This is page numbers 4463 - 4502 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 4th 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

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So for the benefit of the folks at Avalon, for the Premier of Saskatchewan, for the public, for those of us in the South Slave who would like to see such an amazing economic opportunity come our way, for all intents and purposes, would the Premier state that Mr. Voytilla’s comments in the media are formally retracted? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Floyd Roland

Floyd Roland Premier

As I said, I will speak to the chair of the board on this and have him clear up his comments that were stated. He’s unavailable for contact at this point, but I’m sure that we can arrange that contact in a number of days.

As the Member pointed out, we’re the shareholder. We’re negotiating, we’re undergoing these discussions and ultimately we’ll set the direction of where we want to go as a Government of the Northwest Territories. We’re challenged, of course, in our environment, but we want to come up with the best deal possible, if we can come up to the arrangements. But at the same time, it is difficult to compare ourselves to other jurisdictions.

But that aside, there’s still a process we want to go through and see if we can and how we can advance the potential for this, like we did with the secondary diamond industry, of establishing secondary industries in the Northwest Territories. So our goal is to advance those discussions and see where we can go.

Again, communication is something that we will clarify and clear up as well.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I talked about a designated territorial park near Fort Resolution. I would like to ask questions of the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment on that.

Mr. Speaker, last October I raised the issue and asked questions. Since October, can the Minister tell me if his ITI staff have had meaningful discussions with the community regarding the development of a territorial park near Fort Resolution? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During last session, October 2009, I committed to visiting the community with the Member for Tu Nedhe to facilitate the wishes of the people of the community of Fort Resolution, and I am still committed to doing so and visiting the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Can the Minister tell me if prior to our visit to Fort Resolution, if he’s able to provide me with some sort of a plan on what is going to occur as far as territorial park development goes in the Northwest Territories?

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

We do have some ideas of where we would like to go with developing a territorial park in Fort Resolution. We have had some very preliminary discussions with one of the former chiefs of Fort Resolution, and since October we’ve been endeavouring to meet with the Deninu Community Council, the Deninu K’ue First Nation and the Fort Resolution Metis Council, so we are committed to working with the community of Fort Resolution and we would certainly appreciate if the Member could assist us with helping set up these meetings so we can discuss where we can go from here. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I’d be pleased to set up meetings with the Minister or the department; I just haven’t been able to find the appropriate time to do so. Can the Minister tell me in the interim if he will direct his staff to go to the community to start talking specifics about the park near Fort Resolution? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

I’m quite prepared to do that and we’ve been calling as recently as last night or yesterday to attempt to set up meetings. So the next step would be to have our staff go to Fort Resolution and meet with as many people as possible.

We still want to develop a park in that area, because we think it’s something that would be beneficial and certainly fit in with the attractiveness around Fort Resolution. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. What happened is the question I have for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Myself and my colleague Mr. Krutko thought we had certainty in the delivery of nursing services for our small communities. I was very happy with the strategy produced by Health and Social Services called a Foundation for Change. It supports enhanced services for smaller communities; for me, the return of nursing to Wrigley in 2010. Can the

Minister of Health and Social Services tell me how can this be accomplished? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct in saying that we have been working under the Foundation for Change to enhance our goals. The goals under Foundation for Change are: wellness, accessibility and sustainability. So we are working on that three-year plan that would change the way we deliver our programs in the North and to strengthen services at the community level, but as a Territory-wide plan to use our resources as efficiently as possible and change the way we provide services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

I’m glad to see there’s a bit of a plan in that strategy. However, as I indicated in my Member’s statement, when I first became MLA, to return nursing services to Wrigley was policing. Policing was the answer to returning nursing. That’s accomplished, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got dedicated RCMP; we’re looking forward to establishing a detachment by 2011. Yet I stand up here today and I still have no certainty on returning a nursing position to Wrigley. Can the Minister tell me why did we go through six years of establishing policing when, in fact, they will not follow up on the original commitment to the community of Wrigley and to myself? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we should be mindful of the fact that all of our communities have a nursing service. The community of Wrigley does have a nursing service and other health care service there. I do understand that for a lot of communities, they would like to have a live-in service, but that’s not always possible everywhere.

I want to advise the Member that the department and Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority are working on a plan to see how they could enhance health care service in small communities within Deh Cho. There are some other very small communities in Deh Cho outside of Fort Simpson, and they are working on that and I am committed to working with the Member and the authority to see how we could work that out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

The return of policing to Wrigley is piecemeal; there are slow baby steps; they do have two dedicated RCMP officers, yet they’re located in Fort Simpson and the plan is to eventually relocate them to the community of Wrigley. That’s the type of solution, that’s the type of creativity I’m looking for from the Minister of Health and Deh Cho Health and Social Services. Let’s start by dedicating a nurse to the community of Wrigley, and it does not have to be a resident

nurse at this point but at least pay attention to the needs of Wrigley and pay attention to the needs of the residents of Nahendeh. Will the Minister work with Deh Cho Health and Social Services and work towards that creative solution? Thank you.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Health and Social Services has been as creative and diligent as the policing service has been, because that is exactly the same model that Health and Social Services use. We understand the RCMP cannot be in every community but they do provide services, which is what Health and Social Services does.

I can advise the Member that there are right now four nurses that serve the communities of Wrigley, Trout Lake, Nahanni Butte, and Jean Marie River. The Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority have been working on a proposal to enhance services for those small communities. That includes Wrigley. It will see a strength in services so that we can do a lot more work on chronic disease management and health prevention and promotion as stuff the nursing services can provide. I have discussed this with the Member and I look forward to continuing to work with the Member and the board to see how we can do that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Kevin A. Menicoche

Kevin A. Menicoche Nahendeh

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I do have one more solution for the Minister. By having a dedicated nurse for Wrigley does improve the services for the rest of the communities in Nahendeh. Will the Minister work towards that and do that for our residents?

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

I don’t disagree with that. I do think that having a dedicated nurse for a community would be helpful for the communities. Right now the Deh Cho authority, like many other authorities, have a high vacancy rate in nurses. They have somewhere up to 30 to 40 percent vacancies in nurses. Like all the other authorities, they look at the pool of nurses available and have to share them around the authorities so that everybody in that area gets the nursing service. But they are working on a proposal to enhance nursing coverage in small communities including Wrigley, as the Member has stated in this House on many occasions.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice. Yesterday I had the opportunity to raise a couple of issues with him. The first one I want to talk about is the idea of locating a federal penitentiary here in

the Northwest Territories. Yesterday the Minister stated that because they were dealing with the courthouse issue and had to set some priorities, they weren’t able to get to this idea that I had brought to him a while back.

The courthouse project has not been on the capital plan at least for the past two years, so I’m trying to make some sense of the Minister’s comments. I’d like to ask him why we haven’t, as a government, had any preliminary discussions with the federal government on exploring the possibility of locating any new federal corrections institutions here in the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.