This is page numbers 1769 - 1816 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 going.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard our colleague today talk about training so that young Northerners can take advantage of economic growth, all kinds of things.

Will the Minister confirm that when we talk about the amount of money that we spend on social issues as the Government of the Northwest Territories, that addictions should be one of the highest priorities of this government? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, I recognize that addictions are a cost-driver in our various systems. Addictions are a huge cost-driver in justice, also a huge cost-driver in health and health outcomes of our citizens.

Yes, I am trying to make that a priority for the government, as the House knows. We are trying to work with various groups in the community. We talk a lot about addictions across the territory, whether it be alcohol, drugs, or even cigarettes, for that matter. We spend a lot of time talking about those addictions, so we are trying to do something about that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Question 51-17(4): Health Care In Hay River
Oral Questions

February 11th, 2013

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I had questions for the Minister of Health. The community of Hay River had a management board in place before; now it has been replaced with a public administrator. Will the Minister look at putting a

public advisory board into the community of Hay River?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no plan to put a board back in place in Hay River immediately. We are looking at the legislation to see what type of management structures we would be allowed to have in the various authorities right across the territory, because right now the past board, as it stands, was a board for Hay River only.

When we build a new health centre and we were trying to bring some of the surrounding communities, as Mr. Bouchard indicated, they will provide service from that centre to some of the surrounding communities. For example, right now people drive from Fort Resolution to Hay River, get on a plane and come here for health services. It may be possible to provide the health service right in Hay River. It would save a lot of money on medical travel and so on. We want to see that restructuring of our health services based on the new modern health centre in Hay River will do before we decide to refill the board positions because they may be from other communities. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, I understand the Minister’s issues with that. In the interim, the public has no effective way of communicating their concerns in the community with health issues. There is one public administrator, one person. If you don’t know that person… I am looking to see if the Minister would allow for an advisory board. I am not looking for the management of the operations; I am looking for an advisory board to give the public administrator some feedback from the community so that we can branch out the contacts in the community so that the community feels like they’re engaged with their health care system.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, I will look at the legislation and the whole governance around the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. As you and Members of the House are aware, each authority has their own governance at this time. I will look at that legislation, look at the governance surrounding that and see if it’s possible to appoint an advisory board through that model. If it is possible, I will certainly consider that. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful to the Minister for looking into that. My other area of concern I had in my Member’s statement was the flexibility of funding. As I indicated, we have funding for permanent doctors in Hay River. We currently don’t have any, but we have been using nurse practitioners, but the funds to fund those nurse practitioners are column funded so we can’t use the doctors’ funds to do that.

Has the Minister come up with a solution and been able to allow the community, the authority for Hay River to do some flexibility in these funds?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, we have not come up with a solution to provide flexible funding for Hay River. At this time, interestingly enough, we are waiting for a business case from the Hay River Health Authority senior management and two other health authorities that will give us the business case returned back to the Financial Management Board who restricts the funding for physicians. Once we are able to develop a business case for these authorities, then we will present that to the Financial Management Board to determine whether or not we will be allowed to build flexibility into physician funding to allow us to hire others like nurse practitioners in a system with the physician funding. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been asking the Minister this question for quite a long time about this flexibility, and he keeps going back to the FMBS and the solution. I am wondering when the Minister will commit to completing this process.

The community of Hay River wants to have coroners, nurse practitioners, wants to be able to use their funds so that the community can have a better health care system. When will the Minister commit to getting this flexibility in funds?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Mr. Speaker, I will ask the department to provide me a business case on all three health authorities by the end of April. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Interestingly enough, Mr. Bouchard and I are on the same page today. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services and they are also about nurse practitioners. It was last June and also when we were deliberating the budget a year ago last February that there was quite a bit of talk about nurse practitioners and funding nurse practitioners, using them and so on. At that time in June, the Minister of Health and Social Services talked about a lack of doctors and using nurse practitioners. He mentioned that there were funding obstacles and it’s the difficulty with FMB, I gather, but at that time in June, the Minister, I take it from Hansard, promised us a plan. I just have heard the Minister say that there is currently no solution and that we’re waiting for a business case from authorities. So I’d like to know from the Minister

along the lines of what Mr. Bouchard has just asked. We’re getting a business case at the end of April, I think the Minister said. Could he clarify that? Is this business case coming from the authorities or is it coming from the departments? What are we expecting and from whom at the end of April? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I said I would ask the authorities to provide the Health and Social Services with a business case by the end of April. Just for lack of not having the information and feeling that there’s been plenty of time for the authorities to put that information together, I’m suggesting that that would be a good date for them to provide the business case to us. As soon as the business case is in our hands, then it would not take us long to maybe have one discussion with the Joint Leadership Council, and then over to the Financial Management Board to see if the funding for physicians can become flexible. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. My next question I was going to ask him was whether FMB had given any consideration to changing the policy and, obviously, they have not if it hasn’t gone to them already. So I need to ask the Minister if last June, that’s over six months ago, almost eight months ago now, if last June the Minister was promising us a plan to deal with this lack of flexibility, why has it taken this long to get to a point of no solution. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. I don’t know why it’s taking this long, but I do know that we have a governance system where the health and social services authorities operate with a board, independent board or through a public administrator. So we are trying to set up a system now where we’re changing the governance.

As we stand up in the House here as Health Ministers to answer questions, there’s something that’s a little bit out of our control and that is that the management of the authorities. So we ask the authorities, we’ll work with the authorities and try to get that information. I will put appropriate pressure on them to get that information to us quickly. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

I want to thank the Minister, although I’m not quite sure I appreciate his response. However, I’ll look at Hansard tomorrow and check it out.

One of the other concerns that I have with nurse practitioners is the way that we fund them, and my understanding is that we have about nine nurse practitioners that we as a government are funding. I’d like to ask the Minister how these nine NPs are funded. Are they all funded from the base funding

from the department or are some of them funded by federal funding? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. Nine of the nurse practitioners are funded through the THSSI, the Territorial Health Systems Sustainability Initiative. That’s federal funding. The rest of them are funded through O and M. So not through any other funding other than just regular O and M through the health and social services authorities. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister said we have nine that are funded by THSSI funding. I thought we had nine in total. So I’d appreciate clarification on how many NPs we have. But of these nine NPs who are funded through THSSI funding, what is the Minister doing to ensure that when THSSI funding runs out, I think in a year, that we will be able to continue these nine nurse practitioners within our system? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. I apologize, I thought I said six of the NPs were funded through THSSI, and it is six NPs funded through THSSI. The plan is to, of course, continue to negotiate with the federal government on sustaining that funding. If that funding is no longer available, if that funding has been eliminated, then the department would have no option other than to go through this process of going through the mains to be able to see if we can’t get funding to retain our nurse practitioners in the system. So at this time our hope is that that funding will continue. Thank you.