Debates of Feb. 25th, 2013

This is page numbers 2093 – 2142 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was health.

Topics

Oral Questions
Prayer
Point Of Order
Highway Tragedy
Supported Housing For Seniors
Sahtu Oil And Gas Development Update
Highway Emergency Response Services
Need For Nurse In Wrigley
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal Hay River Recipients
Diabetes, Obesity And Bariatric Surgery
Development Of Arts And Culture Industry
2013 Hay River Chamber Of Commerce Gala
Housing Arrears In Fort Providence
Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) Environmental Concerns
NWT Senior Cager Basketball Tournament
Gasoline Prices In The Northwest Territories
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Environmental Impacts Of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)
Displaying NWT Artist Products In Public Buildings
Infrastructure For Addictions Treatment Program
Need For Nurse In Wrigley
Addressing Rental Arrears In Fort Providence
Fortune Minerals And Tlicho Winter Road Alignment
Diabetes, Obesity And Bariatric Surgery
Medical Travel Protocol For Highway Emergencies
Midwifery Services
Insurance Coverage For Bariatric Surgery
Community Preparedness For Highway Emergencies
Residence For Expecting Mothers In Yellowknife
Written Question 15-17(4): Housing For Adults With Disabilities
Tabled Document 27-17(4): Photo Of Gas Prices In Yellowknife
Tabled Document 28-17(4): Society Of Obstetricians And Gynaecologists Of Canada Policy Statement On Returning Birth To Aboriginal, Rural And Remote Communities Tabled Document 29-17(4): Society Of Obstetricians And Gynaecologists Of Canada Report On Best Practices For Returning Birth To Rural And Re
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Establishment Of Midwifery Services In Hay River
Reprofiling Midwifery Coordination Funds In Community Programs
Chronic Disease Prevention And Promotion
Report of Committee of the Whole
Orders of the Day

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Debbie Delancey

Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually, the review of the Medical Travel Program is completed and Members did receive a briefing on that just over a year ago, the Standing Committee on Social Programs. Based on the outcome of the review, we have two distinct and interrelated pieces of work going on. One is a development of a discussion paper on a proposed new policy. The Medical Travel Policy is a Cabinet-approved policy. It’s quite out of date. It’s quite complex. From the several reviews that have been done, we are drawing together a summary of the changes that are required and how this might be addressed. That will eventually have to go to public consultation.

The second piece of work is actually looking at the program. The most recent consultant’s review, which was completed about 18 months ago, identified many ways that the program could be made more efficient and more responsive, so we are working with a team at Stanton Health Authority, who administers medical travel, to look at a program design using more lean processes to create a more efficient program.

Those are two separate but very related pieces of work that are moving together in tandem. We had hoped to be further along but we encountered a number of delays, first of all, in staffing. We had to go out twice just in order to find people to carry this work forward. We now are fully staffed and are hoping to see progress over the next year.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Ms. Bisaro.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to Ms. DeLancey for the clarification. My frustration was rising because it has been a very long time. I appreciate it’s a difficult issue and it is very out of date, but I’m glad to hear that there’s going to be public consultation on this because everybody who has ever had to travel for a medical reason is going to have an opinion on it, similar to education. Everybody has an opinion on how we should be educating our children because we’ve all been through it. I’ll just leave that at that and the sooner

the better, I guess, in terms of getting a new policy out there.

Sort of falling from that, one of the things that Members have heard about with changes to the system and so on is the establishment of a… I’m not sure if they’re one and the same, but kind of a territorial support network or a call centre for physicians and for communities who can contact a central call centre for advice and with questions. I’d like to know if I could get an update on where that’s at. It’s been a long time in coming, from my recollection, so when will this support network or the call centre system be set up, in place and running?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Chair. With the positions that are in the current budget under review, we would be able to roll out, I guess sort of like a pilot for TSN, this fiscal year.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I presume the Minister does not mean the sports network. I presume he means the Territorial Support Network. Thanks to the Minister for that.

I did want to ask, as well, there is a review, I understand, of the ISDM, the Integrated Service Delivery Model. That has also been a long time in the making or in the offing, so I’d like to know from the Minister where the review of the ISDM is at this particular time and when it will be finished.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

We have hired a doctor to do the review of the Integrated Service Delivery Model and we’re expecting the results of his work to be completed in August.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I hope that’s August of 2013, not ’14.

Another question I have revolves around legislation. There are a number of pieces of legislation that have been referenced. I know I spoke in the House last week about the Child and Family Services Act and legislation changes or amendments with that particular act. The Minister has talked about governance and governance changes, and that we want to try and streamline our authorities and provide a different model of governance for our authorities. I believe that there is a governance act that is being proposed at some point in time. Could I get the Minister to confirm that, and if that is the case, is he intending to go to public consultation on that act?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. DeLancey.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Debbie Delancey

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the HHISSAA, the Hospital and Health Insurance and Social Services Administration Act – I think I may have gotten that wrong – does establish boards of management and the powers of boards of

management. In order to undertake governance reform at the legislative level, we would have to bring forward changes to that act. They are on our legislative agenda right now. Once we have undertaken or completed the discussions that are going on currently with the existing authorities, as we’ve previously advised this House, we would be bringing forward, for public discussion, a discussion paper. We have had a couple drafts of that discussion paper that have gone to the Joint Leadership Council and we’ve been asked for changes, so it’s still being put together. We would then go to the standing committee, eventually to the public, and then there would be a more formal public consultation process as is required for any legislative changes. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the deputy minister. I guess, as I tend to always do, I would suggest that standing committee would be better served by getting the drafts earlier rather than later. You may find that input from standing committee on the draft may have some impacts on the next draft. I know we usually get stuff when it’s kind of finished, but very often if we get it when it’s halfway through or three-quarters of the way through, it will develop a faster and better product in the end.

The last thing I wanted to mention has to do with accountability. That’s another area that the directorate, I believe, has been working on, again, the accountability of our health authorities. Sort of hand in hand with that is service partnership agreements which have been, according to the Human Resources Minister, established and there is a pilot that is going on.

To the service partnership agreements, have those all been signed? Are they up and running? My understanding is they are. My question has to do with whether or not there are service partnership agreements with each and every one of our health authorities. I’ll stop there. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Beaulieu.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Chair. There will be a lot of detail and bureaucratic response, so I will ask the deputy to respond to the Member on that.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. DeLancey.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Debbie Delancey

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is one service partnership agreement that has been signed between the Department of Human Resources and the Department of Health and Social Services on behalf of all eight authorities. We do have a small working group between ourselves and the Department of Human Resources which includes one of our CEOs. We have involved all eight CEOs in the development of a service partnership agreement.

We are now, as Members may have heard previously from the Department of Human Resources, doing a pilot project for the government. We signed this agreement off in the fall. We are finalizing a monitoring and evaluation framework. All of the authorities are actively participating in reviewing that framework, making sure that the kind of things that are being measured are the kind of outcomes that they care about and that they feel will need to be improved in order to make us more efficient. That work is rolling out. We don’t expect to have anything to share in terms of a report, though, until the end of the one-year pilot project. Thank you.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Ms. Bisaro, your 10 minutes are up. I’m going to ask Mr. Yakeleya, do you have comments still on page 8-13? You were on the list on Friday. Mr. Yakeleya.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions have to do with medevacs in the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the department when will this exist, and who and when will this contract be up for renewal, or when is the department going to go out for additional airline companies to look at this contract.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Beaulieu.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Chair. The existing medevac contract has been extended for us to do a thorough and proper review. The RFP will hopefully be out in April and we’re expecting to have a new contract in place by September 30, 2014.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Madam Chair, the new contract is next year, so they are extending it until next year. As the Minister indicated, due to the evaluation or analysis of the medevacs, in that case what is the backup plan if it’s not possible to get medevacs out of the communities. What is the backup plan?

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Madam Chair, I think I will ask the deputy minister to respond to that. I’m not 100 percent sure that I understand the question. I think the deputy can respond.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Ms. DeLancey.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Debbie Delancey

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to be sure I understand the question, the question is about what’s the backup plan if a medevac can’t get into a community to pick up a passenger.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Yakeleya.

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Madam Chair, maybe I could have expanded a little more on the question. That is the answer from the deputy minister, is usually a normal backup plan is to provide by the carrier. Sometimes that may not be the case. If one plane

is not available, and another aircraft carrier is not available, then what is the backup, say, in the Sahtu region if the aircraft are not available and we have an aircraft company sitting in the Sahtu and just sitting at North-Wright in Norman Wells? Are they being asked to help with the medevac services for that period of time? Thank you.