Mr. Chairman, the Member knows he and I had many, many discussions on how to address this issue. I do want to address this issue, but this is the first time I have heard the Member say maybe we could do six months. That’s the kind of flexibility that I’ve never...I am just saying I heard the Member wanting to consider all options, because so far my conversations have been that either we have two nurses stationed there or no other option. I am just saying to the Member that I will look at...It would be doable for me to see how we can enhance services there including what the Minister of Justice suggested in enhancing policing services in Tsiigehtchic, because it would be so much easier for us and doable for us to enhance nursing services in Tsiigehtchic if we could have somebody, we could create another PY in McPherson and have them travel more often to Tsiigehtchic. Maybe it could be two weeks in, two weeks out or maybe it could be three days out of five days a week. I just want the Member to agree to have all options, because it seems to be so much more difficult to have two nurses’ positions in a community of Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.

That’s exactly the problem we are having is we can’t...We can talk about the issue but it doesn’t really seem to solve the problem with the community where they have a health centre, you have different care services. We are hoping to improve on the policing side. The six-month thing is...The ideal thing is to have full operating health services through the health centre in Tsiigehtchic. Again, you mentioned the six months thing. For the community it’s better than what they are receiving right now. It’s important that we do have a recruitment and retention system that allows for those communities. If they can find somebody who is willing to stay in the community for a long period of time and even if it has to be the chartered community, if they can go out of their way to recruit, retain, identify somebody that they would like to bring in, will the government consider working with those organizations to maintain these people in those communities?

The thing with the health care system is that you have to have people that the clients or residents have faith in and have comfort in to be able to work with them and also familiarize themselves, instead

of having this continual cycle where people come in for two weeks, they go out, another person comes in for two weeks and it doesn’t have an effect, especially for a lot of the elderly people in our communities.

I would just like to ask the Minister again, six months is an attempt to get there, but the ideal situation is to have these people recruited and filled for long periods of time where we can have some stability with regard to the nursing services in the smaller communities. Is there a way that we can maybe work with the organizations?

I know that you mentioned that with the Gwich’in Tribal Council with regard to the nursing staff in the communities, the Gwich’in Tribal Council said if you want a house, we’ll build you a house. If that’s the case, maybe the Gwich’in should run their own health care systems, pull away from the Beaufort-Delta health board, recruit, retain and administer their own health services and take their portion of the money which would probably do a better job than what we’re doing now.

For myself, six months is a start, but it’s not going to solve the problem. We do have a system in place to recruit people. The whole idea is to ensure that we are able to have that long-term commitment in place where we don’t have people there for a short time, they go, someone else comes in. So again, I would like to ask the Minister if we could try for a little bit more than six months, say eight months, which probably could serve the community during those times of the month between October and December and during December break-up and freeze-up. If you have road access during the summer months where you have the ferry system in place, you can do that. So again, I would like to ask if there is any way or get some assurance that...I know you have to put that in writing, but at least I can give something to the community. Give them some comfort that we are trying to find ways that...You were there at the public meeting that I was at and the community is frustrated that this issue has been going on as long as it has. Again I put the blame smack dab on the Beaufort-Delta Divisional Board of Health in regard to the way they treat small communities.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do believe the Member and I see eye to eye on the need to enhance services in Tsiigehtchic. I am encouraged that the Member is willing to consider proposals that would enhance nursing services there. If the Member would let me give proposals that would enhance nursing services in Tsiigehtchic more than what it has now, it may not be where he wants to be at the end of the day, but we have to start somewhere and if the Member is willing to consider those, I am willing to give him a proposal

on how we could enhance nursing coverage in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.

Just a question in regard to grants and contributions program delivery support. It says that health and social services authorities and agencies administering...It talks about eligible NWT residents in the Territorial Health Insurance Program. Is that the people with NWT health insurance budget, because there was a question about the number of health care cards that are out there and are we paying for…So is that when we talk about insured services? Are those the individuals with health care cards or people with status cards or Metis Blue Cross cards or does that include those health cards that are floating around everywhere else?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Again, that comes up on the next page I believe but, Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, this is on the grants to our health authorities for administrative support. The health insurance office in Inuvik is actually not part of the regional authorities; it is part of headquarters. They are our regional office. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Krutko, anything further? That’s it. I don’t have anyone else on the list for this page. We have page 8-18, program delivery support, grants and contributions. Agreed?

We are into 8-19, program delivery support, grants and contributions, continued.

Thank you, committee. Moving to 8-20, program delivery support, active positions, information item.

Agreed. Thank you, committee. Mr. Krutko.

I would just like some information. It talks about community allocations; it talks about regions and area officers, 16 positions. It talks about the Beaufort-Delta, what are those 16 positions in the Beaufort-Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, that is the health insurance office in Inuvik. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Anything further, Mr. Krutko? Moving on. That is page 8-20, program delivery support, active positions. Agreed? Sorry, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just on that issue, are there plans within the department to move some of those positions into other regional authorities such as the Beau-del and to the Sahtu on some of those things that could be managed by the Sahtu Health Board rather than have it up in the Beau-del?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Ms. Lee.

Mr. Chairman, Health and Social Services has about -- I am guessing here -- 1,400 employees; 130 of them are at headquarters and 16 are in Inuvik, but the rest of 1,200 are in the regions. So we are a most decentralized government system. Sahtu has, in all of our health care workers and social workers, everybody, they are scattered and working all over the place, but this one is just talking about the headquarters admin staff, but we have staff everywhere in the Territories and there is no plan to move the insurance office from Inuvik to anywhere else, because I think they need to kind of stay together to do their work. Thank you.

Certainly there are regional offices in different locations. I am just asking the Minister, in terms of plans, in terms of us in the Sahtu establishing a health board and having it up and running and that sometimes I think you have to get the government here...Sometimes it makes sense to move some of these offices into the regional offices, ones that would make a difference in our region. Some will still have that tie to the Inuvik Regional Health Board. I know that because our health centre in Tulita still says Inuvik Regional Health Board. How many years have we had the Sahtu Health Board? I want to ask that question and the Minister has clearly indicated that there are no plans in discussion and maybe another time we could have that discussion. That is the essence of my discussion; seeing if there is something up in Beau-del that could be moved to the Sahtu region in terms of allocation.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. There is no real question, but does Minister Lee want to respond?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I understand the Member’s question. I think Sahtu authority has big plans for the area and it has plans to grow. I think it is a new authority, but it is a vibrant authority and it has plans to grow. As they move forward I think you will see that Sahtu authority taking on and growing more and more and

it doesn’t necessarily come from taking some jobs or positions from Beau-del. They will grow or shrink as a separate authority as the jobs are required to do. I know Sahtu would like to have a lot more positions in their area than they do now and as is the situation with all the other authorities, but I think you will see Sahtu authorities grow in services and persons and capacity every year. Thank you.

I just want to thank the Minister for her vision of the Sahtu in terms of our health board and I hope that we start seeing some differences in terms of what the Minister has indicated in terms of the ability to sustain ourselves and grow into a vibrant health board in the future. I am just making a comment here. There are some other questions I have, so I will make a comment that I hope her dream comes true.