Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is good to see that you are moving on this, but for the family, it is too little, too late. What have you done to assist the family in any way for the loss of their mother, a sister and also a grandmother? Has the department done anything to assist the family, knowing that this should have been prevented? Do you take the responsibility for the loss of this life?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This has been and was a tragic event, out of which the one good thing is that some good things have come. I recognize that there is an irreplaceable loss to the family, and for that, like all of our colleagues here, I am very regretful that happened. If the Member is asking me a question of legal liability, I am not in a position to answer that, the way his question was framed. I would not be able to give a definitive response. I know we are taking steps to ensure that this thing does not happen again. It is a system. In terms of the Member's question, that is about the best I can give him at this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the Minister tell me and the House, is there any legal action being taken at this time against the department by the family?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not aware of any legal action, if there is any underway. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Regarding the recommendations given to the department and the coordination and management of the responsibilities and authority between Health and Social Services and the regional health boards, you talk about coordination and evaluation of information. It seems like there is a very poor line of communication there. What are you doing to improve the communication between your department and the regional health boards?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of things that we are doing. I will start at the very top. By bringing the board chairs to the table with myself and the deputy to provide oversight and shared leadership through the Joint Leadership Council, we are bringing what was at one time a somewhat disconnected piece of the organization together, the critical decision-making piece, to provide that function. We have also set up the joint senior management committee, which is comprised of all of the board CEOs and the senior management ADMs and DMs, and some of the key directors of the department to look at dealing with issues flowing from the action plan, but also issues involved with just the day-to-day running of the system.

We are working very closely and collaboratively on a number of issues across the board, like recruitment and retention. We want to better rationalize how we deal with things like TB. You will notice as we get through the budget, we are investing a significant amount of money in information systems, so we have the same systems and we are talking the same information language, with PeopleSoft, with financial systems.

This whole action plan and all of the work we are doing is geared towards improving that relationship and communication; above all, the program delivery to the people in the communities we serve, and make those changes that are necessary to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Also, one of the recommendations talks about community education and the whole area of the TB program planning, and also ensuring there is a buy-in by the regional health boards to ensure that it is being carried out. I would like to know exactly what has the department done to ensure they are carrying out that responsibility?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are a number of things that have been done, in addition to ensuring there is a standard set of protocols and that staff, new and seasoned staff, are aware of what to do. There is staff orientation that has been built in. There have been visits to communities to in fact do that. Communicable disease consultants have met with staff at boards, and community TB profiles have been completed on 17 of 28 communities in the NWT.

As I indicated earlier, there is a very aggressive protocol in place once a person has been identified with tuberculosis to determine the extent and the degree and the contacts, and to make sure that we very quickly bring all the people possibly affected in and give them appropriate remediation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the problems that I see is the lack of having doctors and medical professionals in our communities. They come into our communities once a month. They are in for a day or so and they are gone again. Has the department looked at increasing the number of visits by doctors and medical professionals to our communities, say twice a month instead of just coming in once a month?

One of the concerns was that they should maybe have the ability for the clinics to be open later into the evening, or having the doctors there so people who are employed in the community have an opportunity to see these doctors and do not have to be put on a waiting list.

Is there a possibility of increasing the number of doctor visits to our communities, so we do not have a situation such as Ms. Blake, where she went to the health centre in February and was not medevaced to Inuvik until April, almost two months later?

What are you doing to increase the medical services to our communities regarding this type of situation, so that we can get better services in our communities?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, once again we are doing a number of things, in addition to the changes I just talked about, that will hopefully improve the overall effectiveness of the system. Recruitment and retention of professionals, doctors and nurses, has been identified as the number one priority. We are once again aggressively trying to make sure that we staff all of the vacant positions, the nurses and doctors. We are, through negotiations with the federal government, with NIHB, for example, looking at trying to get some of the benefits that they provide revisited, since there has not been an increase in dental rates for some time.

We are also initiating this process that I discussed with Mr. McLeod, the supplementary health program review, to take a look at those areas that have policies and procedures in place that are, as Mr. McLeod indicated, old and possibly no longer relevant, or as relevant as they could be or out of date or have not kept up in terms of cost.

We are aware that there are areas where we have to try to improve things and we know that in some cases, we have to try to improve services to the communities with doctors. Those are some of the things we are doing to try to do that.

The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that is an issue that I was not aware of. Very clearly, the intent is not to deny the community service during any time of the year, recognizing that staff have to go on holidays and those kinds of things. We will make a note. I am going to check on this.

Very clearly, the intent would be to make sure there is adequate fallback, that if staff are not there, there are systems in place so that supervision can be provided. If there are issues or problems of concern, that there are processes in place that people are aware of so that they can be dealt with.

Mr. McLeod.