This is page numbers 2725 – 2750 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 community.

Topics

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I will commit to having a conversation with my colleague in Education, Culture and Employment. Again, $7,000 was the figure I’d heard, and I’ve also committed to the Member that I will check the criteria of some of the money we allocate to the community to see if any of this qualifies under the money we supply to the community. Again, we are looking at $7,000 which may not seem like a lot and would be very important to have that service established again in not only the Member’s community but all the other communities where they rely on the local radio stations. Thank you, Mrs. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. McLeod.

---Laughter

The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for busing students to Fort McPherson. I remember when the government started extending the grade levels offered in small communities so families didn’t have to send their children away. In the Minister’s opinion, how does that work for students and families?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Grade 10, Grade 11, Grade 12 extensions into the communities have worked out well in most of the communities. Some of the communities are still struggling, especially isolated communities where they may not be able to deliver academic courses. At the same time, there is a model in play in the Beaufort-Delta, e-learning. It’s a new topic of discussion we are having now. We feel we need to expand that more into the communities, especially the isolated communities. So those are areas that we are currently exploring, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

What is the cost of supporting the student who has to be housed and schooled away from home in Inuvik? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

I don’t have the detailed breakdown of the actual cost per student to be housed where they are attending school, but I can provide that to the Member. Part of the formula funding would cover that. We work closely with the

DEAs and DECs to capture those students that may have to go to Inuvik to attend school, or McPherson or surrounding communities. Those are areas where we continue to work for the school boards. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Will the Minister ensure that funding is provided to the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to pilot the busing project between Tsiigehtchic and Fort McPherson starting in the fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Very direct. This is an area that I need to work closely with the DECs and DEAs. If there is a requisition from the DEA, whether it be busing services, then it goes to the DEC and then we sit down and discuss the priorities for the region. Part of the formula funding would cover assets such as busing and other programming into the communities. I need to work closely with the school boards to make this a reality, and if it’s the wish of the DEA, then we need to work towards that.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

It sounds very promising. That sounded like a yes. Was that a yes?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

The busing, it is covered through the formula funding, and again, I need to work closely with the school boards. If it is a priority of the school board, then they need to identify the funding. We also, through the school boards, provide additional funding to small communities where enrolment may be not as high, so they can provide the funding towards that, busing and other such services. I will continue to work with the Member and also the school board to make this a reality.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It came to my attention here that in an article regarding doctor recruitment to be centralized, something that we’ve talked about and the Minister has alluded to on many occasions, having doctors come out of Yellowknife to do work in the small communities. I know they had a meeting last week with all the education authorities. So I’d like to ask the Minister of Health if he wouldn’t mind giving us an update on the outcome of the meeting, in terms of recruitment of physicians and how we’re going to be putting that towards the small communities that don’t have the physicians in place right now.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The tone of the meeting, in my opinion, was very positive. I think that all of the members of the Joint Leadership Council and the Aboriginal governments

that were invited to attend to hear our plans on all aspects of governance, including some on physician recruitment, it sounded positive. The plan is for the department to do a complete debrief of the meeting next week. In as far as recruitment goes, they recognize, people from the authorities and the Aboriginal governments recognize that we are highly motivated to recruit physicians to the Northwest Territories.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I want to make reference to something that the Minister had stated in his interview, and he says that doctors who recoil at the idea of working in a remote and isolated community and don’t want to work in those communities for a long period of time can have a home base in Yellowknife. That means that he’s saying that doctors who don’t want to go and live in our communities can live in Yellowknife and move back and forth. We also have the Minister of ITI who promotes tourism, and we want to promote living in our small communities and have all that good stuff of living in a small community.

Can the Minister please give us a direct answer, saying is this the route that he’s going to go or is he trying other avenues to get doctors into Fort Smith, into Hay River and into Inuvik?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

It’s a very unfortunate choice of a word there in the article. I believe that if a doctor recoils at the fact of working in small communities, they probably wouldn’t be working in Yellowknife, either.

Continually, our plan, from the time we had the recruitment support unit transferred back from Health and Social Services on April 1, 2013, has always been to have a plan A, and the plan A has always been to have doctors in the communities where the allocation is. Failing that, with discussion and continued work with the authorities, we would give the doctor the option to live in Yellowknife, in a sense developing a territorial pool as opposed to relying on southern locums for the most part at this time.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

If we have doctors that recoil by not going into isolated and remote communities, I’m not sure if that’s the type of physicians we want taking care of our residents of the Northwest Territories or any positions in government, for that matter. So when we do the recruitment, if that comes as an option, I think that health authorities and the Minister should look at that twice before making a job offer.

The Minister did also mention about salary packages. I want to know what our package is in the NWT, how our salary package compares to other jurisdictions throughout the NWT that prevents us from getting physicians up into the North.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The recruiters from both the Health and Social Services and the health authorities really have not identified salary so much as an issue in recruitment. We have a very good package, probably one of the best in the country in as far as just dollars go. The issue has been more of bringing doctors in and the doctor’s requirement for recreation activities in the centres that they would work in, and education. Those have been the two factors that have weighed most heavily on the recruitment issue with doctors.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Just a simple question, yes or no. Saskatchewan and B.C. do give out bonuses to their physicians as they hire them. A simple question, yes or no, is the NWT looking at offering bonuses for physicians that come out of school to entice them as an incentive to take a job here? Yes or no. Is that an option they’re looking at?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I do believe that there is some form of payment to the doctors, but it’s worked out between the Health and Social Services and the health authorities. I do believe there’s a payment after 12 months and there’s another one after the next 12 months. I don’t actually have the details, but I believe that’s what I kind of recall, but it’s not something that’s very substantial that may be offered in other jurisdictions.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday there were some good questions regarding health care card renewals. One of the answers and replies from the Minister of Health, Tom Beaulieu, says overall we need to process 38,000 health care cards in 2013.

I’m not a statistician and I don’t have the latest results on the NWT population before me, but I think we’ve all been working with the number of 42,000 residents for the Northwest Territories. So my first question is: What about the other 4,000 residents of the Northwest Territories? Is there a gap in the numbers? Is there missing health care cards? Is there a process we’re not familiar with? There are 4,000 people missing on the health care list. Maybe the Minister can explain that.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.