This is page numbers 5431 - 5456 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 health.

Topics

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

I’d like to thank the Minister for that. One of the issues that has come to my attention, and I know it’s come to some of the other Members, has been the telephone system at the clinic itself. There appears to be a lot of frustration. Some people phone and they get busy signals or they get put on hold for extended periods of time. Now, I know that we have some staff issues and we’re trying to staff that place up, which might be part of the problem, but has anything been done to start addressing the amount of time that people are waiting on the telephones or have we put in more people to ensure that the calls are answered in a more timely manner? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

The steps are being taken and have been taken to address that issue. The phone system they installed at the clinic is quite sophisticated, but we have been running into some trouble. The authority has been working with the provider and the main person from the headquarters. They have been meeting. It’s a sophisticated system that’s able to evaluate and

take all of the numbers of the calls being made, how long people are waiting for and how they can improve. As the Member knows, because we have met with the authority, they’re observing all of that and will be analyzing that and I expect to get some reports on that very quickly. I will get back to the Member and inform the public as to what steps are being taken to improve that. Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

The Minister actually hit on something incredibly important there and I’m glad she’s going to provide the information back to me and my colleagues; that’s important. But more importantly it’s about getting the information to the public, because they’re the ones who are using this clinic and we need to make sure that whatever we do is clearly communicated and articulated to our residents, the ones who want to use it. So I look forward to that.

Another area of concern, and I’ve touched on it briefly, is just the number of staff that we have in that facility. I had one constituent come to me -- and I’ve shared the information with the Minister -- where they went to the diagnostic side and there was nobody there. There is a waiting room there, and they waited for what they felt, and what I feel, is an extended period of time before there was even somebody in there, which kind of is a little worrisome, but I know that there are some staffing issues. I’m wondering what kind of timeline is in place to ensure that we get that facility fully staffed so that there are people at the front counters when people come in to both the diagnostic and the clinical side. Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

As we get further into operating this facility, the authority is, and will be, reviewing the staff makeup and the presence of staff at the front office. The way it’s designed, because of the physicality of the floor, we couldn’t have everybody in one place, so it just necessitated having two different stations. We have been able to train and staff additional personnel on the lab side. I have also talked to the management about using some of the equipment and TV screens and other things to advise and inform the public about how long they have to wait, why they are waiting, what’s expected to happen while they are waiting. The authority is constantly evaluating the operation to see how we can improve them and I will keep the Members advised as well as the public as we move forward.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just two quick things in closing. I mentioned earlier that I had a constituent who mentioned some difficulties they had accessing the building, especially the interior doors. The individual was in a wheelchair and there was no electronic opener on the door, so it was very difficult. I believe that’s been rectified. If

I can get the Minister to confirm that that has in fact been rectified.

The second part is that the Minister has mentioned that this facility is not just a Yellowknife facility, that it is a territorial facility. My question to the Minister is if they have ever considered renaming the authority. Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority doesn’t seem like the appropriate name if we’re providing territorial-wide services.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Two questions there. Ms. Lee.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that the automatic door situation was really unfortunate. As soon as that was made apparent to us, DPW and Department of Health and Social Services and YPCC worked immediately to rectify that.

To answer the naming of it, the authority did have public consultation and the board decided that they would like to stay with the Yellowknife name because that’s what even the communities outside of Yellowknife recognize the facility to be. Mr. Speaker, I... Oh. System off line. I will talk to the authority about a possible name change to reflect the operation, but that might be too soon, seeing as it just came into operation in June.

System off line. But the lights are on.

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. In my Member’s statement today I talked about a potential taskforce concept or certainly a business team that targets business growth in the Northwest Territories that reaches out and finds good business that could invest in the North and create jobs. In combing through ITI’s business plan, I didn’t see anything that focused in on attracting new business to the North. I provided a number of examples. Can the Minister tell me who’s been tasked with that type of initiative that can attract business in the Northwest Territories?

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I missed who you’re addressing your question to, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

The Minister of ITI.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is aware of this old saying about great minds think alike. Just last week I had a

meeting of my ministerial advisory panel and I posed exactly that question to them, as to whether the businesspeople in the Northwest Territories thought it was a good idea for the Government of the Northwest Territories to get involved with attracting businesses from the South to relocate to the North and whether the Government of the Northwest Territories should develop new programs or invest any money in doing so. We’re still waiting for a response from the ministerial advisory panel.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m really glad that the Minister didn’t comb over the issue as I’ve been combing through the department.

---Interjection

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

And recognizes how important it is.

---Interjection

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Not that it’s a problem for either of us.

---Interjection

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

As the Minister says, he’s proposed the concept to the ministerial advisory panel. Actually, we did talk about this some time ago and he did suggest that he’d make sure he brought something similar to the concept to them and it sounds positive. Does the Minister see their good value for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment with coming up with a taskforce that could target these types of initiatives as well as reach out to local businesses to see how we can dovetail our policies to do this attraction of new business to the North?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

The initial reaction to the question that we posed to the ministerial advisory panel was that we had to be very strategic in attracting new businesses to the North. That whatever we did should be to meet some specific needs and also would build on northern capacity. Also I know that with the preference policies that we developed for northern businesses, is our northern businesses don’t mind competing as long as it’s on a level playing field, so they would want to see whatever businesses come up here invest in the North and set up their businesses accordingly.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m glad the Minister talked about trying to find specific targets that would point at present needs of business. Certainly, I guess he was alluding, in one form or another, to what would work in our economy that makes sense. I would say, would the Minister be interested in supporting some type of panel discussion or conference that would work with business to help develop a business growth strategy here in the North that could attract new business and investment and, furthermore, get Northerners to work? This is not just a Yellowknife-centric issue. I think we can find

ways to spread and seed businesses throughout the North that could help everyone.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We’d be quite prepared to work with our partners. We work very closely with the chambers of commerce, with the Northern Aboriginal Business Association and other groups to see if we can set up such a conference or workshop.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s answer was very exciting. Does the Minister see any policy problems that we have that would stop something like this from getting momentum or getting off the ground immediately? I’m only concerned that policy or process of department may have issue with this. I just want to make sure that if the Minister says we can do this and he likes it, I want to make sure we can do it right away.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I think that we’d have to be very careful, because, as I said, we do have northern preference policies for northern businesses. As well, we’ve expended a lot of effort to develop an interim northern manufacturing directive and we would really want to support those northern businesses or northern manufacturers that manufacture in the Northwest Territories, because it’s a high-cost area to operate out of and there are also issues and challenges with regard to attracting skilled labour and availability of housing. When we support our businesses, what we do is focus on the labour issues, reducing red tape and also providing a level playing field.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Colleagues, before we go on with oral questions, I’d like to draw your attention to the gallery and to the presence of a former Member of this House from the 12th Assembly representing the constituency of

Kitikmeot, Mr. Ernie Bernhardt and his daughter Donna, who happens to be the CA to Member Jackie Jacobson. Welcome to the Chamber. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.