Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to welcome a couple of visitors from Norway: Marthe Svensson and Gaute Svensson and their son Edgar. They may be back and forwards from the lobby there. Also, John Stephenson, a constituent of Weledeh. The visitors from Norway are, of course, staying in Weledeh. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Today I’m happy to have my wife present here today. It’s not too often she gets to come down and be here. So it’s good to have you here.

Moving on, item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we were to station one nurse in Tsiigehtchic, I would assume that just the cost of the salary would be approximately $120,000 with all the benefits and everything, but we would not be able to station just one nurse in Tsiigehtchic.

What savings does the Health department estimate there would be as a result of reducing travel and some lowering of the need for critical care?

According to the integrated service delivery model we are using and have been using for a while that we are updating, there would be a savings of travel, that’s true, of medical travel and so on. To what degree I don’t have that information here with me, because we haven’t tested that to the degree where we are trying to put a service in Tsiigehtchic, but we haven’t cost out to what degree that would save by having a registered nurse in Tsiigehtchic at this time.

Will the Minister station a licenced practical nurse in Tsiigehtchic on a full-time basis as a pilot project?

We are actually looking at that. What we are doing with the integrated service delivery model is determining what service is most often needed in each of the communities, going right from the smallest community to the largest community, and what is the most common service that is required. Within that model what we do is determine how much service, how many nurses are needed in each community. Then we have the issue of safety, and within that issue the Canadian Association of Nursing has one criterion, I suppose, in as far as the amount of population that would be needed to accommodate a nurse. What they’re saying is that because there is, we are not allowed to place one nurse in a station by themselves due to safety reasons, that we need at least two nurses and you have to have a population of at least 250 people in one location in order to accommodate two nurses, whether they are registered nurses or LPNs.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister budget for one nurse and one LPN in Tsiigehtchic as part of the budget for 2013-2014?

As I indicated, we are looking at that. We need to determine the needs by how using that integrated service delivery model will, again, determine the scope of practice that is presented to every community through all the of physician fields. With that model we have to make that decision to use our resources where they have the greatest impact. We’re not pleased that we have communities that do not have nursing, there’s no question about it, but we have to make the right decision. It’s very difficult to pay people on a full-time basis for doing nothing. That’s what happens sometimes when you have a population base that’s too small and too many resources to respond to that population base.

However, we’ve talked about the idea if you do have individual nurses in Tsiigehtchic, they’re 20 minutes away on the road to a larger populated area, being Fort McPherson. So we may actually have to work with both communities in order to try to accommodate a nurse being located in Tsiigehtchic. Again, working with the authority and the department, we’re trying to look at all those models. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Hawkins brought up earlier about the department of motor vehicles and I particularly like the Food Network and it makes the wait feel less long. The people at DMV are great, once you get to work with them.

I have a constituent concern that came forward to me about a son of a constituent who was told that there was a three-month waiting list to get their road test. This was confirmed by the office of the Department of Transportation. The unfortunate thing is that not everyone passes their first road test. So in this situation here, we may have people in Yellowknife here and the surrounding area that use our services here for motor vehicles, that it could be up to a six-month waiting list to get a driver’s licence. I think this is something that doesn’t make a lot of sense.

My question for the Minister of Transportation is: Why is this happening in Yellowknife motor vehicles office?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there are wait times. The department has been looking at a way to address this.

About 60 percent of all drivers’ examinations in the Northwest Territories are done in Yellowknife and that was by one driver examiner. Recently, the department has centralized the management structure of the transport compliance section and moved the driver examination program to that area. This has given the department some additional flexibility to deal with the significant demand that we’ve seen in that area.

Staff are working on a plan right now to reduce the waiting times in Yellowknife by training and utilizing highway transport officers to enhance that program, especially during vacations and other issues that may arise. I thank the Member for bringing up that concern.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. I’d like to remind our visitors in the gallery to shut the ringers off on your cell phones. Mr. Dolynny, oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for replying. It sounds like there are some measures that are going to be coming forward to decrease these wait times in Yellowknife.

How are these measures going to be monitored so that we know, as Members, that constituents’ needs are being addressed here for Yellowknife?

We’ve recognized that; the department’s recognized that. As I’ve

mentioned earlier, we’re taking steps to address that.

In terms of monitoring, I’m an MLA, I’ve got constituents, as well, and the Member’s got constituents and we hear from our constituents whether or not the level of services is up to par. If it’s taking longer than three months to receive a driver’s licence, we’re going to hear about it.

Certainly, we’re paying attention to the issue and we’re taking steps so that the wait times aren’t what they’ve been in the past and they will improve.

I do appreciate the Minister’s response, I just don’t like using constituents as a means for a testing ground for inadequacies in our programs. I’m hoping the department has their own measures placed inside. Which leads me to another question.

We don’t talk about employment. Sometimes driver’s licences are required for employment. Employers who desperately need drivers sometimes are now in the same boat, where they’ve got to wait three months, potentially, for drivers to come on board for employment.

What is the department doing to address the employment component of employees and employers having to wait now for these three months? Will these measures address this sector?

Certainly, the department’s heard the concerns and we are going to address those concerns. Especially when it’s a time sensitive thing and it deals with employment, I mean, that’s why we need to ensure that the wait times aren’t what they’ve been.

We are, again, certainly taking the steps to ensure that we are going to improve the wait times when it comes to receiving a driver’s licence and getting the driver examination here in Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Of course, we are talking today about issues in the Yellowknife DMV office and there could be potential issues throughout the territory.

Would the Minister come forward to the House and maybe provide a comprehensive review of our services in comparison to what you would expect across Canada? Would the Minister provide that for Regular Members as an overall review?

I could commit to providing Members with that information. In some of the other communities in the Northwest Territories, the wait times aren’t what we see here, in Yellowknife. Some of the statistics that I have and have provided to the Member, would indicate that they’re not near what they are in Yellowknife. Once we get the information and compile it, we’ll share it with the Members.