This is page numbers 5293 - 5320 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th 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 language.

Topics

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to see that we are working on something. I don’t know if there’s an evaluation available on some of these programs, but that’s certainly something that I would like to see completed. As well, as we move forward with immersion programs, does the direction come from the Minister’s office or is that work, again, with the education councils? Thank you.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mr. Speaker, I’ve always respected working closely with the education councils and I will continue to do so. We cannot do this alone, implement this strategy. Definitely I will be seeking some guidance and support from the education councils and the Members as well. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue with some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to the other questions that I had for her. The Minister spoke earlier of all the good things that under her watch the department has been doing. If the Minister has been addressing the root causes of these deficits over her three-year reign as Health Minister, like the underfunding, the unfunded positions, the growing costs for medical supplies and equipment, billing issues, unwieldy accounts receivables, and governance structure, then why do the deficits continue to spiral out of control at our health authorities? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the health care system as a whole as the amount of deficit that amounts to about 10 percent of our entire health and social services budgets. That’s quite typical. Jurisdictions across the country are experiencing similar kinds of deficits. Had we not been able to get federal funding in the amount of $15 million over the next two years, that would add another $15 million. We were able to obtain that funding.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, we need to find a way to right-size our budget. That’s the work we are doing. The deputy minister and all of the senior management, including all of the CEOs and medical directors, are fully engaged in coming up with right-sized budgets for all of the authorities. We know from past experience that infusing cash into the system deals with the bottom line for the moment but it does not deal with the structural changes that we need to undertake. The work is underway and we are fully engaged and seized with this issue. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

I thank the Minister for that. I think that’s the right approach and we should be pursuing that, but how are we going to get there? I’ve been here seven years and the Minister’s been here longer than that -- 12 years or 11 -- and these are problems that have been ongoing. They’ve been a problem since the day I got here. I want to believe what the Minister is saying, but how is she sure that come next year when Members go into the business plans, is she saying that the health budget is going to be increased by 10 percent, and where is that money supposed to come from, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Obviously, that money will come from our territorial budget. Our health care system right now takes about 30 percent of the total budget. Across the country, health care expenditures take up somewhere up to 40 to 50 percent of the budget. What we are working on right now is we are reviewing all of the important aspects of our health care system. Physician resources, how we are spending those resources, because that is one big ticket item. We spent about $26 million on medical travel. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing in that regard. We are reviewing the business planning model so that we are putting the money in the right place. And we are looking to see how we could find efficiencies so that come next business cycle, we are not going to be asking for 10 percent extra for the health care system but that we can demonstrate that for less money but doing more effective delivery, that we could have sustainability in our health care system.

I know we’ve been here for many, many years, but the senior management at the Department of Health has been there for a little over a year and they are making huge progress. All the management is very, very engaged and I am very positive and optimistic that we are going to come up with a great plan for us to consider. Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Mr. Speaker, again, I do thank the Minister for that response. The one thing I didn’t hear in her response was whether or not the government’s going to ask itself and us the hard question, and that is whether or not we can afford to maintain having several authorities across the Northwest Territories delivering health and social services for our people and whether that current governance structure is sustainable going forward. That’s a hard question and I’d like to ask the Minister is that going to be part of the discussions with senior management and the government. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, that may or may not be something that this Legislature or future Legislatures have to consider. What we are doing right now is reviewing the government’s model and all of the chairs are fully engaged in working together as closely as possible, so that we are not working as eight separate authorities but we are working as a group. We meet every three months. We are looking at how to use doctors and resources better, how to find efficiencies in medical travel. How do we make sure that we collect all the money that is owed to us from anybody? How do we bill for services that we are providing to Nunavut residents or visitors or tourists who are having accidents? We are making sure that we collect every dime from them, any third-party cost. We are looking to change standby and call systems. We are working to make sure that all of our health care professionals are practicing at the fullest level possible so that if we could use nurse practitioners rather than using a doctor’s service, then we are doing that. The only way to do that is to have the doctors engaged, nurses engaged. If we could use midwifery, we are doing that.

Mr. Speaker, this is a multi-faceted, fully engaged, complex system change that we are engaged in. We are well on the way to making those changes. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is very easy to criticize. I like to be critical of the government from time to time, but I also want to give my suggestions to government and a suggestion, Mr. Speaker, if I could give that to the Minister, would be to look at the authorities and change the way they operate. Take away the management aspect. Make them advisory boards, if anything, and, to me, if you are looking for

efficiencies, that is where you are going to find it. It doesn’t make any sense to have eight different authorities in the Territories with 42,000 people in it. If you are looking for efficiency, start there. Instead of 70 to seven, go from eight to one. That will be my suggestion to the government. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, that is a valid suggestion. It is an important suggestion. It is something that I think we need to consider. But, at the moment, Mr. Speaker, I think we could go far and we could do fine efficiencies by combining, for example, purchasing, where really the dollars count. We organize in the back offices so that we lessen the duplication and redundancy. We are making sure that each health facility only provides a service that it should. So the Stanton Hospital should become the territorial hospital that it was meant to be and it is meant to be, that any services that could be done, any practices and procedures that could be done in Hay River or Fort Smith or Inuvik, we want to make sure we do that.

Mr. Speaker, the Member has a valid point. It is something that we need to consider more. We are looking at the governance structure of our health care system. We need to talk about that more. I thank the Member for his suggestion. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was listening to the questions raised by our Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Jane Groenewegen. I like her approach on suggesting bulk purchasing and trying to leverage the expertise and skills that private industry have. My question would be to the Minister of Health and Social Services just to make sure -- of course, recognizing individual MLAs have every right to advocate for their businesses in their riding -- if the Department of Health and Social Services is going to continue this line of consideration which I would encourage them to do, it would make it an open and competitive process that any territorial business could bid on this if this was the approved or considered approach going forward on the bulk purchases of pharmaceutical products. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we would look at every way where that would allow us to find efficiencies and cost savings by competitive process. We would look at all of that, Mr. Speaker. The cost of drugs, equipment and supplies is one of the big cost drivers. We are

analyzing them very closely. Members on the other side have suggested that we need to look at this. Jurisdictions across the country are looking at those. Mr. Speaker, yes, I take his advice and will keep that in mind. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, if I could add one more issue to this particular problem in going forward, I would ask the Minister reach out to the Pharmacy Association of the Northwest Territories to engage maybe all their association and they could maybe leverage some of the expertise the association would have with their members and perhaps a collective approach could be given to help draw out the direction of this type of health care potential savings. I would hate to think that they would be excluded on any type of expertise that they would probably willingly offer to ensure that the government’s bottom lines are being met in an efficient way. They are truly a critical component in this solution and overlooking them would be quite insulting. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Minister of Health and Social Services

Mr. Speaker, yes, we would do that wherever possible and wherever appropriate. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for question period has expired. Sorry, item 8 on the Order Paper, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Plan - A Shared Responsibility, October 2010. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Northwest Territories Meeting and Conference Planner 2011. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled A Clear Path Forward, Municipal and Community Affairs Strategic Plan 2010-2015. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.