I would also appreciate if this policy is there, that it be communicated to the area staff members who have to deal with regional billing issues and that the staff at the NTPC are somewhat flexible when people are on duty travel or out, to give them sufficient time to deal with their current billing issues before their power is disconnected, because that causes other serious issues.

The issue of disconnection and disconnection notices is one that has been raised a number of times either through this forum or directly to myself. I have forwarded that on to the board. I will again ask that that information be brought forward to look at it and see if there are particular issues the Member would like to have addressed that I could forward on to the board.

I did give the Minister some information this morning, so I appreciate his quickness of looking at this issue with the board. It concerns some of the Sahtu. I want to also ask the Minister about his discussions with the board, if there are any type of future discussions about having NTPC locate an office in the Sahtu to deal with some of the issues that could be a lot less stressful to my constituents.

Over the years the Power Corporation has tried to stabilize its costs and has structured billing payment plans with offices throughout the NWT and communities. I will get the appropriate information. I know that the Power Corporation, as well as the annual report gets tabled in this Assembly, that that could be looked at and the corporate plan as well. I’d have to go to the board and get that information and provide that to the Members.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Fair enough. The Minister is correct that we are looking at certainly some cost-effective measures here. In

saying that, would he also consider maybe then having our own NTPC staff in our communities take on a greater role in some of the billing and situations that could be done there rather than calling the Inuvik area office as my region has to do? They could deal right with the community representative about some of the administrative stuff that needs to be handled through this type of issue.

I know that, for example, in the NTPC review that was done, the issue with communications with the customer base is one that was brought up. I know we have to do an overall review and a response to that area to see if we can improve that. I’ve shared that communication side with the board as recently as this morning in fact. That is an area that we need to work on both from our side as the GNWT as well as from the board and sharing that information back and forth. As for the establishment or enhancing that level of service in communities by existing staff, I will check if there are any plans in place to do something along those lines.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of specialist services and other services we provide at Stanton and other facilities. Different services have different wait times depending on the demand versus available personnel. I’m not aware and I need to check whether there are strict standards put on wait times. I would like to advise the Member, however, that our residents do receive procedures they require if it’s an emergency and acute cases, and obviously our medical professionals are on constant watch to make sure that our people get the services they need.

Thanks to the Minister. I would appreciate knowing whether or not we do have

certain standards which are out there which we should attempt to adhere to. I do remember a conversation from a couple of years ago on the federal scene that we were trying to reduce wait times for patients. I’d be interested in seeing standards, if there are any.

The concern for my constituent, in October of 2008 he was advised that it was a one-year wait to see an orthopaedic specialist. I wonder if the Minister could tell me what kind of a wait it is at this particular time now that we’re in March of 2010.

First on the topic of patient wait time guarantee, it is a big national issue. Wait time issue is a national issue. The federal government has made some investments, but I don’t believe it’s about setting the standard and making everybody meet the standard. It’s about changing the system and better aligning health care professionals, using technology, just better management of the resources we have so that we maximize and, therefore, reduce the wait time.

I am aware that for general surgery, which could include -- I don’t want to get highly technical because, obviously, I am not a doctor -- it will be difficult for me to say what is the wait time for orthopaedic procedures. This will be like any other procedure where the orthopaedic surgeons at the hospital would look at all the cases, and cases will be moved up depending on the need and the seriousness or the urgency.

In general, we have a one-year wait time for general surgery at Stanton. Thank you.

That’s kind of a damning statistic, if one has to wait a year to get into general surgery. I know that actually our wait times in the NWT are probably better than in some of the provinces in the South.

To the Minister, I understand that we have a policy that if we have a specialist in the NWT -- this is what my constituent ran into -- we have orthopaedic surgeons within the NWT and even though it’s a year or 18 months to wait for surgery or a particular injury in this case, if we have a specialist here, our patients cannot be referred to the South. So I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not that policy is indeed accurate and whether or not we could change that policy so that we could, in one case, reduce the list of patients that need to have orthopaedic surgery, such as in this case, and provide better service to our residents. Thank you.

The wait times we’re talking about are similar across the country. So the services we need for our residents, we either provide them in Yellowknife or in Edmonton. Sending them south would not necessarily reduce the wait times. We do send our patients down south because that’s where the services are provided. So, for example, for orthopaedic surgery, our residents

may get services here or in Edmonton. My point being we have medical specialists at Stanton in constant contact with patients that are waiting for the surgery and whether or not they need to be moved around to get the services they need, sending them south would not necessarily reduce the wait time. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister as well. I guess I would encourage the Minister to consider there may be cases where sending a patient south might actually speed things up and, if that is the case, I would encourage the Minister to consider doing that. I understand it’s probably unlikely, but we have to keep all doors open, in my mind.

The Minister mentioned something about wait times are about changing the system. If we have wait times as long as a year for one particular speciality, I’m sure there are others that happen to be longer. I would like to ask the Minister what we as a government or what we as a Department of Health and Social Services are doing to change the system to reduce the wait times for our residents. Thank you.

Just to state again sending our patients south to see if we can reduce their wait time, my understanding is that actually most general surgeries, Alberta or any other provinces, one year is the norm. It is a national issue and it is a serious issue.

Secondly, Mr. Speaker, Stanton and the department is working hard to look at the entire specialist delivery service to see how we can lengthen the wait time and better provide service. For example, we are aware of the fact that some of the delays at Stanton happened because of the bed shortages. We are looking to review that. Our medical directors are working together to see how we can move our patients around faster and we are also looking at moving some of the services like diagnostic services to Hay River so that we could free the bed. So a lot of work is being done and I would be happy to share that with the Members once it’s complete in a few weeks. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, climate change has threatened the water quality in the Sahtu. Between 1985 and 2000, mercury, DDTs, PCBs doubled in fish in the Mackenzie River to a level just below Health Canada’s set maximum safe level for humans. Mr.

Speaker, pollution and climate change is a great concern to us. I want to ask the Premier if he’s aware of the recent study that was conducted near Fort Good Hope in terms of this type of information that came to light.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not aware of the recent study that was done and I would have to get the information from the appropriate department. Thank you.

The study, when I did my research, I was led to believe that our water is not as pure as we think it is. I would like to ask the Premier if he could let the House know what type of protection people have from toxins, like I mentioned, in our water supplies. What type of protection do we have now?

There are a number of protections built in place when it comes to whether it is community drinking water, whether it is regulatory issues around the environment or around worksites and so on. More importantly, through the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality, they set maximum acceptable concentrations for some of those areas of concern or the contaminants in the water that would be deemed acceptable. One of our other departments of Environment and Natural Sources does some work on the total water ecosystems that we operate within the Northwest Territories and are affected by other jurisdictions. I know the Minister is working on a strategy with our aboriginal partners across the Northwest Territories. Beyond that, I would say I would have to go to the appropriate department and get the information and share that with Members.