EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I would have to get the details from the member in terms of who the individuals were, and what problems were encountered before I can commit to any of that. So if the member can provide to me the names of those individuals that experienced travel problems, I will look into it and decide from there.
Question 131 – 2(3): Wait Time Benchmarks (Peterson)
On December 15, 2005, the provinces and territories across Canada announced common goals for the provision of health services. They did this by establishing benchmarks for wait times for services such as cancer screening treatments, knee replacements, cataract removal surgery, and others.
My question for the minister is: can the minister clarify, for the House and for the public at large, how these wait time benchmarks will affect service delivery for Nunavut residents?
I thank the member for his question. The wait times that are established were established through the FMM process in the categories. Right now, the majority of those services identified as areas to focus in establishing the benchmarks, the majority of those services are offered out-of-territory for Nunavummiut patients, as an example, cancer treatments.
Those treatments are offered in Ontario and so the initiatives of Ontario to minimize the wait time would be our wait time.
I think to explain, we have our own issues of areas where we want to concentrate on identifying and reducing wait times.
Those particular areas that were identified at the national meetings, those wait times are in each jurisdiction; Ontario, Manitoba, or Edmonton. The majority of those services are provided by those health hospital services.
I recently had a conversation with one of my constituents who waited 13 months for surgery and the surgery took one hour. For those 13 months she had to give up her job. She had a lot of discomfort and some other issues.
I am sure that is something that we don’t want to see happen too often up in Nunavut.
My question for the minister is: what assurances can the minister provide to Nunavut residents that they will not have to wait any longer to receive health services than the wait times established on December 15, 2005?
The issue on wait times is a bit different in Nunavut than in most provinces and in the territories.
The Nunavut health system does not directly provide the services that were identified at the FMM, so the effort of each of the jurisdictions to reducing the wait times in those five categories; we support those initiatives of those provinces.
The result of those efforts by each province will benefit Nunavummiut in receiving those services identified as priority areas at the FMM.
So their efforts will continue to support and in the end those would then essentially improve the wait times for Nunavummiut.
Can the minister explain what plans are in place to improve the ability of Nunavut’s health service providers to meet the established wait times established on December 15, 2005?
I think I need to clarify again, the five areas that were identified as priorities for wait times; those services are not provided in Nunavut today.
So the efforts of the jurisdictions that provide the services, and the jurisdictions where we use their services to provide that service, their efforts we continue to support. Each jurisdiction has identified their benchmarks in trying to address the wait times, so their efforts are our efforts in trying to minimize the wait time.
In Nunavut, we are looking at other areas that impact our own citizens in different areas, because our wait times could be different from other jurisdictions, but those areas identified in December, services are provided out-of-territory, as it is right now; Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.
So their efforts are ours.
Can the minister inform the House; how many Nunavut residents are currently waiting for hip or knee replacement?
I can provide that information to the member. I don’t have that information here with me. I will commit to providing it to the member.
Question 132 – 2(3): Status of the Nursing Recruitment Program (Netser)
I will not be directing my questions to the minister responsible for snakes today, but...
I would like to follow up on an issue raised yesterday by my colleague from Rankin Inlet North.
Can the minister update this House on the current status of the Nursing Recruitment Program?
Just a week ago, the third intake of the international nurses, the orientation started.
Before December, a number of other orientations were taking place and international nurses were also preparing to write their exams for February 10. Those individuals have written their exams. We are waiting for the results to come back from the Registered Nurses Association on the outcome of those.
The other efforts that are involved, that we’re undertaking in the Department of Health, is to support the Nursing Program that’s currently being offered through Nunavut Arctic College. As it is right now, I believe there are about 26 Nunavummiut that are participating in that program.
So not only in the area of recruitment are we trying to address the shortage of nurses, but also through training.
We understand that the government spent a significant amount of money on these recruitments.
Can the minister update the House on what will happen if there are failures to pass the second attempt?
The national exam that is written by any person that graduates from a nursing program is administered through the Registered Nurses Association.
The guidelines that they have are that an individual who writes that exam can write the exam up to three times.
In the case with our own staff, whether it be international nurses or our graduates of the Nunavut Arctic College, that same policy applies to those individuals.
In the case of our recruitment efforts with the international nurses, if the individual does not pass their third exam, the agency that we hired to assist us with the international recruitment efforts will then find a person, at their cost, to replace the person that was not able to succeed in writing their third RN exam.
Interesting… Originally, 100 nurses were to be hired through the department’s Nursing Recruitment Strategy.
When does the minister expect to meet this goal?
In December, I updated the House that we have made approximately 50 offers.
The process is to try and get those individuals into the positions; it takes a bit of time because we have to then go through the immigration process and so on.
We are working, right now, to, as we do our recruitments of these individuals; we are also evaluating how well we are doing. I have also had further discussions with my staff on trying to also include more efforts in recruiting within Canada.
There is a national shortage of nurses at this point in time.
I believe last year, in Canada, only 4,000 nurses graduated in the entire country.
So there is a demand placed and there is a need for nurses.
We are looking at our options to recruit internationally as well as within Canada, but at this point in time, the efforts will be continued to fill the vacancies that we have and we will have a better idea, in terms of the timeline, of when we will be able to fill all of the vacancies within the year.
Mr. Netser: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question is: those nurses that have failed the entrance exams; are they in smaller communities such as the places that are non-decentralized?
I think I need to clarify. Any nurse that graduates from any nursing program to work in Canada has to write a Registered Nurse Association exam and that’s not an entrance exam.
In order to practice nursing in Canada, every nurse has to write this exam, whether you are a Canadian or an immigrant to the country and Nunavut Arctic College students in Iqaluit will be writing the same exam.
So it’s a Registered Nurse Association exam and we are required by law to have all of our employees that are nurses to pass that exam before they can work.
The individual nurses that we have hired are placed where there are vacancies and it’s in a number of communities; it could be in non-decentralized communities and in centres like Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, or Cambridge Bay.
So it’s a combination of both.
Question 133 – 2(3): Baffin Regional Hospital Accreditation Report (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker, as we all know, just over a month ago, the minister announced some major changes at the Baffin Regional Hospital.
This announcement came after the hospital lost its accreditation status on December 31, 2005.
It’s the first time in 16 years that it has not passed the accreditation evaluation.
Mr. Speaker, in the press release, it indicated that there were four evaluation exercises. The first being the review of the outpatient clinic services, and the other one was an operational review, a risk management review, and a regional accreditation exercise.
Can the minister indicate when their department received the report findings for each of those reports?
The report for the accreditation of the hospital, I received that report December 14, back when I was in Gjoa Haven.
The other reports were initiated over the summer months and were all completed around the same time.
Is the minister indicating that they first became aware of the problems at the Baffin Regional Hospital in December?
I’d like to ask the minister then if she would be willing to commit to tabling copies of each of those four reports and the results for the accreditation evaluation here in the Legislative Assembly, and, if she were not willing to do that, why she wouldn’t be.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Mr. Speaker, the Accreditation Report was completed on December 14, and I can table...the document itself is quite lengthy.
I’m prepared to share that information. I have to get the information all translated and in the interim I can provide a summary of that report to the members.
In the media release, or press release that was issued by the department, it was indicated that these reviews at the hospital were identified, starting in August 2004.
Is the minister saying that they just received the results of the August 2004 report in December?
I would assume that as issues arose through the evaluation exercise they would have been conveyed to the departmental officials.
So I guess I’d like to ask the minister if she can tell the members of this House when the plan was developed to address some of those issues that were identified even as early as August 2004, or did they wait until just this past December to develop an action plan to try and address those issues, or was that something they started working on way back in 2004?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of the Accreditation Report, the last accreditation review took place in 2002, and there were a number of recommendations that came out of that report.
The next time the record accreditation was due was this year. What happened in 2004, I cannot speak to.
I’ve been in this portfolio since June.
I found out about the Accreditation Report on December 14, at which time I then discussed the issues with my staff, and at that time, we developed a plan to move forward in addressing discrepancies that were identified in the Accreditation Report, which included a number of recommendations, particularly around the staffing shortage to manage the facility as a hospital here.
Also in that press release last month, there was an indication that the department had approved $2.3 million in new funding to address some of those discrepancies that were identified in the review.
Can the minister update this House on what changes have been implemented since that announcement with the $2.3 million for new funding for the Baffin Regional Hospital?
Immediately after I became aware of the situation of the Baffin Regional Hospital accreditation recommendations and concerns, the whole process to initiate the areas of where the discrepancies may be in terms of funding was initiated.
The $2.3 million will be in this coming budget, but from the fiscal year from January to March 31, an additional $300,000 was identified. That would be geared towards filling the immediate staffing requirements.
Some of the changes that have taken place since I became involved with reviewing the recommendations of that file; I had a meeting with the senior management staff of the hospital.
That involved approximately 11 senior staff to start addressing the items that were identified in the Accreditation Report; not only that but we also had meetings with finance officials to move forward with incremental funding of $2.3 million, which was approved and announced by the Finance Minister to support the shortage of funding for the hospital’s needs.
Also since that time, the staff has been working hard to fill the positions.
Some of those positions have been filled on a casual basis. More efforts are in place to start advertising for the positions.
Also since that time, I had a meeting with the regular members to discuss the recommendations from the Accreditation Report to ensure that they were able to ask questions of my staff and chief of staff back in, I believe it was January.
Those are the steps that have been taken. At the same time, there is a senior management working group at the hospital that meets weekly to address the recommendation outlined in the Accreditation Report. We are looking to address recommendations in 18 months, at which time we will be inviting the agency to come back and evaluate the hospital.
It is a voluntary process and I keep saying that because we want to participate in an accreditation review in order to measure our standards of service to other jurisdictions. Once we have given ourselves 18 months, we will be again asking for that review, again have the group provide the evaluation for us. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Question 134 – 2(3): Medical Transportation Office in Pangnirtung (Arreak)
The minister stated earlier that the patient transportation officer is now based in Pangnirtung. Is that going to be the case from now on?
Back in 1999 when the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services was decentralized to Pangnirtung, that function was not part of that.
It was a function that was carried out by the hospital.
We recently made the changes to have that function carried out in the Baffin Health and Social Services Operations, which is located in Pangnirtung. So that is where that will be delivered.
The patients in the Baffin region usually go down to Iqaluit to be treated for medical purposes.
There’s a boarding home here in Iqaluit.
I’ve been told that there are some patients who aren’t going home on the day that they’re supposed to because their airline tickets aren’t ready.
And then the next day they’re not able to go home again because nothing is ready. I think that this is going to be an ongoing problem if there is no transportation officer here in Iqaluit.
It’s going to be an increase to the costs.
Is it possible to get the transportation officer position back to Iqaluit?
The change in providing the travel arrangements was recently moved from Iqaluit to Pangnirtung.
There are some hiccups that we’re trying to address in providing that change.
And, like anything, when there is a change, there is some confusion, and we are trying to address that through communicating with the boarding homes and so on.
The change is to allow for the hospital here to focus on providing the service for medical arrangements between Iqaluit and Ottawa, and the Pangnirtung regional office to be providing the travel arrangements for any other community requiring travel to Iqaluit.
So, as it is right now, we plan to stick with the plan and to try to address the hiccups that we’re experiencing in communicating a bit of that confusion.
So, through any change, there are some hiccups, and we are trying to address those by communicating those changes to the service providers.
The minister stated that there are a few hiccups, but if this is an ongoing hiccup...we fixed the problem when there was no problem at all.
I think that we’re going to have hiccups if there is no repatriation of the position back to Iqaluit.
The change is also in support of decentralization of operations to Pangnirtung.
At the same time, I just responded to the Member Tootoo’s question related to accreditation of the hospital.
We are reviewing how and what services the hospital provides for services.
This is one of the areas that would allow the staff of the Baffin Hospital to focus on travel arrangements of patients from the hospital in Iqaluit to Ottawa, and the change will also allow the regional office that provides services to all the communities throughout the Baffin to make the travel arrangements for those individuals’ travel to Iqaluit.
And again, this is to try and improve the services that we’re providing to the hospital, and this change will allow the Baffin Hospital to focus on providing the services of their patients from Iqaluit to Ottawa.
So the end result for that would be, again, better service to individuals traveling out of the Baffin Hospital to Ottawa.
I want a response to my question.
How long is this review going to be?
The minister responded totally differently.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Mr. Speaker, the process will continue to evaluate as the changes are made. We’ll continue to try and communicate that and monitor the complaints that are coming through.
There have been some complaints raised, and there have been some errors in administration of travel. We recognize that, and the staff have been directed to address those as those issues are being raised by our patients.
But at the end of the day, I think one has to be very clear why we are making the change to Pangnirtung. And again, it’s to allow the staff at the Baffin hospital to focus on providing the services for the patients at the hospital and to allow for the Regional Department of Health and Social Services Pangnirtung Office to provide that service to the communities’ health centres for patient travel.
Question 135 – 2(3): Community Hall in Sanikiluaq (Kattuk)
I’m very proud to have heard the budget address from the Minister of Finance.
It seems like I am quite frustrated because not once was my constituency mentioned in the 2006-07 Budget Address. It seems like my constituency doesn’t even exist. So I’m quite frustrated about that.
My question is to the Minister for Finance, as I have stated earlier on that my community constituency; the community hall is too small and I know that he has seen our community hall. I would like to ask the minister: when was the last time you investigated the community hall in Sanikiluaq to make sure there’s enough capacity for the whole community?
Thank you for asking those questions, too.
In regard to the community hall, the majority of communities in Nunavut are growing in population and the community halls are filled to capacity and some community halls are deteriorating due to age.
In regard to your question, I will review it first to see whether it’s in the capital plans, then I will be getting back to you with a response of whether your facility is included in the capital plans.
My question was: when are we going to get our new community hall?
According to my understanding, he is asking whether there’s going to be an expansion in the community hall, but I would like to review the capital plans first before I respond to him.
She already responded to the question. We just wanted to find out when there is a plan for expansion of our community hall, but since she already responded to the question that I was going to pose, I will be expecting her to review the capital estimates. We know when there’s an expansion on our community hall because we are quite concerned now.
We have been saying that ever since Nunavut was created, we would like to establish good athletes. Sanikiluaq has never participated in the Arctic Winter Games. That’s part of my frustration because our community is viewed as a non-existent community.
I don’t want to say that but the government is, I find the government is neglecting my community and I get quite frustrated about that.
Question 136 – 2(3): Firearms Certificate Application Forms (Barnabas)
My Member’s Statement, I spoke to the Firearms Acquisition Certificate, so I would like to pose my question to the Premier in regard to that.
We are facing many difficulties with this. We don’t have photographers, the photographers have to be certified, our original documents have to be sent out to apply for a Firearms Acquisition Certificate and they have to pay for it.
Also, individuals who are trying to apply for Firearms Acquisition Certificate are unilingual Inuktitut speaking people and all the application forms are only in English.
So I know that we need services. I know that there’s an assistance service provided for Firearms Acquisition Certificates in Iqaluit, but how are you going to provide support to the communities and to the other communities in Nunavut that need assistance?
Are you going to provide assistance to the hunters because they can no longer afford to purchase ammunition since they don’t have a Firearms Acquisition Certificate?
Speaker (interpretation): Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, Mr. Okalik.
Perhaps remove the FAC (gun registry) and that way we can all work together. The Conservative Government stated during the campaign that they would like to remove this FAC Program.
I had told them to go ahead and remove it.
It’s evident now that these individuals had to send their applications out, they weren’t allow to photocopy their identification because they had to send out their original identification cards and one of the individuals that had applied did not receive the original documents back.
How are you going to deal with that individual? Can the minister ask the federal government to make sure that individual receives his original identification cards back?
Yes, I am quite concerned about that. I would like you to inform me in detail about your concerns so we can try and provide support and assistance to them.
At 5:30 this afternoon, the Federal Minister of Justice and I will be talking to each other.
So I will be asking him to remove that Act for firearms because it has had a negative impact on us and I will ask him to remove it.
Question 137 – 2(3): Update on Chesterfield Inlet Safe Harbour (Netser)
Mr. Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to direct my question to the Minister responsible for Transportation. (interpretation ends) Mr. Speaker, the safe harbours… (interpretation) the community of Chesterfield Inlet has been requesting a safe harbour, so I would like to ask for an update.
Speaker (interpretation): Minister responsible for Transportation, Mr. Akesuk.
To date, we have been working closely with the community of Chesterfield Inlet. We have to find additional funds.
So that’s what we are working on currently.
Those seven communities had applied; are they going to be given the request, or how many communities will be receiving safe harbours?
There are eight communities that are included in the list.
Perhaps since the new government was elected, I’m sure that we have to work closely with the appropriate minister and discuss these matters and brief them on the issues that we have already dealt with.
We will continue to work to make sure that we get our request, even though we have a new government.
We have a newly elected federal government.
So has the minister followed up on this issue with them yet?
We can’t hear you, Mr. Akesuk.
I know that my clock is ticking and I am watching it.
I did not go to the federal government and meet with them, so I will try and meet with them after our session is over to meet with my appropriate colleagues at the federal level.
These are very important issues; especially in the communities they are requesting good, safe harbours.
Sometimes they lose their boats and we would like to hear about this as soon as possible.
As the minister had stated that he’d go down to see his federal counterparts after the session, is he going down after the session today?
If they want to see me tomorrow, I’ll probably go down but I have to attend the session and I’ll wait until the session is completely adjourned.
Question 138 – 2(3): Detail of Budget Address Kept Confidential (Tootoo)