Most of the comments I will just go over them. I have heard a lot of what I was going to say from other Members, so I will try to keep this short.
I guess I wanted to start off with thanking the Minister for delaying the supplementary health benefits changes, or proposed changes, until April 1st of next year. That is a welcome sign that the
Minister and the government actually listened to us. I have said to the Minister that I still don’t understand why this policy would go out the door in the state that it went out, and I think, in my mind, somebody has to be held accountable for that bad policy that went out the door that caused so much frustration and anger in some communities here in the Northwest Territories. We had close to 2,300 signatures from NWT residents end up on the floor of the House. It was a mess, and I don’t want to see that happen again, Mr. Chairman. Like I said, somebody has to be accountable for the mess that that was and that that caused, not to mention the amount of work that it caused Members. We are busy enough as it is, other than having to answer to 20 or 30 e-mails a day from residents who are upset about this. So again, I think that somebody has got to be taken to task for that bad policy that came out. They have had five years to work it, so you have to ask the question: what are they doing there at the Department of Health? I know they have other policies they are working on, but I hope they get this one right the next time and I do look forward to seeing that as it goes forward.
The other thing I wanted to mention is on the issue of board reform. I know we went through the business planning process, and not just the Minister of Health but the other Ministers were reluctant or did not want to answer questions pertaining to the provision of services and programs their departments respectively provide, and now that we are in a public setting those questions are going to come again and not just to you, Ms. Minister, but to the other Ministers. Those questions are going to be here. How are you going to protect the programs and services that are being delivered in education, in housing and health? What are you doing as we move through the budget itself? There will be a
number of questions and I would expect that all Ministers would be able to answer for their own departments, not continue to recite the gospel as it pertains to the Cabinet. I do look forward to having that kind of discussion with the Minister when we get to it.
It was mentioned, you know, there are a number of good things in there. The Dementia Facility, that is a good thing; though I agree with the Members that the planning should have been better. It should have been better planned for the O and M money for the Dementia Facility itself. The consolidated clinic is close to being done. I think this time next year it will be open, and that is a step in the right direction as well. Stanton and the Beau-Del definitely need some attention. We start to sound like a broken record, but we can’t continue to allow these deficits to accrue at both of these authorities and not do anything about it, and sit idly by and approve supp after supp or bailouts for the authorities. I know there is a new CEO at Stanton, and I like to think that the department is taking the deficit in the Beau-Del seriously as well. There are a number of concerns. You have heard from Members that represent constituencies in that area, there are a number of large concerns. If you are not delivering the services, why are you still running up these huge deficits? I don’t know; the two just don’t seem to coincide for me, Mr. Chairman.
Also, I wanted to speak in favour of the Milk Subsidy Program and there were 10 Regular Members that threw their support behind that. I think that where there is a will there is a way, and this is definitely an area that the department needs to be focussing in on. You are always asking us for ideas and opinions on what we think can make a difference in people’s lives and I think starting somewhere with something like a milk subsidy, if it is done and implemented the right way, I don’t think it would be too onerous an administrative task to handle. You can make it more trouble than it is worth, but, like I said, I think there is a way to do it justice and do it right. That is something, like Ms. Bisaro was saying, that should take a few months, not a few years, to get to and I certainly would like the department to spend some time on that.
We always need to keep the interest of the people we represent at heart, and I know our health care system, for all its challenges across the North and the vast distances between communities, I know we do what we can and we do a good job at it. I would commend the Minister and the government. It is a challenge, like some other Members have alluded to, and it is a tough position to be in, but we do the best that we can.
We certainly could be looking at doing some more things. I mentioned in the past about services that
presently are done in Edmonton that we could look at repatriating back to the Northwest Territories, if we had the staff and the expertise here in the NWT to do it. I think it is becoming very costly to have people attend hospitals in Edmonton. Wherever possible we should be trying to keep people in the Northwest Territories to receive care. In some cases, that is not possible, but I think there are some areas, and I have talked about the nursery at Stanton as being one of those areas. Women in the Northwest Territories today who have a baby under I think it is 35 weeks have to have that baby in Edmonton. I don’t think there’s any reason why women shouldn’t be able to have their children here in the Northwest Territories from the 32 to 33 week mark on. If we had the staff and the nursery up and running, that would be the case, but, unfortunately, they have to have their children in Edmonton.
I could go on with a few other things, but I think I’ll stop there. I do have questions as we go through the Department of Health’s budget itself, but for the most part I’m pleased with what I see.