This is page numbers 3501 – 3522 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th 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 budget.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There was not a design issue; the issue was with the installation of the bridge. The bridge was installed and the panels that sit on top the bridge were not totally lined up with the installation of the sides of the bridge. It took some time to make the correction, so that has been corrected. There’s no issue with the safety of the bridge or anything. The corrections have been made and the bridge is now properly installed. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. Sorry, I may have said Highway No. 7 earlier. Sorry. Freudian slip. Highway No. 4 bypass. Sorry to the Member.

I appreciate the Minister’s response here, but we know that the designs of bridges are very, very intricate. There’s a lot of engineering designs, it has to go through a flurry of testing before this bridge would be put on any type of abutments or any type of structure. From the sounds of it, it almost sounds like what the Minister tried to elaborate – and I may be wrong in assuming – that this thing almost went in backwards.

Now, if indeed I’m in error, I’d ask the Minister to correct me, but if it’s true, there is definitely… It sounds like extra costs to engineering, it sounds like there could have been extra costs for materials and possibly extra costs in general. With these extra costs and these delays, out of curiosity, were there any extra costs to the taxpayer? Can the Minister elaborate on that? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. This was a guaranteed negotiated contract. There have been no requests from the contractor for any change order to increase the costs of the work that was done on the Highway No. 4 bypass. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. It’s good to hear that we’re still on target for costs. It appears that there are still some chipseal requirements to be done. I took a drive the other day and there seems to be some temporary electrical work there. So,

obviously, we’re waiting for some electrical work, and it does appear that some of the guardrails may be still missing here.

Can the Minister indicate to the House who is assuming legal responsibility for this road if there’s still work to be done? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. A public highway is a public highway. Any public highway, once it’s officially opened, is the responsibility of DOT. It’s fairly standard practice to put down the base of the road and not put the chipseal immediately, and in this case there would be driving on it and when it is appropriate and the weather allows, then it will be chipsealed, but up until the chipseal is completed, the contract is still there, but legally, at the time it was opened it became a DOT asset. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Minister. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I just wanted to make sure that liability, if there was ever indeed an issue on this road, if we’re still waiting for pieces of pertinent parts of this road to be completed, that the taxpayers won’t be having any type of surprises in the near future. That leads me to my final question.

When can we expect a full assessment of this project being presented to this House of its total completion? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. The chipsealing will be done this summer during the summer construction season. Once that is completed if there’s a request from committee for us to debrief committee on the contract, then the department is prepared to do that. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services on medical travel. I spoke earlier about the incident with the person from Tulita on her experience with the Medical Travel Policy. This is only one incident of probably many across the Northwest Territories and from the smaller communities.

Can the Minister tell me how soon the Medical Travel Policy revision will be before the House so we can have some good discussion and have this type of incident be looked at with the revisions of the new Medical Travel Policy? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Madam Speaker. We have more than 13,000 patient cases that are managed by the medical travel system a year, so it’s a significant load. For the individuals that are going through medical travel, I mean, for the most part, they’re focused on their diagnosis and treatment. For many of them, most of them, the medical travel system seems to work, but as I’ve heard from Members, as I’ve heard from the public, as I heard from the MLA again today with the particular case that he’s brought forward, there are people that are frustrated with the medical travel system. We know we can do better, and we need to do better for our residents.

The Medical Travel Policy is currently under review. We want to have a Medical Travel Policy that is hassle free for all of our patients. In part of the modernization we’re looking at improving our patient experiences, we’re looking for developing a clear policy that allows for change and some flexibility. We need to create a program, efficiencies to help us with cost control and cost containment as we move forward.

On January 16th I had an opportunity to meet with

MLAs and talk about the review, and I committed and showed at that time a bit of a work plan. We are committed to having that review done and a policy for discussion with the MLAs early in the fiscal year. It’s going to be a multiple approach. I mean, we’re going to work on a territorial policy, but there are also sub-categories that we need to look at, things like escorts, things like co-payments, things like patient boarding as well. We’re looking at having an appeal process that doesn’t currently exist. All of that’s going to happen starting in the fiscal year coming. We will have some policies to have the discussions with MLAs on.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

As part of this Medical Travel Policy revision, I want to ask the Minister, would he commit to talking to this person or have the department talk to this person on her experience after surgery and what type of frustration she had to undergo and the agonizing speaking to medical travel to get her back? That’s not even getting her back to Tulita. She had to get her own way back from Norman Wells to Tulita, and this is only one of many incidents.

Is there a place where people that go through this type of experience can say this is what’s happening now with the Medical Travel Policy today? This is in real time. I’m hoping that this incident will not repeat itself in the history.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

The Medical Travel Policy requires that travel must originate in the Northwest Territories. However, for the case like the one the Member is talking about, there is a process to consider exceptional circumstances, which I know the department is doing. They are aware of this situation. They will be in touch with

the individual and they will work with the individual to see what can be done to address this particular concern.

This is the type of information that is helping us have an informed discussion around medical travel as we move forward, and a significant amount of work has already been done. Much of the information is manual, so significant manual evaluations and reports and audits that have been done previously have been done by the department. We’ve had to pull out data to help us make informed decisions. As I indicated, there has been a work plan developed which we have shared with Members, and significant personal resources within the department are being invested in trying to improve this policy for the residents of the Northwest Territories.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

When patients are sent to Edmonton, and in regard to this patient from Tulita, are our patients given a phone number, a contact person in Edmonton where sometimes it might be out of the Medical Travel Policy but they’re down there for, like, this instance, which is unique? Are they given some type of support down there? Because this person went through her surgery, and after surgery there was no assistance and no support for her. She basically was on her own, and she had to fight medical travel to get her ticket paid back to Norman Wells. That’s not even getting her back to Tulita. Her husband had to come from Tulita and bring her back from Norman Wells to Tulita after surgery. Is there any type of special circumstances like that where patients know that they’re going to get support? Basically, she was left abandoned in Edmonton. I want to ask the Minister, is there any type of process in place right now?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

With respect to this particular case, I’m certainly willing to have some conversations with the Member. I also know that the department is working and will work with the individual to explore these exception opportunities.

When an individual goes on medical travel, they work with the medical travel unit. They usually get a pamphlet with contact numbers, who they can contact within medical travel should there be any problems with their plans. In this case, it was my understanding that this person went down and something happened to them when they were down there, so they weren’t taken down on medical travel, so they may not have had those contact numbers. We will certainly be working with that client.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you. I appreciate that from the Minister, to look into this specific case here, and again, looking forward to the type of new policies that are going to be put in place and have in our discussions. For example, patients come to

the Wells to Yellowknife and then they find that there is a cheaper way to get back to their community. They make a suggestion and medical travel say no, you have to go back on this type of route there, so there is some uniqueness to our situations in our small communities.

I want to ask the Minister, does he foresee that this medical travel will be put in place within the life of this government so that it will be implemented within the life of this government here?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

We’re always looking for opportunities and ways to help contain costs around medical travel. We know that medical travel is a significant expense on the taxpayers of the Northwest Territories, and we are committed to completing the review and having the policy forward for discussion within the life of this Assembly.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I really had questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but of course, after hearing the Minister of Education’s statement on Early Childhood Development Action Plan, I think he deserves the honour of my questions today.

My question, first off, is we shouldn’t be calling this an action plan. We should be more or less calling this the early childhood development vision.

I’d like to ask the Minister, how does he intend to pay for this vision? He’s pointed out that there is no costing, no assessment, whether it’s new money, whether it’s re-profiled money, or will the pressures be coming down on our school boards, forced to find the money for this additional year of education? Who is paying for it and where is the money coming from and how much money?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. This is an area that we are embarking on, a new initiative. We’ve been talking about this junior kindergarten since the Aboriginal Student Achievement a few years back now, and it’s based on the engagement process that we’ve heard from the parents, the Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, and the past and present MLAs that were part of the process. These are the discussions that we’ve been having for quite some time now.

It’s before us through the Early Childhood Development Framework. The action plan will be a tabled document today. It does capture an area that junior kindergarten is part of that action plan.

Through the budget process there’s been an earmark of funding allocated to that, new money, and there’s also re-profiling, as the Member alluded to. The re-profiling, we’ve been discussing that with the school boards, the school board superintendents, and we’ve had their feedback, and so those are discussions that we’ve been having.

We are rolling out the program this fall, 2014, and capturing the small communities, 29 communities at the get-go and then phasing it in over three years. That is the overall plan to cover all communities throughout the Northwest Territories. That is the overall plan. These are some of the priorities of this Legislative Assembly’s goals and objectives, so we are moving forward. Mahsi.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Madam Speaker, the next question of course is: How much money is the Minister talking about? He said there is new money in the budget; he said there would be re-profiling, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and let’s find out what this is going to cost.

What is the program going to cost? How much new money is being put into this potential budget that may or may not be passed – and I’m not sure it has the support of all Members thus far – and how much money is being re-profiled and what are the impacts of re-profiling of those dollars? Thank you.