Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will continue my discussion on some of the issues in the area of health for Hay River. One of the major issues in Hay River is the fact that, back several years ago, the government removed the management board and replaced it with a public

administrator. Although the administrator is doing a good job, there is still a lot of outcry from the community to have some sort of advisory board so that the community from different walks of life can give information and feedback to the health authority so that we can have representation and see what the issues are. We have one public administrator, one person that the public can contact, and sometimes that’s difficult. If you don’t know that individual or you’re not part of the inner circle of that group, it’s very difficult. We in the community here would like to see an advisory authority set up, along with some information or some representatives from outside the community and surrounding area, where some of the people actually come and use the health centres. This is one of the major issues that we have in the health area.

Another area that I’ve brought up in the House before is the flexibility of funding. Currently, we have no full-time positions there but we have been using a nurse practitioner, and we would like to be able to use potentially more if we have the ability to hire more nurse practitioners. Right now the funding is in columns so it only allows certain dollars to be spent on physicians versus nurse practitioners.

I’m going to be having questions for the Minister of Health on those two issues today about whether we can have the public advisory committee and reduce the column funding in the Hay River Health Authority.