Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. I
appreciate the comments of the Members. For those Members who were not here, I have been committed to the.... When this debate was going on, about eight years ago, I remember when the Telehealth project idea came up as a new idea. I was a supporter of the Telehealth program. I believe it has a bright future in the North. I believe the North is particularly designed for the kind of services Telehealth provides.
At the same time, it will be very difficult for the department or for us to reinstate this funding if it means we have to take it from other positions that might be considered more essential. Now, we’re talking about choices and relative choices. As it was stated in our budget session here, the department went through 19 position reductions; eight of them came out of Directorate. Because all the reductions came from headquarters, it amounts to 12.5 per cent of the labour force. I’m not sure if we could reduce any other positions in that area.
Their suggestion is that if the coordinator position is not at Stanton this programming will come to a halt. I don’t think there is evidence to suggest that. I also don’t think there’s evidence to suggest medical travel expenses will go down because there is a Telehealth coordinator at Stanton. What we are trying to do is.... The Telehealth coordinator position at headquarters will be re-profiled, so that position should be the champion for this program. We understand that for the Beau-Del regions that person has to serve eight communities and that person will do more of the northern work.
As stated earlier, we have to make choices about how we could best use our resources so we continue to deliver the programs. If the work can be done by someone else, in some other way, then we should look at that. Now, a nursing job can’t be done by a non-nurse; social work can’t be done; doctors’ work can’t be done; physiotherapist, occupational therapist or any other medical and health work cannot be done by someone else. I think we have presented very good evidence to suggest the Telehealth program can continue and expand and be implemented without having a qualified Telehealth coordinator position. I don’t think there is any threat or any chance this program will be jeopardized in any way. We just have to find different ways of doing that.
I do appreciate the Member’s thoughts and comments on this, but I think we need to be mindful of the relative weight we have to put in. If this reinstating means I have to reduce a nurse position
or some other positions that cannot be done by somebody else, that would be a difficulty. But I will — we will — consider the motion, and we’ll have to judge them in relative terms.