories and they do not seem to have a handle on exactly how healthy our population is and to what extent this cancer is a problem.

My colleague gave me a reference to the concern for water. We have a major crisis in Canada in Ontario. I raised this concern with the water quality in Fort McPherson. Now we are seeing another incident, where a doctor is coming forth, which is a major concern. They have to test the drinking water in all the homes in the community. They have to test the treatment facility for a particular brand of cancer because it is caused by a virus in the system. For all we know, other communities could be in the same boat.

What methods are in place to ensure there is someone watching the chickens while others are out to roost? There seems to be no coordination on who is in charge of who. What process or checks and balances do we have in place to ensure you have somebody there monitoring what is going on with the regional health boards within the department? What is happening so we do not have any major crisis situations as we have seen in other places in Canada, where for the last number of years, I have seen a major increase in cancer in my riding. In Aklavik, 21 people for a small community of 600 people, that is a lot of people dying of cancer. The department does not think it is a major case. A pretty well-known doctor, Dr. Morris, he is the one recommending the research proposal be done in the Aklavik. This is coming directly from a doctor.

What checks and balances are in place to ensure we are overseeing what is going on within our communities and the regional health boards? How are we monitoring it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I have said before, we are not directly involved in funding research in this area. It would be good for us to be informed of the results of such research. As I stated earlier, I could undertake to set up some form of communication mechanism between funded research projects in our department where it may affect the health status of Northerners.

As far as our department tracking incidents of certain illnesses, and the Member refers specifically to cancer, we do have the cancer registry, which indicates that the Northwest Territories residents actually have cancer at a lower than national average rate. However, the officials inform me that there is a pocket of people who reside in the Sahtu area where there is some markedly higher incidents of certain types of cancer.

We do follow and we are involved in water testing. Certainly, our health status report would indicate the health statistics of Northerners. We are involved in that, but we would not, at this time, appear to have a specific mechanism whereby we would be informed of research projects funded by the Science Institute. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not asking a question of if they do research or not. I am asking a question about accountability. This department is accountable for the health and well-being of the people in the Northwest Territories. We are the ones who pass the money on to people to do work on our behalf. As far as I am concerned, I was not going to make a major issue out of this because I did not want to set off the alarm bells, but I thought for sure you guys were following this. That is why I did not make it an issue, but since you are not following it I guess I better make an issue of it. It is pretty clear from this letter that says stomach cancer incidents also appear higher than what one would expect. That tells me that, as this is coming from a doctor, there is definitely a connection between that community and the high cases of stomach cancer. Again, I would like to ask the Minister, are you accountable for what goes on in our communities, for the health and well-being of our residents, or is that totally left to someone who can afford to do a study? I strongly believe that you as the Minister are responsible for all aspects of health and the well-being of people in the Northwest Territories, especially when it comes to health matters and when the direction is being given by a doctor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it is very difficult to respond to this question because as I already stated to the Member, I am not personally aware of this study that is being undertaken. We do track the incidence of specific types of cancer through our cancer registry program, which is a very good tool for determining and identifying any irregularities in the incidence of cancer. It is very difficult to answer the question. I do not have any information in regard to this specific research project to refer to. I will undertake to find out what is happening, what the scope of the project is, and like I said, ensure that in the future where this kind of research is being done and we have people in the medical profession who are indicating certain types of problems, that somehow that is communicated to our department. I am not personally aware of the project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the Minister for these five pages of performance measures and I would like to ask some questions. If I could ask the Minister, in regard to page 20, when you talk about improving the health status of the people in the Northwest Territories, the whole page, in terms of what we are aiming for, target and timeframe. If I use the reduction of tobacco use in youth, you want a sustained decrease of incidence of tobacco use over the next ten years. That tells me nothing. What is the tobacco use as we speak and where do you want to be in ten years?

You want a sustained or an increased number of anti-smoking advertisements during the next three years. What currently exists that you will measure from? You want a sustained decrease in hospitalization rates over the next five to ten years. What are we at now, where do you want to move to and in what sort of increments? Sustained decrease in the number of self-reported regular heavy drinkers over the next five to ten years. What are we measuring from? The list goes on, on that page. On the next page there is sustained decrease, sustained reduction. It tells me nothing. I do not know what we are measuring. If you come back next year you can tell us anything because we do not know what your benchmark is. That is one issue. If I could switch to pages 22 and 23, there are three identical desired outcomes that are repeated on page 22. The alignment of services to identify needs for seniors, disabled children and youth. You switch over, the same desired outcome is there, the alignment of services for seniors, disabled children and youth. They are almost identical, word for word. You have added one or two things under what we are aiming for. The Northwest Territories model for delivering primary health care is repeated twice. It is there twice. It is repeated on the next page. I do not know the difference.

Alignment of Health and Social Services board structures and public aboriginal government structures is listed and on the next page it is listed again almost word for word. It would seem to me to be redundant. If these are your improved, revised and enhanced performance measures, just from my first cursory look at it I would have some questions in those two areas.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On some of the statistics that the Member refers to, for example, the incidence of smoking and youth, those are the kinds of things that we have baseline information on. Some of the other information is difficult to have. We do not have baseline information in place, we need to establish that. We are saying where we want to go from the baseline, but on some of the indicators we do not have baseline information. I am going to ask Ms. Praamsma if she can help the Member on how some of these performance measures were established.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Ms. Praamsma.