Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the quality of life is being held up at Stanton because of the bureaucracy and the approach that’s being taken on this project. I brought this project to the Housing Corp. approximately a year ago. The fact is this is $16,000, maybe even as high as $18,000 in total. This is a project we could get done and be very proud of. Would the Minister be willing to step up the pressure to make sure this gets done in a timely way?

Mr. Speaker, I in fact looked at those tubs personally when I was contemplating one, when my mother was living with me, and I went online and looked at it. I got the information, and yes, they’re about $16,000 a tub. There are a couple of makes. They have some pluses; they have some negatives. The issue is: are the seniors getting the services they need to allow them to do the basics like morning ablutions, regular bathing? We’re going to work to do that. We’re committed, across the land, to provide the best level of service possible to seniors. This particular issue is one of those on our list.

Thank you, Mr.

Miltenberger. The

honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a little depressing to me that, as we stand here in this House and debate the issue of providing scheduled surgery services in hospitals, there are over 400 children with teeth rotting out of their heads — decay, bones diminishing. These are problems that are going to last forever — their entire lives — and are going to cost this system more money as we have to provide greater levels of health care to them later on in life.

I applaud the Minister of Health and Social Services, obviously, as I did in my statement, for the work she’s doing to try to solve this problem, but I think we have a fundamental problem here. One of the problems is we’re negotiating. We’re trying to get money out of people we’re not necessarily going to get money out of, such as the feds. We’re asking doctors to take a pay cut in order to work in the hospitals.

I’d like to ask the Minister if she’d be willing to stop the talks and start helping the children. Specifically, why are we asking the dentists to take a pay cut? They have a fee structure. They get paid whether they do the surgery in a clinic or an operating room. Let’s get rid of that aspect of this negotiation, and let’s focus in on what’s important, which is getting money out of the feds. If we’re not getting money out of the feds, let’s pay now and continue to fight the feds.

Thank you, Mr.

Abernethy. The

honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

Obviously, we do want to do as much as we can for our residents, but especially children who are suffering from pain. What should be kept in mind is that dental services are not an insured service

anywhere in Canada. Nobody gets dental service from the government. I, on the other hand, a Minister with a heart, am trying to do something about it.

Mr. Speaker, right now dental services, including dental surgeries, are covered by third-party insurance, whether it’s private insurance or NIHB in the case of aboriginal children. Surely, as the Minister of Health, I know better than to ask any doctor for a pay cut. That is not what I’m asking them to do.

What I’m saying is: for any regular dental service for adults, they are able to be done in private dental clinics, and dentists, as business operators, cover those costs. We’re not asking them to take a pay cut; they will get all the insured services there. The outstanding fee has to do with the use of the hospital. We are asking to see if we could have some negotiation on that, because they are getting covered for everything.

Because this is not a government program, we are looking at creative ways of doing it. I am considering all options, and I’m talking to everybody I can to solve this situation. I agree with the Member that we need a solution for all those children — 120 in the South Slave region; we have children in Yellowknife, all over the North — and I’m trying to look for ways to solve that.

I’m glad to hear that. I’m glad that you’re continuing to look for solutions. When it comes to the dentists themselves, they would happily, I’m sure, provide those services within their clinics because they’ve got the infrastructure; they’ve got all the equipment. They’ve got everything they need. They’ve got the expert staff, the technicians and whatnot there to do it. Unfortunately, when we’re talking about small children with small mouths who need a number of procedures done at the same time, the only way that can be done in a safe and practical manner is for the children to be put under general anaesthetic, which means they basically need to go to a hospital.

I go back to my first question. I mean, we’re asking the dentists to go out of pocket to help these children. I’m not sure that is necessarily the best solution. Meanwhile we’re saying, “No, we’re not going to do it in Stanton.” But I know that Stanton is shut down for a couple months every summer, plus they always have one OR room. Would the Minister look at opening up Stanton, in addition to Hay River, to help get this waiting list down and stop the pain and suffering of these children?

I am looking at all options, but there are two things the Member and the public need to know. Mr. Abernethy is very familiar with this issue. Because children move around, they

need to be put to sleep for this procedure in a way that adults don’t, for safety purposes.

In southern jurisdictions private clinics have surgery units that can do dental surgery for children. The costs are covered by the private sector. We have a situation in the North: no private clinics have that facility. But in the south, they have them and they cover them. Government does not pay for those.

Government is trying to step in to see what we can do. On the question about why not Stanton: Stanton does have a third OR room, but this is a kind of service that doesn’t need the full spectrum of surgery services. I think it is important for us to consider where services can be provided outside of Yellowknife, and we should consider that. We have an active proposal from the dentist community in Hay River, and they have a surgery unit that is not being used. We have 120 children on the waiting list in the South Slave region. It’s all documented; they are ready to go, and that’s why I am considering that option.

Once again, all well and good. The bottom line is there are children suffering. We know we can agree to that. I think our real negotiations should be with the feds. I think the debate we’re having with the oral surgeons is kind of defeating the purpose. We need to get those kids in, and we need to get them in now. Can you tell me a little bit about the negotiations that are going on with the feds and how that’s going to help us solve the problem for our suffering youth?

This is under active negotiation. The deputy ministers are having their meeting in preparation for the ministers’ meeting. The deputy minister of Health for the NWT is going to the DMs meeting next week. This issue is on the table. We have been negotiating hard to get NIHB to step up to the plate and pay for the full service for children who are eligible for NIHB. In the meantime, I agree with the Member that we need…. You know, we have to consider all options to take care of the children, while the adults argue about who’s going to pay for this. This is why I am making some proposals that I’m hoping the Members will support us on.

Thank you, Ms.

Lee. Final

supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to hear that. In my Member’s statement I mentioned a full cost accounting on this issue. To me, sending youth south seems like an expensive proposition as opposed to dealing with them here in the North. If we were to do a full cost accounting, we’d think about the benefits of supporting our local economy, getting our children dealt with faster.

The dentists here in Yellowknife are an example, as they are in Hay River…. They are ready and willing. They are ready to go in tomorrow and start helping these youths solve their problems and fix their teeth, therefore supporting the long-term health of these kids. But we’re not doing it. We’re still standing up here in the House debating the issue. Will the Minister commit to doing a full cost-accounting analysis of this situation that will show it is beneficial to have them wait, which I hope it doesn’t, and that it’s more cost effective to send them south, which I don’t believe? Would the Minister commit to that?

There are a number of factors to that. Because this is not a government service, government is not paying anything right now. We don’t want to pay for the facility service unless we have to. Those who are covered by third-party insurance get covered to go to Edmonton, or wherever else, by their insurance companies. It’s just that no insurance coverage will pay for the facility service.

NIHB clients get all the dentist costs covered under NIHB. It’s just that NIHB won’t pay for the facility either. So the only factor that we have to look into, and the government is considering, is the facility fee that was absorbed before in Stanton and Hay River when those services were rendered. That cost is about $244 out of $950 that it costs to do 90 minutes of anaesthesia, which is the biggest cost of delivering this service. Obviously, there are other services our hospital would have to cover. Hay River Hospital is equipped and ready to do that in a way that Stanton is not. Stanton has about one day available every eight weeks to have extra surgery above what they are already carrying. Hay River has offered up to ten weeks steady to clear the backlog. I think it’s an option, for economic purposes too, because Hay River has facilities, human infrastructure and a dentistry community that’s willing to step up. We have accurate proposals.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask the Minister of ECE some questions with regard to the teacher housing issue.

I know that the divisional councils commissioned a study on teacher housing, and they made some reference to how some other jurisdictions treat housing for professionals.

I know the Minister was working with a couple other Ministers on trying to develop a strategy or plan. I'm

hoping to look at it this coming fall. If the Minister could speak to that.

Thank you, Mr.

Menicoche. The

honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, certainly we are working, as Ministers, myself and Housing, just to deal with this particular housing shortage in the North. It has become a bigger issue, and it has been going on for a number of years.

At the same time, we did meet with the chairpersons of all five regions, including Yellowknife, and also the superintendents. In Norman Wells one of the main topics was, of course, housing. Every single individual spoke on this particular topic. We did meet with the Deh Cho representative, Mr.

Swartzentruber — the

superintendent for that region — and he made a presentation to us as Ministers.

We are moving forward. Particularly, we focused on whether it will be this fall or next year. We’re going to get some inventory from each respective riding on what kinds of units are available through the Housing Corporation. So I think we are making progress. Nolan himself will certainly work with his superintendents and the communities as well. I think we are moving in the right direction to deal with the housing crunch.

It showed up, of course, in my riding again last fall. The Minister of Housing was involved, and we were able to resolve a couple of issues.

But just once again: when do you expect the strategy the Minister is working on, and can we see some action by this fall?

Mr.

Speaker, what we

could provide to the Members and the committee would be the kind of inventory we have at the community level and at the regional level. That’s what Mr. Swartzentruber is working on with his fellow colleagues. They will be providing that back to our Ministers — myself, Miltenberger and Bob McLeod as HR. Once we get the facts from the community, we’ll be more than happy to share with the committee members.

On the long-term plans, there is a strategy that’s been developed and also planning stages to deal with the housing in the communities, whether it be guaranteed financing for housing — that’s one area. Another area is identifying the communities that do not have any units for professional staff. Those are the options we’re working with, with the superintendents. There’ll be ongoing discussion, and we’ll certainly keep the Members posted on that.

Indeed, accommodations are critical. I think I mentioned to the Minister last week that one of the jurisdictions in B.C. said they call it temporary accommodations. I don’t think anybody wants to go long term. I think that’s one of the reasons our government got out of it initially. But if we can strive and work toward that, that will be a long ways from where we’re at there.

Mr. Speaker, I believe part of this discussion is also to deal with the temporary basis as we stand now. We are fulfilling the teachers’ positions. As I’ve told the Member for Nunakput, I do believe, we are fulfilling most of the positions for teaching and also principals throughout the North. So we should be at that point. We’re almost fully complete. There may be some outstanding, certainly. With the housing issue, it’s always come up during the interview process. On a temporary basis we are working with the communities to identify what units are available through the Housing Corporation, so they can have that available for teachers or principals in the communities, the new recruits or the returning positions.

Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much,

Mr. Speaker. I think, at a minimum, there should be something in the orientation packages for the new teachers — a strategy in case they do come here and then there’s a change in the housing arrangements that they had.