Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement, where I was speaking of children and children being our greatest resource.

We need to ensure, as a government, that we give parents the tools that are necessary to select and install car seats properly. As I mentioned in my statement, the number one cause of death among children in this country is car accidents. The safety of our children in this territory should be the priority of the government.

I would like to begin by asking the Minister: why is there not one site in the entire Northwest Territories where parents can go to ensure that they select and install a child’s car seat properly?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Speaker, the government and the Department of Health and Social Services take safety issues very seriously. We do public promotion, and we distribute vests, injury prevention measures. In cooperation with MACA and Transportation we distribute helmets for safety. In fact, we have distributed about 125 car seats. We have community health reps at the community level who work with parents to show them and teach them how to use their children’s car seats safely.

The way these are made…. It’s a modern machine and a lot more user-friendly than they used to be. I understand that there is a person in Yellowknife who would like to have more opportunities to have the training. I’m looking to see if we could deliver this program in house, where anybody in Yellowknife who’s interested could come and learn.

Mr. Speaker, if it’s such a priority of the Minister’s department, I’m wondering why they keep putting off the funding to get the training. It’s not just in Yellowknife. The training would take place in Yellowknife and Inuvik with community based individuals so they could go back to the community and spread that knowledge to communities across the Northwest Territories. Trainers are hard to find, and that’s been identified. They have a trainer who’s set and ready to go to provide these courses: two in Yellowknife and one in Inuvik.

I’d like to ask the Minister if she will assure this House and the people of the Northwest Territories that she’ll come up with some funding to ensure that these training programs take place. Because a trainer is hard to find.

Mr. Speaker, I’m sure the Member is as aware as anyone else here that we need to be responsible with our dollars. We should be doing as much as possible within the budget we have, which is certainly the challenge that Health has.

When he asks why we are not providing funding…. Yes, we did not agree to fund a $30,000 proposal to have these two programs in Inuvik and Yellowknife, but that doesn’t mean that this program is not being delivered. What I said is that the community health reps in all of our regions are already engaged in working with parents with infants on how to use their car seats. In fact, the government distributes car seats.

Now, I appreciate that there is one lady in Yellowknife who is looking all over the place to get a trainer on how to use a car seat. I can see there’s some need in Yellowknife to accommodate that. Being fiscally responsible in the environment that we live in, I am looking at seeing how we can deliver this in house. That’s certainly part of the mandate of the department, and we are engaged in health promotion and safe practices and healthy living throughout the year. This will be part of the program.

Mr. Speaker, I can probably think of a number of things in the past year where the department has wasted $30,000 at the drop of a hat. I’ve discussed some of those issues with the Minister previously. What I’d like to get a better understanding of is, if we leave this up to the department…. We all know how slow government moves. The program might not ever happen. This is something that can happen, and it can have positive results for parents across the territory.

I want to ask the Minister

—

this has been in place

for a year: why haven’t they funded a program like this to ensure the safe transport of our children in our territory?

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if I’m making my point clearly here. The fact is I don’t think it’s prudent or responsible for the government to be funding a third party proposal at $30,000 to bring somebody in to do two training programs on how to use car seats if we can find resources from within.

What I’m telling the Member is that we have the entire health promotion section that works on injury prevention and how to use helmets safely. We rent out vests so as to prevent boating accidents, we distribute helmets for safe practices, and we do distribute car seats.

I think it’s not correct to say: why aren’t you funding this money? What I’m saying is that it is part of the mandate of the department. We work on safety throughout the year. I am working with the

department to see, if there’s a need for this, how we can do this within. I believe we can do that without spending $30,000, which, I’m sure the Member would appreciate, is better fiscal management.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, by the time the department’s done with this in house thing, I’m sure it’s going to be more than $30,000, and that’s the issue that I take.

Yes, I’d like to see it done. I think they can do it with $30,000; I don’t think the department can do it with $30,000. Once they spend a year studying it and they hire two staff to look at it, it’s going to be much more than $30,000.

The big difference with this is that these people who are trained are going to go back into the communities. I’m wondering how the Minister can say that her in house solution is going to train people to go back out into the communities. They’re going to be trained to deliver this back home in their own communities. How is the department going to deliver on that?

Mr. Speaker, let me say it again. We have CHRs that we pay for every day. They work for us. They’re all over the communities. Part of their job is to distribute car seats, and we have distributed 125 car seats. They teach the parents how to use them. All I’m saying is that we are already doing that. We will continue to do that, and we don’t need to find extra funding for that.

Now, I’m just answering this issue that I think has come to the attention of the Member as well. We have had a proposal from a lady in Yellowknife who would like $30,000 to deliver this program. We e-mailed her back and said that we’re going to look into that and get back to you. She e-mailed me on September 26. I have not had a chance to get back with all this information. I don’t think it’s prudent for us to look at outside sources when we can do it within. We’re already doing it. We’re already protecting the safety of our babies and children.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services with respect to my Member’s statement. The provision of consistent, dependable health care to all our communities is a goal of ours and the territorial government’s.

The issue is about Wrigley and its lack of a community nurse, which has been requested ever

since the last time they had that service there, whatever the circumstances were that led to the departure of the nurse at that time. To return a nurse, the case has always been that there has to be safety in place; there has to be community policing.

Over time I have worked hard and got the agreement of the House, and the government agreed to restore community policing to Wrigley. Consequently, that was a very huge step. That was a big win, because that meant Wrigley would get a nurse.

Upon getting that, we went to the Department of Health and Social Services and said: okay; when are we going to put the job out and word out that there’s going to be a community nurse position open for Wrigley? The reply was that there isn’t one.

I’d like to know what possible reason there is for not following through with the provision of this essential service for the community of Wrigley. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had the opportunity to visit the community of Wrigley in May with the Member. We had a very productive meeting with the local leadership wherein one of the things that the chief and council asked for was to have a permanent nurse there.

I have had discussions with the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. We do have a fully functioning board and administration there, and their advice at this time is that Wrigley, for a community of its size and needs, has adequate services. They are recommending that we do not have a nurse placed there. Having said that that is their position, I would like to make a commitment to the Member that I will have further discussion with the board and see what is possible.

Absolutely, I’m glad that the Minister wants to follow through this commitment of restoring nursing services to Wrigley. Just with respect to Dehcho Health and Social Services, they are a very efficient and effective board for our region. I, too, commend them for that.

I also know Wrigley’s got a facility. The nursing position is within their budget, and all they’ve got to do now is allocate that person year and move them to Wrigley. I’m not too sure what the difficulty there is now that there’s going to be some safety there.

I still do not know what the possible reason is for not following through with the commitment to restore nursing services. I would like the Minister to address that once again.

There aren’t any reasons that I haven’t said already. I would like to just state that again that Wrigley is under the administrative oversight of the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority. They allocate how their money and their PYs are divided among all of their eight communities, I believe, that they serve — or maybe even more. They feel that the services they are providing right now to Wrigley are actually more than what they provide for another community within their region of similar size, so there are no plans to put permanent nurses there at the moment.

I understand in the past that one of the concerns was that there was no RCMP protection in Wrigley. I understand that there will be RCMP protection going in there as of 2011. We have some time from now until then to look at how we could improve the services not only in Wrigley but in the surrounding communities. I would like to make the commitment again to the Member that I will continue to work with the authority and the Member to see how we can address this.

The provision of any type of services for Wrigley is essential. I believe the recent Statistics Canada figures state that Wrigley is one of the ones with a declining population. That’s exactly because there is a lack of services. There is still that lack of services today, and I believe they are essential.

I would just like to know, as well, the commitment level. I know that there was a commitment for freeze-up and break-up. I would like to know the length of those periods when the nurse can be there. Will the nurse have more periodic visits? Once again, provision of consistent, dependable, professional health care is critical to the health of our people and our community. Mahsi.

I would be happy to look into the possibility of increasing the time that the nurse visits the community of Wrigley, especially at the time of freeze-up and breakup. I know that the community was very happy to have a nurse there during the time we were there. I understand that the people feel more comfortable when they have a resident nurse. I will review the hours of other services that are provided in Wrigley and see how we could improve that. We have a continuing discussion with the authority, and I will continue to do that.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Minister put her finger on it exactly: having that dependable, reliable service in the community makes people more relaxed and, I believe, more healthy.

Once again, I would like the Minister to comment on working towards having full time nursing. If it is working towards 2011, I would be very happy to work with her, along with the community, toward more frequent, consistent visits. Thank you.

I thought I stated earlier in the answer to the first question that the authorities who look after the staffing, the PYs and the service levels in Deh Cho, have told me — and I have talked to them following my meeting and my visits to Wrigley and other communities in Deh Cho — about the issues that were raised in the community, one of them being having more nursing services in Wrigley.

They told me then and they have told me lately that they believe that the nursing services in Wrigley are at or above the level they should be — for the size of the community, that is. Now, I understand that the community would still like to see more of that, and we have other communities in the Territories that would like to have their nursing services increased.

I am in the process of reviewing the human resource makeup of especially our small communities. I have already stated in this House that I am willing to work with the strategic investment committee, or joint committee, or whatever that makeup will be of the committee for rural and small communities. I think that this is something that we need to look at not only for Health and Social Services and Human Resources but in other areas as well, to see how we build capacity in small communities. That’s another area that I am willing to work on.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Some time ago a family received a letter. My request was to find out some details about medical coverage for a drug called Rituxan. This drug actually helps people with MS. It has been showing significant promise for people who have been suffering with this.

In the letter it basically says that you need to go through your physician to get approval for this. Well, this family went to go get this type of approval, and they’ve been refused approval for a drug that actually will help bring back quality of life. Mr. Speaker, what more does the Minister need to make sure that the system works for people who need this coverage? Thank you.