Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of comments. I will have questions when we come to the various sections within the document. These aren’t in any particular order, but just as we’ve gone through the document, a number of things have struck me.
I am pretty much amazed at the amount of money we spend on medical travel. I feel there has to be some method of reducing the amount of money we spend on medical travel. This is an area I think the department needs to seriously look at.
The other area — and these are sort of tied in, for me…. I’m disappointed that the Stanton Telehealth coordinator position was not reinstated. I accept the
explanation from the department, but I don’t agree with it. We can agree to disagree, I guess. I feel really strongly that if we can expand our Telehealth services within hospitals and health centres — basically, all over — it’s going to assist us in reducing some of our medical travel costs. I think there’s an awful lot of instances where a Telehealth visit could replace an actual airplane or drive or whatever to the larger centre to see a medical specialist.
I am concerned with some of the ways the funds have been saved — some of the reductions within the budget. I think there are about six or seven reductions to professional development for, mostly, nurses. The doctors seem to have managed to retain theirs. I’m somewhat concerned that if we don’t provide incentives for professional development and we don’t provide options for nurses to take advantage of training and re-profile themselves and so on, then that’s going to have an effect on keeping our employees long term.
It was mentioned in the standing committee’s report about multi-year funding for non-government organizations. I don’t remember if the Minister mentioned it or if it’s elsewhere, but I understand there is some move toward providing multi-year funding for NGOs. I think that’s a great thing. I want to make sure the department does go forward with that.
I am more concerned about the fact that I don’t see any evidence in this budget of increases to account for forced growth for NGOs. Once we get there, maybe I’ll get an explanation for it. But to me, that’s a huge concern. It’s one thing to give an NGO a three-year contract. If there’s no avenue for them to get extra funds for forced growth, then it really doesn’t do them any good to have a multi-year funding agreement.
Affected positions. And, unlike some other Members, I do have a copy of the 17 positions; we did get it. I don’t know if it’s the same one that you guys are going to give us, but the committee did receive it from the department. I do have a question, though. The data that we have indicates 15 positions. Yet when we got the extra information from the department, it’s got 17 positions and two of them say “TBD.” So when we get there, I’m certainly going to want a little explanation as to why we have two positions identified and we don’t know what they are. Or you can tell me that it’s 15 and not 17.
Another issue that comes to mind for me — and perhaps the information is there and I can’t find it — is that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of reference or indication that there’s money provided for addictions treatment and services. Again, it might be there, but I don’t see it itemized. I feel very strongly that we do need to provide those services
to our residents. We’ve had this conversation before. In Yellowknife I think we need a centre to provide that sort of service. Perhaps the consolidated clinic will do that for us. I don’t think the hospital is the right setting for addictions treatment.
Funding for Indian and Inuit health services is a huge problem, as the Minister’s well aware. I just have to say out loud that this agreement needs to be renegotiated, and it should have been done two years ago, I think. So whatever needs to be done to get that done, do it.
It was mentioned earlier that the money has been earmarked for highway emergency services and that this is a shared project with MACA. That’s great. There is a need for that particular service and for it to be provided, and the communities shouldn’t have to fund that on their own. I’m curious to know how the departments will work together and to know how much money MACA has budgeted. I see $150,000 here, but I don’t know how much money there is in total.
As to the Stanton issue and staffing at Stanton and so on, I recognize that the Minister really can’t answer those questions because it’s not within the purview of the department. However, the Minister is responsible for the authorities from a monitoring point, and I’m concerned that Stanton needs to develop a master plan. I know she’s working on it. It’s mentioned in the standing committee’s report as well — that the committee’s not going to support throwing money at Stanton unless there’s evidence of a master plan, and a good master plan. I encourage the department to make sure that gets done sooner rather than later.
I have to mention the locum nurses problem and the overtime problem at Stanton and so on. Again, it’s not really something the Minister can speak to, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Lastly, I haven’t noticed in the document where health authorities have received any kind of an increase in funding for their own forced growth. It could be there, but I’m going ask some questions when we get there to try to understand that the authorities have been given an increase, certainly for this year. They’ve been told to live within their means, but we have to make sure they at least have a reasonable figure to live within.
The only other thing I have is the nurse practitioner positions within Yellowknife. There were two positions that were going to be lost. I thank the Minister for the work she did and the department did in providing a six-month solution. That’s great. Those two individuals are particularly happy. However, we need to have a longer-term solution than just one that’s going to last six months. I anticipate hearing something, I would hope, prior
to this six-month period being up, that we’ve got a longer term solution for the nurse practitioner positions within our health services.
That’s all I have, Mr. Chair.