I don’t think it would be proper for me to verify rumours or what’s on the street, but I am aware there have been media reports by the president of the UNW local at Stanton suggesting that the nurse practitioners’ positions were part of the budget cuts, that the Northern Women’s Health Program was part of the budget cut. I have tried to correct that information on every occasion I could. Those are staff funding, of which the Member is very well aware from his past employment experience. Those were time-specific programs. All of those are reinstated.
The Northern Women’s Health Program is part of the new positions being created with staff funding. Those NP positions are ones we’ve had lengthy discussions on. We have made it clear to all of the authorities that we encourage them to work with us to incorporate these NP positions wherever possible. There’s no question that, given that health care costs rise higher than 3 per cent, we have to look at every penny and every program to see how we could live within our balanced budget and minimize the impact on program and service delivery. That’s been my mantra in budgeting the department budget as well as the authorities’ budget. I am in the process of reviewing that, and there have not been any final decisions made in that regard for any of the authorities.