I’m not sure, maybe the Minister can correct me if I’m wrong here, but in terms of 20-month agreements – and there hasn’t been anything on for the last 10 months except for five months in agreement – that must mean we’re five months left into the agreement. So can the Minister confirm with me that we’re still in an agreement and that we don’t have to renew another one in two to three months? Can he confirm if we’re still in the same agreement with CKLB or not? Because if we have a contract with them for $3,400 a month and we’re not doing the programs, they’re losing out on funding for their own organization when they rely a lot on other funding. Can he confirm if we’re still in the old agreement? Thank you.

Mahsi. That detailed information I will need to get for the Members. I don’t have that specific agreement, whether it be a year or two, due to the fact that there’s been a vacancy, there’s been a reshuffle within the Executive department. So we have to postpone that until such time as the next couple months. But it has been up to March 5, 2012. So it’s been a few months that we were without broadcasting, but we are committed to returning that with CKLB broadcasting. So we’re committed. Mahsi.

I believe the program, or the GNWT renewed program had a contract that was supposed to keep the program on air up until March

2013. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would look into that and get the contracts in there to get the program on the air as soon as possible, because our residents of the Northwest Territories need to know what we’re doing within our government.

Can I ask the Deputy Premier if he’d be willing to renew the contract to translate the government programs in the five Aboriginal languages so that those communities that speak their own language and listen to their own language are able to benefit from the program as well? Thank you.

Mahsi. We’ll do what we can to expedite the process. As I stated, there hasn’t been a committed individual to take on the broadcasting as we have done in the past, but we are focused in those areas, and with reshuffle of the Executive communication area now, we need to identify an individual that can take on the task again. So we are committing to that.

With respect to the five Aboriginal languages, we need to work with CKLB on what could be delivered in that time frame and also in that area. We have done so, successfully, in the past. Obviously, we want to reach out to our communities too. So it’s very important, especially in the most isolated communities where they don’t have the broadcasting of television, that there’s radio broadcasting in all communities. So, definitely, that will be our approach. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that Cabinet did receive a letter and a proposal from NCS looking at, in the interim, while they’re waiting for someone to take on the host position and host the radio program, that an NCS staff would host the program, working very closely with employees of the GNWT to get these programs and services out to the community.

Would the Deputy Premier look at that option until a suitable candidate from the GNWT is able to take that on? Will he look at that possibility and that proposal and get this show back on the air? The sooner the better, for not this government but for residents of the NWT. Thank you.

Mahsi. Within the Executive department, the communication and services, there is a proposal that has been submitted, along with others that are out there with various programs. With respect to this particular proposal submission, it is being reviewed by the department. Again, what the Member is referring to will be taken into consideration and I will be speaking to the Premier, as well, upon his return, to see if we can expedite this process. Once we identify the individual as the interim, what can we do. So those are questions that we need to address with our Executive department. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am aware of the situation. We are doing what we can to address the situation with the extra costs and so on, recognizing that providing health care service in an environment like a hospital is a lot different than maybe other departments that are operating from 8:30 to 5:00. Thank you.

Thank you. Actually, the hospital is relatively low compared to those authorities that don’t have hospitals, but the Department of Health may not exercise individual operational control of the health authority, but perhaps they do. However, ultimately we must hold the Minister responsible for their funding and oversight. So, obviously, the substantial failures here in reducing claims experience have a negative consequence of large penalties that the GNWT must pay.

Can the Minister confirm that helping the authorities control these costs is not only in the interest of but ultimately the responsibility of Health and Social Services? Mahsi.

Thank you. Working with the health authorities and the department, there are many strategies in place to mitigate the risk including training staff programs to return to work for injured staff, and also putting in the occupational health and safety committees in all of the authorities to try to address this issue. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. The essence of the problem here is that the Minister’s department has made an exceptional turnaround in the claims experience and yet the authorities are not. I’d like to ask, is this a confusion of lines of authority here? What are the lines of authority to deal with this issue? Thank you.

The information I have is that the largest number of claims, not based on change in the percentage, but the largest number of claims is at Stanton where there’s a hospital; the Beaufort-Delta, where there’s a hospital; Fort Smith where they have a health centre and acute care. So all of those areas have successfully passed accreditation by Accreditation Canada. So they have the standards, they’re good standards, they meet the standards and this ensures that there is rigorous safety procedures in place. A big part of passing that accreditation is to have those types of safety procedures in place. Thank you.

Thank you. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister, I think, is correct, according to the information I have. Stanton is the highest at 20 percent, but there are others that are high, as well, and the trend of all of them is to go up from five to 20 times the percentages over the last four years.

I’d still like clarity on what the lines of authority are for dealing with this. Is it that the Minister has no authority or thinks he has no authority? What is he doing to exert his responsibility, as the Minister, to get training programs in place that result in the sorts of progress that we want to see?

I think I have the authority to make changes here. I have no doubt in my mind. But the housing authorities are working on it. That’s the thing. We conduct safety surveys with Workers’ Compensation Committee on a regular basis. They do audits on a regular basis with the authorities. I’m not sure this is an issue of authority. I think it’s an issue of how to address the problem.

We have a situation where we’re providing 24/7 care. You can’t go home at 5:00. The hospitals have to keep going. We are in an environment where we’re operating 24/7, 365 days a year, and in addition to that we have one-third of all the public service working in the Department of Health and Social Services. The numbers are high and it’s something we’re aware of. It’s something that we are trying to address. We do have discussions with the authority.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about a leader, the Great Chief Sitting Bull. One of his quotes was, “Lt’s put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.” Sitting Bull was a very spiritual man, just like our elders in the Sahtu and down the Mackenzie Valley. I wanted to ask

the Minister, because the elders are very concerned about the way things are going today, that the land is changing, our children are changing, and our children will die if we do not wake up and start talking to our children. I want to ask the Minister of Health in his role as the Minister responsible for Seniors, if he has looked at any type of initiative to bring the elders together from the Northwest Territories to talk about the changes that are happening in the Northwest Territories and to communicate that to our young people.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Seniors’ Society does come together on a regular basis. Many of the communities do have seniors’ societies. I think this type of work is something that, interestingly enough, the Stanton Elders’ Council is interested in doing. They talked about this in the context of the health of the community and how they have a strong desire to have an elders' conference, bringing all the elders together headed by the Stanton Elders’ Council to one central location and having a discussion to talk about this. In addition to that, they’ve also asked that they meet with our Ministers Forum on Addictions. Once their work is complete, their community work, they want that forum to touch base with them. I’m going to try to make both of those things happen. For sure they’re going to meet at the elders’ forum and now we’re working on putting a budget together so that they can have an elders' conference.

I would ask if the Minister would look at working with the Minister of MACA and seeing if they can bring some of the youth down the Mackenzie Valley to sit with the Elders’ Council and talk about some of the changes that are happening today.

Life today is very, very hard. The elders are saying if they do not get the message to our young people, our young people are going to be very pitiful in the future. We need to bring this forum together so that the elders can talk to the young people and tell them if you do not smarten up, you will not survive very long in this world. We need to come back with a very strong message to tell our youth that life is very precious and very short. Our elders want to take that role on. Will the Minister look at this?

Interestingly enough, I have actually thought about that, trying to bring the youth and the elders together in a central location. I also thought about the logistics of doing something like that and how difficult that could be. I think it’s not insurmountable, and I will be glad to meet with the Minister of MACA and the Minister responsible for Youth to see if we can put something like this together.