Thanks to the Minister for that response. I guess I got just a quick comment and that’s, I think, going to be directed to the Minister of

Finance, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, as well as the Minister of Public Works and Services. Clearly, bandwidth is an issue of ultimate importance as far as reducing our future costs and I’d like to see this Cabinet making more progress on extending bandwidth within the communities, especially up and down the valley. If we can put these technologies that health has access to, we’re going to improve services, have a greater control over costs, and ultimately that’s good for all the people of the Northwest Territories. So to all of those with some decision-making power: get some more bandwidth up our valley and to our small communities in the Northwest Territories.

Next on my list is Mr. Yakeleya.

Certainly, Mr. Chairman, I agree with the Member for speaking in support of the bandwidth. Certainly we would see it beneficial in our communities and to lend our support to see this government put some resources that would eliminate some of the headaches that we have in our smaller health centres in terms of providing efficient health care to our residents in the Sahtu and other communities that certainly would benefit from an e-health care system. If you could work closely with your Cabinet colleagues.

I want to ask the Minister in terms of working with our health boards. It’s about three years now that my community in Tulita and Sahtu that’s been working on every different angle to have a social worker in my community. Somehow we seem to not get to that resolution. There are always numerous excuses not to have a social worker there. It seems that we are regressing in terms of the goals of what’s stated in the program delivery support. I want to ask the Minister how much longer our community has to wait until we actually get a social worker in our community to serve the people there. If they say lack of housing or culture sensitivity or any of those excuses we’ve heard before, it’s going to raise my temperature here. I just want to know why we can’t get a social worker in our community. Break through those barriers, break through those excuses. If you want to work with us, work with us.

I want to ask the Minister again, we went to Tulita, we had a good meeting, but that was it. I go back there and there’s no social worker there. I went and talked with the health board, they gave me the reasons why they’re not having one there. But we’re not serving our people. We’re just satisfying the system here. The people want, at the end of the day, to see a social worker in Tulita. Let’s see how serious this department, this government is in terms of getting some of these resources in the communities where it’s needed.

I want to, I guess, maybe challenge the Minister and her department, hopefully by the end of this

government we’ll have a social worker in Tulita. I want to ask the Minister in that sense.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, not only as the Minister of Health and Social Services but as his colleague and what I consider to be his friend, I would not want to do anything to raise his heart rate or temperature.

Seriously, on the social worker situation, the last I was aware of it from our visits, there were some personal things like, the Member mentioned housing, but I believe one of the workers were in a relationship with somebody in Norman Wells. We live in a small town where personal backgrounds could determine where one who’s hired could decide to leave and such. What I would like to do is, I haven’t had the update on that social worker situation in Sahtu since our visit. I believe we did get back to the Member on that information but I don’t have the most recent update. I will undertake to look at that because I haven’t had that brought up to me in the last while. The positions are there. I know all authorities try their hardest to keep the positions occupied and to have the people on the ground as much as possible. Sometimes just life predetermines some of the decisions of our workers, which we need to respect as well.

Mr. Chairman, the response from the Minister, I’m having a hard time accepting it. I know that’s part of life, I guess, when you get into a relationship. You know, the husband or the wife wants to move here or stay there. However, I don’t know if that’s one of the requirements of this government here or this department here hiring social workers or our nurses. I mean, that’s part of life. I hope the Minister will be big enough to see that the whole community needs one of our workers in that community and to tell the community of Tulita because of our social worker is now in a relationship, so it’s pretty hard for this social worker now to be away from their spouse. Well, that really doesn’t give much weight in terms of not serving over 500 people, or 400 people.

I just want to ask the Minister if she can have a little more heart than that and to look at the big picture here in terms of serving our people’s needs in this area here, because right now it shows very little heart in her answers. I want to ask again, put the challenge there to the Minister and the fine staff that she’s leading, in terms of making something work for our community.

It’s been three years, Mr. Chair, and we’ve got seven more months in this term here. After that it will be four years that we don’t have a social worker in our community. People are not really feeling confident, I guess, in some of the areas that we do. I think that I need to push the health board and push the Minister’s staff to provide better action

plans to have a social worker in our community. It’s something that we need to show.

I want to ask the Minister if she’s up to the challenge to put somebody physically in Tulita. I want to make that known to the House here, that after awhile I tend to say, well, I don’t know if I should bring it up anymore because it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. I’m always hearing reasons why we don’t have it.

Again, I know the resources out there are tight and the challenges are difficult. However, that’s why we’re in this position: to make things happen and to serve people in our communities. I hear social workers, from time to time when I travel in the Sahtu, off the record, that talk to me, and some of them are pretty tired, but they don’t want to say too much because they don’t want to get in trouble. They tell me that we certainly need somebody dedicated in our communities. They are working really hard and they are hardworking people but we need to do more. We need to do something quick to help our communities.

This is only one issue under the chapter here. I want to ask the Minister again if she would provide some concrete direction to our health board and for the person to be located into the community of Tulita. There are other areas in the Sahtu. I have five communities she needs to work with and this is only one community. I’ve got four more and my time is running out so I’ll have to use some other time to look at some of the issues elsewhere. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the issue of more heart, Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to put for the record that this Minister does have a heart, and three and a half years of being the Minister of Health did not lessen that power of the heart. I don’t think we could do this job without feeling for what our people go through.

Mr. Chairman, I was just commenting on the latest information that I remember having about some of the challenges we have with social workers’ positions in the Sahtu, and I just want to put, for the record, that the department and the authorities are committed to having our workforce on the ground. For a community as big as that, we would have positions in Tulita allocated.

From time to time we do run into some of the challenges that are beyond our control and I was just simply stating the latest information. I don’t know what the most recent update is on the social worker position in Tulita because I haven’t talked to the Member recently on that. I will undertake to get an update on where we are with getting the social worker down to Tulita. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Lee. Next on my list is Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve got a couple of questions on 8-13. I’m just wondering if we could just go back there for a brief second. Thank you.

Does committee agree that we go back to page 8-13?

Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to ask the Minister to what extent is the department involved in giving financial advice to the authorities and I’d like to know what shape that advice takes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can tell you that we are intimately involved with giving financial advice and interaction with the authority. I think a large part of the time that the director of finance sitting next to me is spent on working on financial issues. As well, this government and this Cabinet directed the department and the authorities to provide detailed financial information, more detailed than ever before, and, lastly, we have undertaken a step where we have now a financial contribution agreement with authorities that lays out in detail the financial expectations of each authority. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that. I’m wondering if the Minister could provide to the House copies of the correspondence between the department and the authorities as related to the financial standing in the authorities and what the advice would be in written form that was communicated from the department to the authorities. I’d like to see that in writing, Mr. Chairman.

I would be happy to do that, but could the Member help us with a little bit more detail on what kind of information he’s looking for, because I hope that he can appreciate that there are lots of people spending a lot of time talking to authorities about financial information. Could I ask for some more detail on exactly what he’s looking for? Thank you.

What I’d be looking for is written communication from the department to the authorities, especially the authorities that are in deficit situations. I’d like to get a better idea of what the department is telling the authorities in written communication between the department and the authorities. That’s what I’m looking for. Specific to deficits and financial management at the authority level, and that’s communication coming directly from the department to the authorities. I don’t know if I can make it much more clear than that, Mr. Chairman. That’s what I’m looking for. Thank you.

I will undertake to provide him with the first package and then go from there. Thank you.

Under the policy, the division provides leadership and services in policy, legislation and regulation, and, as well, for the licensing of a number of health professions. I’m just wondering, under the scope of practice for health professions in the Northwest Territories, are we up to date on all of our scope of practice for all health professionals in the Northwest Territories today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Deputy Minister Meade.

Mr. Chairman, if I am to understand correctly, if we are still working on proper scope of practice for health professionals in the Northwest Territories and we don’t have those concluded or done to a certain extent, I am just wondering, doesn’t that open the Government of the Northwest Territories and the department up to liability. I am thinking malpractice. I am thinking something goes wrong and when you are dealing with health care, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. I would think that this is a huge risk for us not having this work done. I am just wondering if we have any time frame on when that work might get done. In my mind, that is a huge liability that that work is not done. Thank you.