Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for the record in terms of the early childhood development

initiative program, I just wanted to ask the Minister the status of this early childhood development initiative program in the communities or for this government.

One more comment, Madam Chairperson. It has to do with the quality of services with regard to the program delivery of health care services in the Sahtu. There is no blame to the government nor to the nurses; times are tough, the stress level is high and nurses today have to do a lot in our communities and we are trying to do as much as we can to support our nurses

and support the government in the services that we get in our community. Sometimes because the demands are so high for the nurses and sometimes when they come in on short-term notice and some things are happening in the community that they are unaware of or they don't pay attention because of other issues, and sometimes people snap at the nurses and sometimes they snap back. They get into an argument and then we get complaints as MLAs, and we try to look at both sides of the coin. I think a way we could look at this is to assist the nurses and assist the department by having communities take some initiative by possibly looking at a first response team. There are some people who would volunteer to help the nurses in terms of medevacs, accidents on the highway or in the community, and would help the nurse in terms of some of the logistics that the nurse may be called upon. There are a lot of nurses in our communities that are pretty good, I must say. Some of the nurses are really good in our communities and the people really appreciate them. But they are human beings like everybody else and they get stressed out, and they may have families or whatever. We need to support each other in this field, and we need to know that the government is going to help us do some creative approaches to help our nurses. I know my time is up, Madam Chair, but that's all I wanted to say.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What the Minister says is very encouraging for myself to know that there is some consideration being looked at for Nats' Ejee K'eh for family programming. In the Sahtu region we talk lots and I work with our families, so I hope it comes to reality that we have some family programs for the northern people here and we can use Nats' Ejee K'eh as a facility for such a purpose.

The other point I wanted to ask the Minister, Madam Chairperson, is the facility we have in Deline is abandoned. There is a facility there that's abandoned that we think could be used by the people of the Sahtu and maybe by the people in the Northwest Territories. A lot of people are recovering in hospital or in other institutions, and lot of them just want to come home to the Sahtu region to be in recovery and to have a place where they can get help and take care of themselves. Deline has such a facility that is just sitting there and we want to see if that could be used sometime in the future. I think the Minister was made aware of this in our tour of the Sahtu region. The members of Deline made a presentation to the Minister on that facility and it's there already, you don't have to build anything. It could be used for long-term recovery or things like that. The facility is already there, Madam Chairperson, so it's not adding any cost to the department. It would be a matter of possibly some reprofiling. I want to ask the Minister to see what would be his consideration to the Deline request when he was on the tour there. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chairperson. It is interesting that the Nats' Ejee K'eh in Hay River is at 25 percent occupancy and it is a facility that is worthwhile in the Northwest Territories, and the use of it, I think, could be used quite well in terms of the Sahtu region. I am talking about family treatment programs in light of the residential school experiences and how it impacted my region, and how a lot of the community members have talked about seeing a family treatment program in the Northwest Territories. If the Minister would consider Nats' Ejee K'eh as one point of where family programs could be introduced into that facility, I think it will go a long way in terms of helping our families deal with some issues that we are seeing now in our communities and reading them in the newspapers.

Family breakdown is one of the key components that need to be repaired in our communities. I am glad to hear the Minister say that maybe Nats' Ejee K'eh needs to be looked at in other ways to fill the occupancy rate in terms of how best we could use that facility. It is there, it is 25 percent occupied, and we need family programs, we need youth programs, we talk about elder abuse, we need programs for our elders. They are caught in some trying times here, from being on the land to coming right in to work. Things are happening today, and I think we need to take some time out and get back to it and see how well we can work with our communities right across the Northwest Territories. We need to look at these issues and take advantage of Nats' Ejee K'eh. At one time I was an employee there and it is a good facility. They have some good people working in Hay River, both on the reserve and in the town of Hay River. I think it is a good place that we can look at to start having some northern programs for our people. I would like to ask the Minister to comment on my comment. Thank you.

That's all for me, Madam Chairperson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The other issue I'll talk about is the amount of energy we have given to retention and recruitment of the nurses into our communities. Nurses used to stay in our communities for a long, long time; almost to the point where they became one of our community members. Today it seems like it's a revolving door; three months or six months and they're in and out. There is lots of money and lots of resources that go into retaining the nurses and recruiting them and keeping them in the community. Sometimes it's really hard on our old people, because they see a nurse for a short while then all of a sudden there's a new nurse and they have to explain their whole health history to the nurse, and it just goes on and on.

One of the things I know that we're looking at in our region is we have some people who worked in the community health field for a while, CHRs. We think the CHRs could give good mentorship programs in our communities. Some of the nurses that come into our communities need to get acquainted with the customs and the beliefs of the people and how the community works. So CHRs might be a good link between the people and the new nurses. The new nurse is under a lot of strain and maybe a lot of demand, and maybe doesn't quite understand the dynamics of the communities. It might take something differently, and they might interpret something totally out of context. The CHRs may be a good contact in terms of being mentors for new nurses coming into communities and working with the people. Right now we see that our nurses are kind of answering to the government, but really the nurses are there for the people, and CHRs might be a good contact between the nurses and the community. Making use of the CHRs in our communities might be something that could help us save some money in terms of dollars being poured into retention and recruitment of nurses. I think it's about the relationship in our community and our people. I wonder if the Minister would provide a brief comment to that idea, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just three questions in terms of delivery. In light of the government's fiscal constraint about delivering health services and social services programs into our small regions and small communities, in light of the heavy activity in the Sahtu region last winter and this winter in terms of oil and gas exploration, it has been brought up to me by one of our community members that the oil companies have paramedics. One of the members thought it would be a good idea if the medics could look at doing some training in our communities, and even assisting our communities in terms of helping out the nurses. But I'm not too sure how that would work, because it was an idea that one of the members of the community thought it would be good to have the medics come in, possibly do some small training with our people to help out with our nurses, and over the long term maybe some of our community members might want to be medics and may have an opportunity go into that field. I'm not sure how familiar the Minister is with this, or if this is a new thing. I would like to hear his comments in terms of what he thinks of the idea of having medics possibly work with our communities in terms of delivering health care. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The last issue I wanted to talk about was the tiny little community of Colville Lake and the status of their health centre and the services that they're getting from this department in terms of medical health services and the lack of training for health care workers. The more we need the Sahtu health board to service that community, because that community is surely not getting the types of services that any other communities are down the Mackenzie Valley. It seems like it's forgotten in some sense. The Minister and I went up there for a tour and we heard a lot from the elders. We heard about the amount of health issues that are happening in Colville Lake and the type of equipment the people have. They're talking medieval tools for health care services, second-hand, hand-me-down medical equipment up there. A small community like that deserves a little more attention. I hope that with the Minister's comment on the creation of the Sahtu health board that we could help our communities like Colville Lake, and other communities in the Mackenzie Valley that are maybe facing the same kinds of issues. I know it's tough on the Department of Health and Social Services. I'm going to state that I will give whatever support that I can in terms of a voice or a letter to Health Canada to pay up their dues. I guess it's just the same old song, and getting the federal government to own up to what they have. Our government has gone to some strength to help our people, but it's the federal government that is not owning up to the people of the Northwest Territories. We deserve better health care than what they proclaim what they have done for us, especially up in the small communities that are isolated and away from the road system and rely on planes. Again, I support the Minister in terms of however we can get that $30 million or more, I'm all for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I kind of lost my train of thought now because of this.

---Laughter

I want to thank the Minister for his comments and thank this government for entering into the aspirations of the Sahtu people in terms of creation of the Sahtu health board. It's something that has been long outstanding. Previous governments have dealt with it, and now we're starting to see some fruition of the people's wishes in the Sahtu region.

One of the things that I wanted to touch upon is the telehealth. We think that would save a lot of money for the Sahtu people. I know there is a telehealth program in Deline, but I'm not too sure the status of that. I've been hearing that the community of Deline hasn't used the telehealth very much or hasn't been trained in that operation. I wonder if the Minister could help me out there in terms of the status of the telehealth program in Deline. Are people using it? Am I hearing incorrectly? Are they being trained in Deline to use telehealth? I think that's a really good idea, and I think that should be supported more down the Mackenzie River in the other communities. That could save a lot of money in terms of medevacs, so I just wanted to ask the Minister that question, Mr. Chair. Thank you.