Mr. Chairman, I guess I am a little bit confused. On the department’s website I don’t see a defined scope of practice for all health professionals in the Northwest Territories. It might be in policy somewhere, but where is the definition for every health professional in the Northwest Territories? Where is the definition for their scope of practice on the department’s website? I don’t see it there, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I am missing something here. Where would I locate that? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to more information on that. Again, I don’t know how we have come this far since the federal government devolved responsibility for health here in the Northwest Territories. We still don’t have that work all concluded. It is troublesome, I guess, to put it in a word.

I also wanted to, while I have a minute and 28 seconds left, comment on my colleague Mr. Yakeleya’s concern over the lack of a social worker in Tulita. I think that is appalling that there is not a social worker there and there hasn’t been one there for three and a half years. All the Minister can say is, well, circumstances and this and that, but, yes, we can understand if it was six months or maybe even a year that a community goes without a social worker, but we are talking three and a half years that that community has been without a social worker. I think we have a huge problem there, Mr. Chairman, that we have to take seriously. People will understand, like I said. Things happen, people move and things change, but the bottom line is that the community has been without a social worker for three and a half years. Somebody has to be held accountable for that situation, keeping itself there for that length of time. It is ridiculous, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I just want to point out your last comment had to do with page 8-17. We were on page 8-13. Just to complete that again, Health and Social

Services, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $7.678 million. That is on page 8-13. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will return now to 8-17. I believe I have Mr. Abernethy. Sorry. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to get a comment on something new that the federal government is doing or when it comes to the Metis health benefits. They are actually changing the definition of the Metis in the federal government system. I am wondering if the Minister and her department is aware of that and, if so, how much of an impact it would have on our health budget and how it will affect the delivery of our services to our Metis membership out there in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lee. Ms. Meade.

Given the large population of Metis people in the Northwest Territories, I believe the Health ministry should do what we can to keep us informed as well as all Regular Members and not only our Social Programs committee, because sometimes the federal government does that, they do one level of change and it affects, like the deputy minister said, all the way up to health funding agreements and that kind of stuff if they are changing the definition of who is a Metis and who is not. It will certainly affect the numbers if it comes to implementation from the federal level. Maybe if they get a comment on keeping MLAs informed and the proper committees informed, as well, with regard to this issue.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lee.

Mr. Chairman, I could assure the Members that we are on the lookout for things like that. Had there been something that would have been more concrete, I would be sending the information well in advance. As the DM mentioned, this is something we are monitoring. I will report the progress to the Members as they become available. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I will thank the Minister for going that extra effort and keep us in the loop as the situation develops. It is just any situation, certainly, I do have.

Early today in my Member’s statement I spoke about the lack of social worker issue as well. I don’t know if it is appropriate to this page, Mr. Chairman, but it is probably a few pages down, but a provision of a health and social services worker for our communities is much needed and the people have asked for... They are looking forward to it only because having a staff member in the community, in the larger communities, to develop a repertoire with the local clients and local people and are able to respond more quickly than if we were to fly somebody in a day or two after an incident or via phone call, Mr. Chair. So I’m supportive of doing what we can to fill the positions that are there. I think in my case the community of Fort Liard was asking for coverage while that one staff member is away on personal leave. So that’s something that’s got to be... We’ve got to listen to the community. That’s what they want and those are the needs that they see. So, Mr. Chair, I’ll just let the Minister comment on that again once more.

I committed earlier in the day to get back to the Member on that and I just want to say that, for the record, when our Member said earlier that a community was without a social worker for three years or something like that, I think it’s important to state for the record that where there is a vacancy, the system would have social workers going in and covering those. It’s not necessarily about coverage of the work. I just want to say that I appreciate that for many communities they would like to see the actual body of the social worker there working in the community, getting to know the community and not be flying in and out. So I just want to state I understand what the Member’s concerns are and to say, for the record, that no community will be without a social worker for three years, they would still have access and we’re talking about two different things. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions on this page. The first one is related to the health and social services authorities’ agency administration. The description talks about that this funding is for activities associated with management under the administration of authorities. I’d like to know if the Minister could advise what actions have taken place or what actions will be funded in this budget to improve the administration and management of health and social services authorities. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lee.

Mr. Chairman, I’m assuming that the Member is referring to the bottom of page 8-17. That’s the block funding for the authorities. Thank you.

I’m referring to the text on page 8-16, the last paragraph.

Yes, that is the section where through this program we block fund the authorities and the Member asked what we were doing to improve the administration. I, as a Minister, work through Joint Leadership Council. We have regular meetings, we talk about all manner of things right from the budgetary issues, policy issues, working as a system, Foundation for Change action plan or whatever else is on the go. We seek advice from each other. So that’s how we work together at my level. The deputy minister is in constant touch every day with the administration, on delivery of services and so are the director of Finance and ADM for operations. So this is what we do every day in delivering our services. Thank you.

I understand that all those things happen. My question was more to what on the ground, or what sort of day-to-day changes have been made to the way the health and social services authorities are managed and administered. I believe the Minister advised us some time ago that the department was looking to try and streamline things between authorities and the department. So have any changes taken place and, if so, what are those? Thank you.

There have been a number of initiatives, so I would like to get the deputy minister to just highlight some of them. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Meade.