Mahsi. Members’ statements. Member for Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker.

During my last constituency tour in my riding, the community of Aklavik would like to request from the Department of Transportation to have the crusher that's owned by the department to be located in the community, whether it's a season or for the full year. I do realize that this crusher is now located, I believe, in Fort Good Hope, and it may take some time to ship this unit up to Aklavik, most likely over the summer, but the community's looking forward to some work to be done on their roads. As you may know, during the spring flood, many times the roads in the community are under water with the flooding in the community, so the community is making plans to upgrade the road infrastructure and they'd like to request that the crusher be brought in. Also, they're planning to do training opportunities and trying to boost the economy and the community. Later today, I'll have questions for the Minister of Transportation. Thank you.

Mahsi. Members’ statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, t

he Conference Board of Canada released its economic forecast for the Northwest Territories, and while much of this information is not news to this government, there are some good news stories. The resources revenues are expected to increase and there should be more revenue in the future to invest in. I don't want to talk too much about that today. What I'm more interested in is the need for infrastructure in our communities and the equal need for economic activity in our communities. The Government of Canada has made a bold decision to spend more than $10 billion in deficit to pay for infrastructure across the country and to provide a tax cut for middle-income earners in Canada. In our communities there is an additional need for infrastructure that has been unaddressed for many years. Recently, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has amended that formula to provide additional funding to our regional centres that have experienced a shortfall. I'm very excited by this news. However, given our fiscal restraints, I’m concerned that we may not have the ability to fully fund the needs of our communities, and get people on the ground working in jobs. I will have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Communities Affairs on the formula funding, and to see exactly when we can flow new infrastructure dollars to our communities and start getting people back to work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker. It's my honour today to welcome the NWT Family Violence Shelter Network who are visiting Yellowknife this week and meeting. We have with us the women who run the family violence shelters in the NWT. Lyda Fuller is the executive director of the YWCA, Debby Rybchinski manages at Alison McAteer House here in Yellowknife, April Davies is the manager of Sutherland House in Fort Smith, Janice Elanik is the acting executive director of the Inuvik Transition House, Bessie Hagen is the executive director of the Women and Emergency Foster Care Shelter in Tuktoyaktuk, Kristine Vannebo-Suwala is the executive director of the shelter in Hay River, Amanda Kanbari is the program leader of the Y Mentors Program in Yellowknife which helps children who are witnessing violence, and Fatu Mansara is from the Family Violence Shelter in Cambridge Bay. I would like to welcome all of them to the House today.

Mahsi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery, Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two visitors to our capital city as guests of a Yellowknife North constituent. I would like to welcome Elias Abboud, who is a former Yellowknifer and CBC North reporter who is now on-air as a news and current affairs reporter at CBC Montreal. I would also like to welcome Genevieve Royer. Genevieve is a television programming buyer for Quebec's public network, Tele-Quebec. She is visiting Yellowknife for the first time, so please join me in giving our guests a warm welcome to the NWT.

ecognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Kristine Vannebo-Suwala, the executive director of the Family Support Centre in Hay River. Thank you.

Mahsi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to recognize Lyda Fuller as executive director of the Yellowknife YWCA, and she's also a constituent in Frame Lake. I want to thank her and her colleagues for the great work that they do. I'd also like to welcome Mr. Elias Abboud, who works for CBC Montreal. I had the pleasure of playing hockey with him when he was in Yellowknife previously, and I look forward to the opportunity to do the same this week.

Mahsi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Honourable Member for Thebacha.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

I'd like to recognize April Davies, Manager of Sutherland House in Fort Smith.

Mahsi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. I'd just like to welcome everyone to the gallery. It's always great to have an audience as part of our proceedings. Mahsi. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Today in my Member's statement, I spoke about the challenges that we are facing in regards to the health system. I would like to address my questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. As some of the Members are aware, Deh Cho Health and Social Services has a public administrator. Can the Minister please explain to the House what the public administrator's role is versus the authority’s role versus the department's?

Mahsi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department's mandate and duties are outlined clearly in the Health and Social Services Establishment Policy very broadly. The department plays a coordinating and policy role, which includes setting standards and policies, providing subject-matter expertise, flowing funding, setting reporting requirements, and monitoring for compliance. The department has some direct program areas that their responsible for as well, the vital stats, as well as health insurance. Authorities are the delivery agents of the Health and Social Services System and their role is primarily operational. The Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act provides the framework for the authority operation and their accountability. The act also provides for the establishment of boards of management and outlines their duties as well. The Minister appoints the board of management. Generally, boards are responsible for overseeing all aspects of operations, ensuring the authority works within legislation standards, policy and any other requirements that may be set by the Minister. Another key role is to engage with communities and hear their issues and concerns at a regional and community level. The act provides the Minister with the authority to remove a board of management for a number of different reasons and appoint a public administrator. When a public administrator is appointed, that public administrator actually has the authority of the board.

I thank the Minister for his answer. As I said in my Member's statement here today, a number of issues have been brought to me regarding the service we have in the Nahendeh riding. Can the Minister please explain the process that the residents of the NWT have available to them to address their concerns with the medical services?

Quality assurance is a critical component of the healthcare system to ensure that we have feedback to actually ensure that the system is meeting its needs. Every health and social services authority has a patient representative who can work to address these concerns quickly and efficiently at the regional level. Concerns can also be raised with the CEO, board chair, or Public Administrator in the case of the Deh Cho. The department also has as system navigator who can be contacted by phone or email and helps to resolve complaints and concerns. A formal written complaint can also be sent to the Complaint Officer appointed under each of the professions licensing legislation when the complaint is with a particular practitioner. A constituent may also choose to seek the support and intervention of the Member of the Legislative Assembly and/or come directly to the Minister when dealing with their concerns. The department has prepared specific binders which outline all of this information for each of the Members in the House specific to their individual ridings and regions. I'm hoping to have a sit-down with each of the Members to go through that binder, but bottom line is: We want to refer our clients to the quality assurance staff within the authority so that they can actually do internal reviews of the processes to make sure that we're learning from mistakes and that we are continuing the make a system that works and meets the needs of our residents.

I again thank the Minister for his answer. Can the Minister please explain how the hours or operations and process to get appointments were changed without consulting the residents in leadership in Fort Simpson?

The CEOs are always trying to balance off staff resources with community needs to deliver the best services possible to all the residents of the Northwest Territories at a community level. The walk-in process in Fort Simpson was not found to be effective. With low volumes of patients coming into the clinic in the morning and high volumes of patients showing up in late afternoon, this actually led to long wait times for patients, and then limited the amount of time with each patient, and mostly they were only able to address specific issues when an individual came in given the limited time. The new approach that was put in by the CEO is an effort to ensure that staff have adequate time to review charts and spend time with patients and actually provide them quality care. The change was made in response to a number of complaints from residents about the wait times and the walk-in appointments. The CEO and the public administrator are very happy to add this item to the agenda for the next public meeting they'll have in Fort Simpson to get more and additional information from the residents of Fort Simpson.

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I thank the Minister for his response. With all the challenges and the issues that I've been addressing with the Health and Social Services Minister in the system, including staffing, since being elected, I'd like to ask the Minister to commit to doing an external review of the health and social services system so we can build on what is working and what needs to be improved within the system.