Thanks, Mr. Chair. In this budget it actually shows Midwifery Program, an increase of $964,000 which is intended to implement the Midwifery Program in the Beaufort-Delta. But as I’ve indicated previously, there have been some changes in the Beaufort-Delta and there is a desire by the Beaufort-Delta to move to a different model. They’ve put in a new MORE OB program for birthing babies, which is a revolutionary award-winning program. What the Beaufort-Delta is talking about now is putting in a nurse practitioner who will have midwifery responsibility and will be providing a regional program and working with the community health nurses.
So this money will still be used, assuming we get committee support, to create an NP midwife position in the Beaufort-Delta who will take on that role and become part of the maternal care team. So, that’s actually pretty exciting, but it is quite different than what was proposed before.
Originally the Midwifery Program in Yellowknife was going to begin planning in ’16-17. What we’re suggesting is, given the changes in the Beaufort-Delta, we begin that work in ’15-16. It is a different program. The Member had indicated previously that we had a midwifery program in Yellowknife, and I would just like to remind everybody that it was never funded and it was one person. We have learned through experience that one person does not make a midwifery program. We had a great person, a very committed person, but one person can’t be a midwifery program, given that it’s literally 24/7 care and response. The only thing one person will do is get burned out and be unable to perform the duties. It’s not healthy for them and it’s not healthy for their client. So there wasn’t a really effective program, although it was effective of the quality of the person we had. But it was also not sustainable; it was never funded.
What we’re talking about now is having a territorial program based out of Yellowknife, and that is a different model than having just a localized Yellowknife-based midwifery program. This program will also be able to facilitate midwifery or midwife-supported births here in Yellowknife and support clients in Yellowknife, but there will also be a territorial focus for those regions and communities
in the Northwest Territories that do not have midwifery support now to provide the pre- and postnatal support, and support the community health nurses that are out there.
It is a little bit different. It will take a bit of time. I’m anticipating, if we get support, what we’d like to do is move forward with that planning and we could theoretically, and I think it’s quite conceivable, be in a position, after the design is done, to begin recruitment in the ’15-16 year. But recognizing that we do have some work to do and we are expediting this significantly and bringing it into Yellowknife and a territorial model, it will take some time to do that work. It’s different than any model that we’ve employed elsewhere. It’s not the Fort Smith model. It’s not the Hay River model. It’s not the Inuvik model. It’s going to be a new model that’s going to be supporting Yellowknife as well as those communities that do not have it. So we do need a bit of planning time and lead-up time, which is the discussion that I’m hoping to have with committee. But right now in this budget, you’ll notice that it’s $964,000 in Inuvik. That’s what was originally discussed in business plans. Since then, these changes have come about and we would like to move forward, with committee’s support, to expedite a territorial program based out of Yellowknife.