Mr. Speaker, the program review office right now looks at the effective and efficiency side of current government operations. For example, a number of areas we’ve started doing some work on earlier this winter and gathering the initial information was, for example, the growth and health expenditures, adult education and training aspect, the K to 12 schooling program and the impact of the funding changes related to, for example, the pupil-teacher ratio. Those are things we’re gathering information on, that type of system. We’ve not looked at the governance side of things as of yet. Thank you.

Could the examination of the governance within a department related to the delivery of programs and services be an appropriate thing to look into under the mandate of the program review office? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, right now we’re structured...For example, one of the other areas is within the Refocusing Government Initiative the appropriate deputies and Ministers

lead their conduct of ongoing program reviews by interdepartmental working groups and clarify and confirm mandates. At that level we’re doing the work. We haven’t looked at the expansion to, for example, the governance section, how authorities work and so on. We’re looking more at the program delivery side. We could sit down with Members and look at should we expand that look and do that work in that area. It is an opportunity, but right now it is more specific to actual program delivery area. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

I think that looking at those mechanisms for management and advisory within departments would be a natural fit for a program review office. I think that we are trying to create a separate vehicle here to look for effectiveness and efficiencies and I think we’ve already got it set right up there. How many people work in the program review office? How many people are dedicated to this exercise? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the program review office is four staff working in this specific area. Again, the delivery side is what our focus is on and I’m sure we can do some work to look at a better efficiency process of doing work on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. The governance structures and so on are, right now, outside that mandate, but I’m prepared to talk to Members if we should look at that avenue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I know that the Minister is aware of the respite service that is run out of Stanton Hospital for caregivers of patients with chronic conditions. I know that the Minister also knows of difficulties experienced by one of my constituents last year who is now so frustrated with the inconsistency of the service that she hasn’t used it in almost a year. I want to ask the Minister, first, have there been any improvements in the guidelines for the Respite Care Program since last fall when we discussed this issue? Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question and

I’m very familiar with the individual situation that she’s been working on. I can advise the Member, yes, the authority issued a guideline that specifies more clearly about what the procedure is in terms of how that one respite care bed at the hospital is to be used for those who need it. Thank you.

I think those guidelines are the ones that I was referencing, so I presume they haven’t changed. The major concern with the program for my constituent is that the system does not guarantee that the dates booked by the caregiver will be honoured. How is a family supposed to plan for a holiday when the respite booking can be cancelled mere days before it’s going to start? I want to know if the Minister finds this acceptable and, if not, what she is prepared to do about it. Thank you.

I would agree with the Member that this is not adequate. It’s not possible for a hospital to be able to guarantee these respite beds. Hospital administrators have to be able to make decisions under last minute notice. I think at best a respite bed here could be confirmed with a week in advance, but I know that for many families, especially large families with a holiday planned, they need to be able to plan months in advance.

What’s being done about it? The Territorial Dementia Centre, which is on time right now and hopefully it will be open by the end of the year, and it will have respite beds as well as day programming which I think will help a lot. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for the explanation. I do understand that there are emergency situations when the respite bed cannot be released as has been booked, but except for emergency situations, can the Minister advise that one week’s notice...The caregiver is required to provide a one-week, kind of, confirmation to the hospital that the patient or the client will be coming in. So it seems unfair to me that the hospital cannot also provide the same one-week notice to the caregiver when a cancellation has to be done. Emergent situations aside, can the Minister advise that the guidelines will guarantee one week’s notice if a cancellation has to occur? Thank you.

My information is that the authority has put this in practice to increase the chance of being able to do that. I think we need to be mindful of the fact, Mr. Speaker, that all beds have to be available in situations, and especially with this respite care bed, if a patient walks in who goes into a palliative care with no notice or less than a week’s notice, it is really hard to guarantee the bed for respite services. Because respite service, as important as it is to families, will not be on top of the priorities.

Mr. Speaker, I totally agree with the Member and the family that this is less than an ideal situation and we need to increase the respite care beds outside of the hospital. We are doing that with the Territorial Dementia Centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

I’m looking for a guarantee outside of emergency situations. It’s understood that there may be situations as the one that the Minister has mentioned with palliative care. It may be that the previous user of the respite bed isn’t picked up on time. Those things are understood. But all things being equal, if a cancellation has to be made for a reason other than an emergency, where is the one-week notice? Can the Minister guarantee that? Thank you.

I suppose I could guarantee outside of emergency, yes, you could have that bed, but to me that’s almost a meaningless guarantee because my understanding is that family wants to be able to book respite care, plan accordingly, and be able to take advantage of this. Under the current system that’s not possible because there are always emergencies that could come in. I will make the commitment to the Member that I will revisit the policy and see how it works, have we had any problems with the last-minute cancellation on the part of the hospital, and we will continue to work on this until we get the real respite beds at the Territorial Dementia Centre. Thank you.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I raised the issue of the permanent bridges across the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers as part of the Mackenzie Highway expansion. My questions are for the Minister of Transportation. Can the Minister advise me of any previous work that was done on the bridge at the Liard River Crossing near Fort Simpson, any cost estimates and/or scoping? As well, can that information be shared? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Michael McLeod.

Mr. Chairman, I believe most of our river crossings, the major river crossings in the Northwest Territories have been reviewed by the federal government in the ‘70s and perhaps even earlier. I certainly would be happy to have our staff go see what kind of documents were

put together in those days and anything pertaining to the Liard River and share it with the Member. Thank you.

I would like to know if the Minister will know how much work would be involved in developing a new and current cost estimate and/or scoping plan for the Liard River Bridge. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not an engineer and it would be very difficult for me to assess what it would cost. I would assume it would be fairly significant and we would probably not be very willing to do that until we knew there was a potential project in the works. Thank you.

Well, I’d like to help him with a potential project there, Mr. Speaker.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about capital planning process and a bridge. I just want to clarify that my request for the capital planning process was for the planning and engineering costs not so much as a resource to build a bridge. Will the Minister consider resourcing some dollars in the capital planning process to provide resources for an engineering and/or scoping study? Thank you.