This is page numbers 4555 - 4576 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

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members will know that the NWT recently observed Mental Health Week. There should be no debate because it is well documented and well known that a person out of work is subject to many negative forces. Injured or laid-off workers are without income and often without purpose. They have to deal with financial stress, loss of self-esteem and feelings of aloneness, any and all of which cause a downturn in an individual’s mental health. Such circumstances lead to mental distress for the worker and, at its worst, depression or other mental illness. That’s why it’s imperative that employers have in place systems or policies to provide the help that is so necessary to get injured or ill workers back to their job as soon as possible to ensure that their lost work time is as short as the employer can make it.

For the GNWT and, indeed, all employers, the accommodation and reintegration of workers should be, and must be, foremost in our human resources culture and in our actions as an employer. It is of primary importance. But it’s not enough to have policies and procedures in place. We have to live those policies and the systems must actually work in practice. Both the employer, GNWT HR in our case, and the employees have to understand and implement these policies. Does the GNWT as an employer spend enough time and energy educating our staff in this area? I think not.

Mr. Speaker, our staff need the tools for the job. Training is required for all HR staffing officers to ensure they know the meaning of the phrase “duty to accommodate;” that they know how to action that duty and get people back to work; that they’re aware of appropriate and available resources to properly assess workers who want to return to work; that they adequately accommodate them to return to work in a speedy manner. We need a

corporate HR culture that helps employees, not hinders them.

Training is required for workers as well. They have to be educated about the GNWT policies and procedures in regard to lost work time. They need to know what to do when they’ve been off the job; what to ask for and from whom so they can coordinate with the department and expedite their return to work. The quicker we get people back to work, the less stress they will undergo. Reduce stress and we reduce the chances our workers’ health will deteriorate; and better health in our work force means a better, more productive society.

Mr. Speaker, as an employer, we are duty bound to get our injured people back to work in a timely manner. We can only consider ourselves a successful employer if we achieve that objective. I will have questions for the Minister of Human Resources at a later time. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is a beautiful day. Throughout the North many people are busy doing their things, either with family, with their work or in their community. Mr. Speaker, our elders tell us to pray each morning for what we want to accomplish in life or for other people. Mr. Speaker, our elders say without the Creator in our life and not putting God first, things become very hard for us.

Mr. Speaker, these are very important words to us; more importantly, hard to live up to at times every day. However, it is told to us for a reason, Mr. Speaker. I think sometimes it means to slow down for a bit, reflect on some important things in our life, some important people in our life; people like our grandparents, like our uncles, our aunties, our children, our brothers and sisters, our nieces, our teachers, who, Mr. Speaker, at times, are either our father or our mother.

Today I’d like to reflect on our teachers as our mother. Today we think and pray for our mothers for all the hard work they put in our lives, for all the love they give us over the years, and for all the dedication and the support they’ve given to us as children as we are growing up. Truly, Mr. Speaker, in God’s mind and God’s wisdom, God gave us somebody to replace him in our lives to help us. They were considered pillars in our family, Mr. Speaker.

I want to say this because back in my community, my regions, there are mothers there that are being called to go back to heaven and that this government here sometimes needs to look at how

we do our programs and services to support mothers in our communities, in our region, and that today we are glad for these special people in our lives.

I want to honour all the mothers in the Northwest Territories, people’s mothers in the Sahtu region, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

February 28th, 2010

Bob McLeod

Bob McLeod Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to recognize the multitalented Shad Turner, who sang O Canada. He is also a senior advisor with the Department of ITI. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Shad Turner, resident of Weledeh, and express how much I appreciated that beautiful rendition of O Canada, an original version, at least to me. I would also like to recognize Pages Jordan Shortt and Johanna Stewart for the great work they’ve been doing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Al Shortt, one of the YK No. 1 School trustees. He’s in the gallery today.

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I was raising issue with what I define as a poor usage of health care dollars, and I certainly hope it’s not a fact that people don’t care about the usage of health care dollars. But, Mr. Speaker, the management and the organization of these health care dollars seems to be a bit of a challenging question here.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what has she done from the point of view of the context of waste busters to ensure that we’re getting the best value for our health care dollars before we start implementing

changes to supplementary health benefits. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I answer his question I need to correct some of the things that he stated. First, that somehow through private insurers the government can charge any companies for providing core service. In Canada, the Canadian government and the provincial and territorial governments are responsible for core services and we couldn’t recoup that from a private insurance company. Any private insurance company that offers benefits will be supplementary to the core service.

Secondly, that Nunavut residents have a prior service. That is misleading, Mr. Speaker. All the governments across the country -- and I’m not saying intently, I just want to correct the facts -- all provinces and territories have an agreement with each other that we treat other provinces. That’s part of the Canada Health Act; it speaks to portability and that if somebody from Nunavut walks in, we will take care of them. We get great service from Alberta, but I don’t think we would state that NWT residents would get better service than Alberta. It is part of co-management of health care service and to state that we’re using our money to give prior service to Nunavut would not be correct.

Thirdly, supplementary health benefit changes are now there as a cost-cutting issue. It’s not there to make up money that we are losing from providing services to Nunavut or insurance. That is completely incorrect. Supplementary health benefits are being reviewed not to reduce the package. We are keeping all the benefits that are there, which is more generous than any other parts of Canada, but that we are looking at streamlining the access, which is very important, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, streamlining access sounds like a reduction of services to me. I’m not sure where the Minister...how she understands it that way.

Mr. Speaker, when I referred to Nunavut services as a priority, we send our team professionals here, whether they’re physio or speech, to places in Nunavut and that makes their clients more of a priority when we have people here not getting full services. On top of that, it’s a billing issue.

But, Mr. Speaker, my question, as stated before, and I’ll ask it this way: Mr. Speaker, again, we’ll have a difference of opinion on reduced services or money, but the fact is, supplementary health benefits has been articulated over and over and over. Again, we can’t afford to keep paying that. So what work has been done by the Minister of Health and Social Services and her staff to find all the

wasted money that we’re spending on the issues I’ve raised today, Mr. Speaker?

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know what he means by wasted money. Our government makes the investment of $326 million on our health care services, the services that our people need. People on the ground are working 24/7 to deliver the care that people need. Special services that we provide to Nunavut, those specialists work on contract with the GNWT and sometimes they have contracts with Nunavut. So I don’t think, you know, it doesn’t help the debate to mix up apples and oranges and throw out statements saying that we are wasting money.

With respect to supplementary health benefits, I believe that the government has put out the public discussion paper, we are engaging the public widely, and I am interested in hearing from the public as to how we could go forward. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, we charge WCB for cost and injuries, so why don’t we consider that? Mr. Speaker, we send people out to Nunavut and don’t get paid for the contracts. We know that for a fact. Mr. Speaker, we spend at least $200 a minute in health care in our Northwest Territories, and the reality is…

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Do you have a question, Mr. Hawkins?

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

The reality is we’re making doctors manage. Why aren’t we looking at those issues to save money in our system rather than cutting away at supplementary health benefits?

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

We bill for the services that we provide to Nunavut. Once again, supplementary health benefit discussions are not about cutting services in supplementary. We continue to and will have one of the best, if not the best, Supplementary Health Benefits Program anywhere in the country. We will continue to do that. The way the rules are written are quite outdated and the user profile shows that we need to look at other considerations such as affordability to pay, as one of the factors in determining who accesses this very generous and important program that we offer.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the Minister is completely incorrect in us being able to bill insurance companies for services that they are rightly responsible for. I’d like to hear the Minister on how she defines reduction of services for supplementary health benefits is not considered cutting services.

Sandy Lee

Sandy Lee Range Lake

It is, once again, incorrect for the Member to say that we do not bill private insurance. I just said that there are some things that the government has to provide that nobody else

would pay. So you wouldn’t bill somebody for something that they wouldn’t be paying in the first place.

Supplementary health and entire health and social services sustainability is very important. As I’ve stated before, the Government of Ontario projects that they are going to be spending half of their entire budget on the health and social services system. We as Canadian people and NWT residents need to look at what we are doing with our program. I want to say that we are doing really well in the Northwest Territories. We’re not talking about reducing services; we’re talking about examining what we do and what we can do better. Foundation for Change is an action plan and supplementary health discussion is part of the discussion that we’re going to have with the people.

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 and it goes back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about the need for a clinical psychologist at our largest correctional facility in the Territory, the North Slave Correctional Centre, which happens to be located in my riding.

It doesn’t take long to understand that if you do not have the required services of a clinical psychologist on staff at that centre, eventually what that is going to do is compromise public safety. I’d like to ask the Minister today why we do not have a day-to-day clinical psychologist on staff at North Slave Correctional Centre.