Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I will try as best I can to be brief and say a few things on the Hay River hospital capital plan. I

believe last year’s development plan was

approved and finalized and submitted by the public administrator, Mr. Cummings, and is going through the planning process.

On the question of all the statements made by Mr.

Krutko: I do appreciate the passion and

commitment he has for the future of the T’loondih Healing Society. I share that with him. As I stated in the Minister’s statement and then in answers in the House, the arrangement we have there is quite temporary. It is a temporary measure until we find, waiting…. We want to hear from the community as to the proposal of it. I don’t mind going back there to meet with the society again, when I have some time, to see if we can work out a proposal. The reason we have service from Inuvik office is that we do need to provide mental health and wellness services to the community of Fort McPherson. Right now the T’loondih Healing Society cannot do that.

Also, I just want to mention that in between sessions, I have had the good fortune of travelling to all the communities in Nahendeh, Beaufort-Delta and Fort Resolution, and Hay River a couple of times. I’m just really struck by the difficulties these authorities have and the challenges they face, especially in Nahendeh, Deh Cho region and the Beaufort-Delta, in terms of providing health care services to communities that are so scattered. I do think that the staff and the health care and social

services staff we have in the regions are doing a tremendous job. Obviously, there are always day-to-day, case-by-case issues that we need to address.

Because there were so many questions and comments made by Members on Stanton — I guess that’s not surprising, because we do have five Regular Members from Yellowknife — I just want to say that I agree with Mr. Ramsay in that the Stanton Territorial Hospital master development plan is very much within the responsibility of this Assembly and of me as the Minister. I think what’s going on outside of Stanton has an impact on the master development for the Stanton Territorial Hospital development plan. For example, the territorial dementia facility and the consolidated clinic that’s being proposed in this budget and that we need to proceed with to pass this budget has as much impact on how the capital plan or space plan of Stanton will be.

For example, right now there are, I think, up to 18 patients in extended care who could actually be moved out of there and moved into the territorial dementia facility. That is a use of the hospital that we could be doing without.

Also, the consolidated primary clinic would be such an essential addition to how the programs are being delivered. That will have an impact on use of the space and the human resources in the emergency section, even diagnostic imaging work that’s being done at the hospital. The plan is that some of that work will be done at the clinic.

The midwifery program, the counselling program…. Right now, Great Slave Clinic in Yellowknife has been a little bit of a mini-consolidated clinic. The plan for the big one is that we’ll be able to consolidate four clinics and put them into the consolidated clinic and be better able to use the resources and spaces and all the other issues that go with that.

I want to comment on the newspapers, because it is really unfortunate. The NP policy that we have has been a little bit misunderstood in light of what’s happened or some of the coverage and public exposure that the two NP positions at the hospital have received of late. I want to tell you that the training of nurse practitioners, hiring, recruiting and retaining them is a key piece to our future health care delivery system. I’ve had occasion to meet the newly trained NP of Fort McPherson and Yellowknife Health and Social Services authority, for example. I think Fort Resolution has newly trained NPs too. So it’s a practice that we need to continue to do more of. It’s just that I think the recent situation at the hospital might have made it sound like we may not be as…. It’s an anomaly, I think, and I don’t necessarily agree that the fix we have there is a short-term situation. What

happened at Stanton with the NPs reminds us that we need to work more closely and do better planning and implementation. We need to make sure that all different parties are talking to each other and making sure our NPs are placed. Although we did receive one-time funding or temporary funding from the federal government to implement these NP positions, the plan was always to incorporate these NPs into the operation. In order to do that, we need the health authorities, all the practitioners that work with them, the management, the workers, and everybody to work together to incorporate them.

I could advise the Members here that the department and I myself are committed to the future of NPs as an essential part of our health care delivery system. We may not be able to have all the NPs placed exactly where some NPs might want to be, but there’s no question that we will continue to use and place NPs in primary care settings, and that is a very important part of our work.

Mr.

Chairman, I took very detailed notes of

everything all the Members have said. I think all these are going to come back in our line-by-line questioning, and I’d be happy to provide more detail. With that, I’m just going to end my response to general comments there, although I have to say that I want to thank Mr. Hawkins for the good words he gave about the capital projects that we moved on the territorial dementia facility and the consolidated primary clinic in Yellowknife. It appears that it may take me nine weeks to respond to a letter, but it only took me seven months to get these projects on the books. I’ll make sure that he’s invited for a photo opportunity when they finally open. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.