Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize a young gentleman in the gallery: Mr. Simon. He's originally from Fort McPherson and now lives here in Yellowknife. Welcome.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. I'd like to welcome everyone in the gallery today. Welcome to the proceedings of the House. I hope you're enjoying the proceedings; it's always nice to have an audience. Oral questions. The honourable Member from the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is to the Minister of Health and Social Services, in regards to, Mr. Speaker, the situation that happened with a family in Colville Lake. As we learned today, the doctors and social workers in Edmonton are discussing some very sensitive issues and critical issues regarding this event, it's regarding a baby. Mr. Speaker, the parents in Colville Lake contacted the nurse in Fort Good Hope, who recently said, over the telephone, don't worry, the baby is just teething, nothing to worry about. Twelve hours later, Mr. Speaker, the baby is in serious trouble, and in this latest venture was finally asked to get the doctor to do a medevac situation. This is a tragic situation that everybody would like to avoid. In Colville Lake there's no resident nurse. The people have access to the same level of health care in the Northwest Territories that is non-existent. My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services: It is obvious that the health care system in this case has failed. Can the Minister inform the House whether he will institute a public inquiry at the earliest opportunity to examine the circumstances of this case and offer recommendations that will ensure that this does not happen again? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are aware of this circumstance and this situation. I have met with the Member and we've engaged and are making sure from all aspects that this case is being dealt with. Yes, we are going to backtrack and review what happened and ensure that once the welfare of the patient involved, which is the first priority, is addressed, that we can take the steps necessary to learn whatever lessons there are to be learned from this circumstance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in situations like Colville Lake, it took 12 hours for the medical service to get that little baby, who is six months old, medevaced to Edmonton. In this note right here, the baby is not improving; it's in a critical situation. Again, I would ask the Minister in terms of part of the overview I'm asking that the health care system, that the people in Colville Lake, can the Minister tell this Assembly whether or what type of consequences there will be to the employees, such as the nurse who may have some form of incompetency as a nurse to deal with this type of situation? We're in desperate trouble here, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask what the Minister intends to do about it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've indicated that I'm aware of this circumstance; I've met with the Member; we've met with the deputy minister. We've been in contact with Stanton and with the hospital down south. We're making sure first that the patient gets the best care possible and then we're going to look at what happened; and once that is clear, we will work back and see what lessons there are to be learned. This is a serious situation and we're treating it seriously. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister says this is a serious situation. This is a tragic situation with health care. Look at the lady who was in a cab here, what happened to her and this is a tragic situation. It points to the dangers of our health care system that poses every day for those people who don't have the type of services they have in larger centres in the health care system. Can the Minister inform this Assembly whether he is now considering investigating, investing in the small communities, as opposed to spending tens of millions of dollars in larger centres in other health care facilities in our larger centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a matter of course, on a daily basis the health and social services system works as it's supposed to. There are those unfortunate circumstances where things may not always work, for whatever reason, the way they're supposed to and we check those and we consider those all very seriously. Mr. Speaker, we have just been before the House for our budget that's almost $260 million, and we spend millions of dollars in every community trying to make sure that there is a good level of service for all northern residents, and we're going to continue to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I definitely would like to see these million dollars go into basic services like Colville Lake where they need the nurses and doctors and health care, rather than the large centres where they're asking for extra supplies for their hospitals. This is where we get into some serious debates. Mr. Speaker, the Minister is very famous for measuring responses by conducting studies and improving the health care system in small, incremental steps. The fact of the case calls for larger steps and bold actions. Can the Minister provide the timeline for when he's able to present to the people of Colville Lake and this Assembly a plan that will provide concrete actions that will ensure this type of situation never happens ever again in any type of small communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're going to work with the Sahtu Health and Social Services Board, we're going to look at this circumstance and we want to make sure that health care is delivered to all residents to the best of our ability at all times; it doesn't matter if it's a large community or a small community and that's our focus. Mr. Speaker, we've made, I think, rather dramatic improvements to the health care centre and not just small, incremental progress. We've added 77 new positions for addictions and mental health; we've added dozens of nurses; doctors' positions, we've added midwives and nurse practitioners. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars since 1999 trying to beef up the health and social services system, as well as other social programs. So incremental, I don't think so. Measured and careful, yes. But we've made substantive investments and we're going to continue to do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Oral questions. The honourable Member from Great Slave, Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this afternoon are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger. It used to be the practice of our government, I understand, Mr. Speaker, that salary increments that were negotiated for our own employees were routinely passed on to the non-government organizations and boards and agencies that we did business with, but I'm told that this has not been the case for a number of years now. Mr. Speaker, we are losing valuable ground in terms of being competitive and fair with workers in the social service agencies employed by the NGOs. Mr. Speaker, our own budget before us right now contains, by my math, some $8.5 million in new appropriations related to higher wages in our new collective bargaining agreement, yet the YWCA, which I think is representative of a number of organizations, Mr. Speaker, delivers nine programs for our government 24 hours a day, seven days a week in, I think, some of the most challenging and demanding social service regimes. Mr. Speaker, in a letter that they wrote to Mr. Miltenberger, and this was tabled, they make two basic requests. The first of them was for an immediate short-term remedy whereby we could adjust our salaries by the same percentage increases as were given to the GNWT and the local health authority staff over this and the next several years. Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be able to help the YWCA and deliver this request, a short-term remedy, to adjust their salaries by the same level that we adjusted ours? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the issue of parity for NGOs is a cross-government issue. It's one that's been on the agenda for many years. I don't recollect when the time was that there was automatic increases given. It must have been in another century because it's not clear in my present memory when that was. We have put out a third-party accountability as a government that lays out some of the processes to categorize NGOs and services that we get through non-government organizations that would help guide us in our assessment, a ballpark figure that we've looked at that if we were going to give automatic government raises the same as government to all the NGOs, we're looking at $100 million that we'd have to add to our budget. So it comes down to an issue of resources. No one denies the value of the service that's provided. We do have capacity for multi-year contracts, which we're going to move on. The broader issue government-wide of what do we do and how do we compensate NGOs in the type of services they provide has yet to be finalized. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Braden.

Mr. Speaker, yes, those are all great answers certainly demonstrating fair practice by a Minister, but they are very bureaucratic answers as well, and in the face of such a long-standing problem, the issue has been well known, but considered far too long and now we have organizations like the Y that are I think some of them on the verge of collapse and we're going to be in serious trouble without their services.

Mr. Speaker, the second suggestion that the YWCA makes, is that an assessment of the skill sets required by NGOs and the negotiation of a fair percentage of GNWT wages be incorporated in these pay scales. Mr. Speaker, not all of these workers want to work for government. Some of them are very pleased to be able to put themselves with NGOs, but there needs to be some accounting and some measured consistency in the services that they do and the rate at which they're paid.

Can the Minister look at the negotiation of a fair percentage of GNWT wages for NGOs?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Miltenberger.