This is page numbers 1921 to 1954 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was honourable.

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Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

Every year we as a government do a full review of our planning, expenditures, reductions and where investments should occur. That occurs on an annual basis. As we prepare for the next slate of that, which we’ll be bringing to Members, that information will be pulled together. For example, were our estimates on corporate taxes on the mark or were they off? Were there adjustments? Payroll tax, personal income tax, all of those things we build on estimates, and they’re proved out if our numbers are good or not. Later in the year we get the results back from the federal government. That’s all part of the package and affects any changes that we will have to make going forward, looking at the business plans.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think it’s important that the government keep its eye on what is happening around the world. Like I said earlier, the Bank of Canada is predicting that Canada is on the brink of a recession. I would hope that the government could at the earliest possibility brief Regular Members on where the government’s exposure is in terms of credit and commodity prices. It’s going to hit us. We’re not going to be immune to what’s going on. Will the Premier commit today to brief Regular Members on where the government’s exposure is on this?

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

The fact is myself and the Finance Minister will be prepared to sit down with Members before we start the actual business planning process to give an update on where things are, where the dollars are, the impact on the Northwest Territories and the changes we will have to look at going forward as we look at those potential impacts that might be felt here in the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions with respect to Medical Travel.

They have been doing a really good job. I’ve brought up some concerns in the past about travelling back home to my smaller communities. In the past I had issues about not having contact information when they get to the airport, and sometimes they get stranded. So they have taken the initiative of putting up collect phone numbers and posting it around so people can see it.

But we’re still finding that constituents are showing up in Fort Simpson, and they’re getting stranded. In fact, some people aren’t really familiar with calling collect, either. They’re not comfortable with it, maybe because of their skill level with the English language.

I’d just like to ask the Minister: what steps are given to the patients to ensure that they travel safely back to the communities without interruption?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for bringing this issue to my attention, because it appears that we could improve our programming there.

My understanding is that we do not have a contractor for medical travel in Simpson. It is going out for tender in the next couple of weeks. While they do not have a contractor in place, the department and the Stanton authority, which is responsible for medical travel, have been using patchwork efforts to organize transportation. Where patients are flying in charter planes, they would arrange with the charter companies to pick them up, and then taxi services or Deh Cho Health Authority staff will come.

It has not been a consistent delivery of service. I’d like to thank the Member for bringing that up, and I will follow that up. Hopefully, if we could get a contractor in place, we could have a more uniform and consistent service in that area.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

It’s about making the lives better for our constituents. Deh Cho Health and Social Services, like many government departments, they’re clients as well.

The main concern now, at this time of year, is that it gets darker sooner. Constituents are landing in evening flights — 7, 7:30 — and the airport gets shut down right away by airport staff. So sometimes they really don’t have an outlet for who to call or how to get transportation.

I was just wondering: does the current policy or guidelines require a call ahead of time to the community that the patient is traveling to, to advise them of their contractor and/or, in this case, that it’s probably going to be Health and Social Services staff for the interim?

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Yes. Right now the policy or the process is that the local taxi company is advised. They would like to get the call by 4 o’clock the day before for anybody coming. I understand it does work most of the time, but once in a while the passengers might arrive at the airport and not find anybody there, and they’ll have to call the number that’s indicated at the airport.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Like I said, at Fort Simpson Airport there is a phone number that people can call collect. Has the department looked at using a 1-800 system at all? I think we’ve raised it before too; I’m not too sure. Maybe it exists; I’m not too sure.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

I think the 1-800 number question was to do with residents in our small communities who need to get hold of a health professional, if there’s just one simple number they could call. The issue there, at the time, was with NorthwesTel having some difficulties.

With respect to this medical travel, I would commit to the Member that I will ask the department to review the process we have now to see if we could improve that any better. But, at the end of the day, having a contractor who could deliver that service consistently probably will be the better way, and I’m hoping we could have somebody take that on.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

I’m very happy to see the Minister is very attuned to the situation, because we do have patients traveling to and fro that require attention.

Just once again, I’m not too sure whether the clients are given a sheet with phone numbers on it to contact somebody when they arrive on site and there’s nobody there to pick them up or to forward them on to the next point of destination.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

It appears that in Simpson the Deh Cho Health Authority is in close touch with the Stanton authority. The community health rep or even the maintenance person, whoever has a vehicle, will go and meet whoever is arriving. That

is the process right now. I will review that to see if we can tighten that up any further.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

My question is for the Minister of Human Resources, following up on my Member’s statement today. As I mentioned, I’ve become affected by the disillusionment and disappointment shown by a lot of our young people — our summer employees, our casual employees, our new employees — and they’re lamenting the waste that they see.

I know the Minister made a statement the other day that they’re embarking on a comprehensive human resource strategic plan, which I’m very happy to hear. How is the department going to ensure that all employees have input, specifically these new and potentially long term employees? Given their status as past employees, some of them are not with us. They were temporary, or they’ve become so disillusioned that they’re no longer with us.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Minister of Human Resources

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government we are very pleased that we were able to offer summer student employment to 281 summer students. I’m quite surprised to hear it appears the majority were disillusioned, because of the fact that we’ve taken extra steps to ensure that summer students were gainfully employed. We provided orientation opportunities for them, and we worked very closely with all of the departments to make sure that their employment was meaningful and allowed them to gain some skills that they could carry forward.

As well, we do provide the opportunity for exit interviews for summer students, and all of these interviews are compiled into a report that is provided to the government.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you for those comments. I am surprised that the Minister is surprised, if he indeed does have access to those exit interviews. I want to be clear that the students and young people and new employees that I talked to are clear in that they’re very happy to have had the opportunity for employment. It is just the disappointment in the workplace — the missing teamwork and so on that I have mentioned.

One of the big ones is the incredible amount of wastage. I mention that again. The ENR, for example, apparently is the only department that has

mandatory double-sided photocopying and so on. What is this plan going to do to ensure that wastage of things like paper, employee potential, energy and so on is explicitly addressed?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t sound like it’s a summer student issue; it sounds like it’s a government operations issue. Certainly one of the initiatives of our government is to work on making our operations a lot more effective and efficient, including the reduction and elimination of wasteful practices.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Once again, these are people that have thoughts and feelings about their employment. It is something we really want to take advantage of and address so we can improve our service to the public. One of the things they mentioned is the opportunity for a GNWT blog, where employees can log on and register their complaints and so on. What is the opportunity for anonymous contributions in order to protect these employees and enable them to make these comments and ensure we get a thorough assessment?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, the Member referred to the human resource strategic plan that we’re developing, which will be a ten year strategic plan, with our ultimate goal to reaffirm that the GNWT public service is the best place to work in the Northwest Territories. It’s unclear to me what kind of retribution these summer students would be fearful of. We do provide them with an opportunity to respond through exit interviews. As we go through our consultation, if the general feeling is that we should provide a blog, an opportunity for them to respond, we are quite prepared to do so.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. A short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those comments by the Minister. A lot of the issues raised are government-wide issues, and I am hoping that this department and all departments will act to ensure that many of these things are addressed. They are brought up in real terms by our employees and our potential long term employees. I think it is well recognized by the Minister and others that we are not the employer of choice right now. We’d like to regain that status and both attract and retain employees.

So once again I would ask the Minister: is he willing to commit to working with the other departments on these issues, sort of beyond a human resource thing — just good management practices?