Thank you, Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for the answer. I'm just trying to understand when I'm looking at the budget here, is it just the common practice or has this process always been this way? 'Cause I'm just trying to understand it better so when I have questions I can look at where our challenges are, our issues are. So I guess back to the Minister. Is this the practice that did not include the breakdown in the business plans? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the budget's presented as a Territorial budget and it's presented as a Territorial outline. If the Member were to look at page 200, it actually shows every one of the authorities and the total allocation that is provided to the individual authority. Each of the lines that we've gone through, whether it was community health services or community social services have had a contribution amount to the authorities. Those are all added up and included in this showing the total amounts going to the individual authorities, page 200. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson, would you like to wait until we reached that section to discuss that?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize that Minister Abernethy has seen that, but I'm asking you for the breakdown in these areas. I mean on page 200 it's lumped together, so I'm just trying to understand this so I can make a better decision. I thank the Minister for this information and I'll move on. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson, and the Minister has committed to providing you with that information. Next on my list, I have Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, does the department agree that under all circumstances that midwifery saves money for the system? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Our analysis demonstrates that in all situations it doesn't save us money in the Northwest Territories. In some situations it may. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could advise the House under which situation does midwifery not save money.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we were to have a dedicated midwifery service in Yellowknife focused just on Yellowknife, it would not reduce the number of physicians that we are required to have here in the Northwest Territories, in particular in Yellowknife. It certainly wouldn't reduce any medical travel costs. It would be an additional cost in our system to cover all the O and M costs and the costs of the midwives that are providing the service. So it would not be a cost saving as far as the birthing is concerned, but that's not the point, Mr. Chair. Midwifery services provided a holistic approach to birthing including significant benefits, long-term to families in early childhood development through pre and post-natal care that the midwives are able to provide. I'm not sure that we're ever going to win an economic analysis, but what we will win and what we need to focus on is the high quality care and the benefits to pre and post-natal and early childhood development that midwifery services can bring. There's no question of the values that midwifery service can provide to mothers and families and children as we move forward.

We still have to build a case for it and we still have to be able to demonstrate the benefits, and we need to develop a Territorial model that'll allow us to have a Territorial model with those services provided here in Yellowknife, but also the services available to the communities that Mr. Thompson has raised his communities where we want to be able to support that important pre and post-natal work as well as birthing if possible. Fort Simpson, Norman Wells. We want to be able to do these things. We do have to build a case. As far as cost saving in every case, it doesn't exist. But there are definite long-term advantages to moving forward with the midwifery program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the early childhood development practice nurse would probably disagree with that that I think there is a lot of significant cost savings to having midwifery in the system throughout regardless if you have the physician services there or not. Mr. Chairman, I'm going to ask about the, you know, context of the health transformation. Will the people from Fort Resolution be getting the majority of their medical services out of Hay River once the new health centre is up and fully functional? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think some residents of Fort Resolution are already receiving a significant amount of services in Hay River and they will continue to do so, but depending on their particular individual health issues, they may still be required to come to Stanton for certain diagnostic tests or other clinical tests. I mean the system we're moving to is about moving forward together to have a united system that meets the needs of our residents which means that some people might receive services in communities they don’t today or they have today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'd assume that with the health transformation that the services of the doctors or specialists could also be brought into Hay River to lessen the amount of medical travel that would be needed for people from Fort Resolution or the immediate area around Hay River. I was thinking there was a new hospital and there would be an opportune time for the people in that area to go there and bring the specialists there. But I guess I don’t have anything further unless the Minister wants to make a comment in what I thought was there and maybe what is actually going to be, I guess, delivered out of the new hospital in Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There were no new programs added as a result of the creation or the development of the construction of the new hospital in Hay River. What we got is a building that meets our Canadian Standards Association standard requirements for health facilities in this country. The rooms are bigger. We've got some bariatric rooms, there is a respite room. No additional services, but as a result of the bigger layout the changes and how we have to provide services to meet the standards it did require some additional positions. The nice thing about the facility is because of the operating room that was put in there, we can have other people come down and do things like scopes and other procedures. Because we are going to be one system, there's nothing stopping some of the professionals from coming down to Yellowknife to provide a service in Hay River from time to time. There's absolutely nothing that's stops us from doing that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu, anything further?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I apologize. I may not have heard the Minister correctly. I thought the Minister said there was no change in services in Hay River as a result of the new hospital, and my assumption was there was and the Minister sort of confirms that maybe there will be people coming down there, specialists coming from Hay River to Yellowknife to deal with it. So I guess my question would be, I recognize that you can't describe every possible medical situation that would be available, but I'm trying to get a feel for what reason would we continue the residence out of Fort Resolution, continue coming to Yellowknife for medical travel, like under which type of circumstances would that become the reason for somebody coming to Yellowknife for medical travel?