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Oral
Questions
April 7, 2009
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| In the House | Question
Period
MS
JONES:
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it was
revealed yesterday that Eastern Health had an update on
the additional number of patients affected by faulty
breast cancer testing since March 26 of this year; yet,
they did not release the information until April 3. The
minister says that he was told on April 1, and he
introduced it to Cabinet the next day.
I ask the minister: Why
did Eastern Health wait so long to bring the information
to your attention, and why did it have to go through
Cabinet before direction was given to disclose it?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: As
a minister, any time there is a significant event in my
department, or any minister’s department, that affects
the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, it is a natural
process to update my Cabinet colleagues.
On Wednesday afternoon, I
had a meeting with the Centre for Health Information and
they gave me an update as to the progress they had made
on doing that database search that we had talked about
earlier. That was late last Wednesday afternoon. As of
normal course, we had a Cabinet meeting on Thursday
morning and I shared with my colleagues. Then, following
Cabinet, I had a discussion with Eastern Health, and
officials of my department had a discussion with Eastern
Health, about moving forward and providing a full public
disclosure of the information that they had at that
particular point.
We knew it was
information that was being updated over a period of
time, and the new updates would come. We felt it was
important to provide an update on what information was
known at that point, and, as new information becomes
available, then that too will be made available in the
public way.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
The Cameron Inquiry
certainly highlighted the importance of releasing
information in a timely manner, and communicating it
effectively to the public. I guess our concern was the
fact that they had this information for a week or more
before they actually disclosed it in any way, even to
the patients, who, as we know, were only contacted
within hours of the information being released publicly.
The
decision to vet this through Cabinet, is this a new
process that is now being developed within government,
that all disclosure at Eastern Health around critical
information must first be approved by Cabinet before it
is launched to the public?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: There
is no vetting necessary through Cabinet. If there is an
issue that needs to be disclosed in the public domain,
it doesn’t need to be vetted through Cabinet.
What I was explaining to
the member opposite a second ago was that on late
Wednesday afternoon I had a full briefing from the
Centre for Health information. The next day, as a normal
process, we were having a Cabinet meeting, so that was
my next opportunity to be with my colleagues. So, I
shared the information with them that I had learned the
evening before, and was now providing an update. It was
not a vetting process. It wasn’t an approval process.
It was a natural part of my responsibility as a
minister, as with other ministers, to share with Cabinet
issues that are of significant public importance as part
of an update that we would provide to our colleagues. I
say, that was the issue, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, after the release of the Cameron report, the
minister himself touted that there had been improvements
made within the system. In fact, he said many of the
recommendations have already been acted upon. I find it
really hard to trust those statements, when we have
evidence like we did in Colleen Whitehorne’s case
where a lady waited up to seven months to get her
diagnosis because it was lost in a paper trail in the
system, and looking at what happened on Friday with the
disclosure of information.
I ask the minister: In
light of those recent events, where is the evidence that
communications and protocols are being put in place and
being followed within Eastern Health?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN:
If I could, Mr. Speaker, I will provide an update to the
member opposite and to the House.
Since Friday, this past
weekend, the board chair of Eastern Health and myself
have had numerous discussions around this issue and what
happened on Friday, and I shared my comments in this
House yesterday in terms of my feelings with respect to
that issue on Friday.
What has now taken place
is that we have now arranged a meeting for early next
week with the senior officials from Eastern Health and
officials from my department to start a process to map
out very clearly, so there is nothing ambiguous about a
process of disclosure in the future and how that might
work, how the patient disclosure differentiates from a
public disclosure and when those events should occur.
There is a U.S. firm, an institute for health care
communication has been engaged to come in and do some
work with Eastern Health, and the other three
authorities, I say, Mr. Speaker, on disclosure of
adverse health events and the education around how you
go about doing that and training for the people who will
be doing that.
So those things will be
starting, I say, Mr. Speaker. Next week, as I have said
a moment ago, officials in my department, together with
myself, I personally will be engaged in this process to
start mapping out very clearly how Eastern Health and
the other four authorities will deal with public
disclosure in the future. This education for the people
who will be involved in that disclosure will be carried
out by this institute for health care communication, a
U.S.-based non-profit organization.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, I just cannot believe what I am hearing. The
minister is in the House of Assembly today telling me
that only since Friday has he had discussions with the
chair of the board around what kind of information
sessions, what process of disclosure that will be used
in Eastern Health to divulge information around adverse
health effects.
Minister, you fired the
CEO of Eastern Health well over a year-and-a-half ago
because of the way things were being handled inside of
that board. Why haven’t these
things been dealt with in advance of what happened on
Friday?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: You
should not be surprised, Mr. Speaker. What I have said
in this House before is that many of those
recommendations of the Cameron report and the adverse
health events have been implemented.
My understanding was,
from the information that I was getting from the health
authorities, is that they were proceeding along those
lines. Obviously, what we witnessed on Friday was an
event that I am not prepared to accept ever again and I
am personally becoming involved in this issue and early
next week to deal personally with the officials of
Eastern Health; be engaged in a process with Eastern
Health officials and officials of my department to map
this out in a very clear and unambiguous way so that we
do not end up with a recurrence of last Friday. That is
why we are bringing in some outside resources to provide
the necessary education to those individuals who will be
dealing with the disclosure thing.
Basically, Mr. Speaker,
we have said clearly in this House and as the government
we are committed to ensure that there is clear and open
communication and good patient and public disclosure of
adverse health events in the system.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, I just find it really hard to accept because
this is a minister who was led by Eastern Health before,
who, in fact, disclosed false information to this House
of Assembly that was provided to you by this corporation
and went unchecked. Again, you are telling me today you
thought they were putting a process in place, but you
failed to check to see if that process was there or if
it was working.
Minister,
do you consider that you are doing your job
appropriately?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, as a minister, and as a department, we will
make sure that processes are in place, but what I cannot
– I have no control over, is when individuals, on an
individual incident, make a decision. That is a personal
judgement call on an individual’s part; that I have no
control over. The people who made that decision to
disclose that information in that fashion and not be
available for consultation and discussion and not
respond to questions, I have no control of that
person’s decision that afternoon.
What I want to make sure,
Mr. Speaker, that is why I am using the word
unequivocal, next week when we map out a process it will
be absolutely and abundantly clear, no one will have to
make a discretionary call from here on in because it
will be clearly mapped out, and no one will have the
ability to make that judgement call to do or not to do
because it will be mapped out for them very clear.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Those
kinds of processes I do have some control over, but
individual judgements, when people make the wrong
decisions, I cannot be in their heads. I cannot direct
them and guide them on every single decision that they
make.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Every time that there are
issues around this file raised in the public the
government has a tendency to push it off on Eastern
Health, on the people that work within Eastern Health.
Mr. Speaker, it is the obligation of government to
ensure that these processes are working.
I ask, minister: Why
are you not following up? We have had a public inquiry;
we have had 470 pages of recommendations and
documentation on this issue alone. Why are you and your
department not practicing proper follow up on this
issue?
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, what I find amazing is the member opposite
stands in this House and asks questions about what
government does or does not do. She always references
the Cameron inquiry. Let me remind the member opposite
that the issues around Cameron were issues dealing with
a lab service that occurred between 1997 and 2005. In
1997-2003, guess who was in charge? The members opposite
were in government at that time, and the member who is
standing on her feet today was a part of the Department
of Health and Community Services at that time. My
question can easily be: Why did you not take some
action?
Mr. Speaker, the real
answer to that question is that there is an issue of
reasonableness here. What is the role of the government,
what is the role of the health authority, and what
should they do?
If you look at Hansard,
Mr. Speaker – this is ironic, if you read from Hansard,
because Hansard records what people say in this House.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask the hon. minister
to conclude his response.
MR. WISEMAN: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
The member opposite, if
you look at November 1999, if you look at Hansard, it
was the person who is now providing advice to her on
health issues who was the minister at that time, who
said, she cannot babysit health authorities. It is their
role to manage the system, and they take their direction
from the –
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, the minister says he cannot control the
individual judgement of workers within Eastern Health.
Mr. Speaker, I would like
to ask the minister: Have you
identified who made the judgements on Friday, and has
the shot yet been fired across their bow, as the Premier
indicated yesterday?
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, I need to understand what goes wrong so we can
find a remedy. What I shared with you a moment ago are
steps that we are taking immediately to provide a remedy
so that in future we do not leave it to individual
discretion and judgement calls by individuals, or groups
of individuals, to make a decision not to do, or to do
something that we clearly, clearly, have said as a
government it is our desire, our wish, our clear
direction, to make sure that there is full patient and
public disclosure in a timely fashion.
That direction has been
clear, and what I want to make sure is, not so much the
blame issue but clearly understanding what went wrong.
What went wrong here is that individuals made poor
decisions, individuals made the poor judgement call and
did something that was totally inappropriate on Friday
afternoon.
I am saying, Mr. Speaker,
we are going to put in place a process to eliminate that
discretionary decision making by people who are put in
that position, so it does not happen again.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I have to chuckle,
because you talk about the blame issue. The direct quote
from the Premier yesterday, said "They should be
shot over there." That was the quote, if you want
to get into blame, and where to blame, and who is
placing blame here.
I ask the Premier today: Are
you prepared to start with this tough discipline and
those tough statements right inside your own government,
and in your own department, as opposed to just Eastern
Health?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, this is a significant issue. Any time we have
problems in our health system, any time we have issues
in our system that affect people’s lives, and the
quality of their lives or the outcomes of the treatment
that they get, is a significant issue. For the member
opposite to stand in this House and try to play some
cheap political games with this process – and this is
not the first time this has happened around this whole
issue. This is not the whole issue.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, I ask the member opposite –
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask members for their
co-operation.
The Chair has recognized
the hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
MR. WISEMAN: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is an
important issue. It is important to the people of
Newfoundland and Labrador, and I ask the member opposite
not to try to play cheap political games with her cute
questions in this issue. We are trying to solve a
problem. We are trying to get to the root of the issue
here, and to make sure that the people of Newfoundland
and Labrador have the kind of health service they
deserve and require, and they get the protection that
they need from the system and the people who provide
those services, I say, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
The only thing cheap
about this issue, Minister, is your lack of follow-up in
ensuring that the protocols are in place and the system
is being run.
If you want to talk about
quality of health care in people’s lives, let’s talk
about the people who are impacted by HIV and AIDS in
this Province, who have learned today that the only
nurse practitioner left working in that clinic has just
resigned her position.
I ask you, Minister: Where
are these patients supposed to turn to today?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Mr.
Speaker, I was aware that the nurse that you are
referring to has been off on an extended sick leave. My
understanding, and the most recent information I had,
was that she was going to be returning some time around
the middle of April.
If the member opposite
has some information about her recent resignation, then
I will commit to investigate in terms of that particular
resignation and what plans are in place, actually, to
provide a replacement for her, but the most current
information I had was that the individual was going to
be on a sick leave and returning around the middle of
April, I say, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I was just notified prior
to coming to the House of Assembly that the individual
had resigned. We know that this individual had been off
on leave for an extended period of time, and in the
absence of no infectious control doctor in the Province,
this nurse has gone into that clinic and filled
prescriptions for people who are suffering from HIV and
AIDS in the Province. So today,
Mr. Speaker, they are wondering what will be the
alternative for them and where do they turn to now to
get those prescriptions and to get the treatment they
need?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: I
understood that Eastern Health had made arrangements as
an alternate plan while that individual was on sick
leave and pending to come back around the middle of
April. I will undertake to find out what the new plan
will be, now that the member opposite has become aware
that the resignation was tendered this morning.
What is interesting, Mr.
Speaker, I made a comment earlier about her predecessor
who made comments in this House. It was around a
staffing issue that the member opposite made that
comment about the ministers not knowing, necessarily,
the staffing plans for each health authority. That is
not something that I would ordinarily know, but in terms
of the programs and services that Eastern Health provide
I am certain that they will make a commitment to provide
some kind of continuity.
One of the things I want
to point out in respect to the HIV/AIDS clinic is that
there has been a mistaken notion that there are no
services available to those patients at all. That is not
true. That service is being covered off by a number of
internal medicine specialists supported by members of
the clinic, including the nurse in question. I say, Mr.
Speaker -
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Leader of
the Opposition.
MS JONES: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Just for the minister’s
clarification, I had an e-mail notification before I
came to the House. If you did not get it in your
department, I would be happy to just send it to you.
Mr. Speaker, my questions
are for the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural
Development. Yesterday, I raised in the House of
Assembly the case of former Abitibi employees who are
caught between Nalcor and AbitibiBowater right now. They
do not know who is going to provide their severance, or
who is going to provide their holiday pay, and
government has been able to shed very little light on
the situation. These people are looking for a
commitment.
I ask the minister today:
You talked about an
investigation. What is being done as part of this
investigation, and what is the resolution that
government is prepared to provide?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural
Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SKINNER: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, in response
to the Leader of the Opposition, I will say to her today
that there have been extensive consultations with both
unions representing the workers affected: the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the
Communications, Energy & Paperworkers Union. In
those consultations that we had, in those discussions
that we had with them prior to the members of their
unions receiving their bumping notices, they understood
that they would be bumped out of their jobs by more
senior employees of AbitibiBowater. They were issued
their bumping notices by AbitibiBowater and it is our
position, Nalcor’s position, and the position of the
union that represents these members, that it is
AbitibiBowater that owes them the benefits that are due
to them.
There is a process in
place for the contractual arrangements for a grievance
to be initiated. That grievance procedure has been
initiated and an arbitrator will be put in place to
judge that.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, I cannot believe this.
Your government went in
and expropriated the power generation assets of Abitibi.
When you expropriated those assets you must have looked
at what liabilities that you were expropriating as well,
one of those liabilities being the severance of these
twenty-two employees that are impacted.
So, I ask you today,
minister: Why did you not
negotiate under the expropriation of this asset, a
contract that would provide for the protection of
benefits for these workers that are impacted?
MR. SPEAKER: Order
please!
The hon. the Minister of
Innovation, Trade and Rural Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SKINNER: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there was no
need to negotiate any severance benefits to be paid by
Nalcor by the provincial government because during the
discussions that were held with the union it was very
obvious that the obligation related to AbitibiBowater.
That obligation is in concurrence with the union, it
rests with AbitibiBowater. They have made a heartless
decision, in my opinion, to indicate to these employees
that they will not be following through on their
obligations. We have processes in place to deal with
that. We will follow through in the process and the
arbitrator will make their determination.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Mr.
Speaker, every time you ask this government a question
in which they should be owning up to the responsibility
they want to pass the buck. Today they want to pass the
buck to Abitibi or to the union on these twenty-two
workers that could lose their severance pay.
I say to you minister: What
are you going to do after the fact? Because,
obviously, you did not do it in your haste to move in
and expropriate the assets, called the big press
conferences, take over the ownership, you failed to
provide for the workers.
I ask you: What
is government and Nalcor going to do to ensure that
these workers get the benefits that are owed them,
because the company says it is not on, they now work for
you?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural
Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SKINNER: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, there is no
need for the Opposition Leader to yell at me. I can hear
her quite normally, and I will be happy to respond to
her without her yelling at me.
Mr. Speaker, in the
negotiations that we had with AbitibiBowater, as I have
already indicated, we did engage with negotiations with
the unions representing these employees. The concerns of
the employees were our concerns; they were the concerns
of their union leadership. In the negotiations that we
had it was quite rightly felt that the obligations
related to AbitibiBowater. Our obligations, as Nalcor,
were to ensure that we had staff in place to operate the
hydroelectric facility. We did that in consultation with
the unions. We have appropriate staff in place. We
actually have more staff in place under Nalcor than they
did at AbitibiBowater. We have increased the amount of
employment out there in the hydroelectric facility.
Mr. Speaker, the union,
as I said, have been side by side with us on this and
they now have started the process to right this wrong.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Leader of the Opposition.
MS JONES: Minister,
I apologize for raising my voice, but I cannot talk
gently and rise above the yahoos in the backbenches over
there, because they have been bawling and screaming
since I have been on my feet, Mr. Speaker.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh,
oh!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
MS JONES: Anyway,
let me just say this to the minister. Right now, as you
know, because of the bumping rights within the union
there are five of these workers who thought they would
have gotten a job with Nalcor when the asset was
expropriated, who did not. They, today, have no job;
they cannot file even for EI benefits because neither
Abitibi nor Nalcor will issue them a layoff from
employment.
I ask you minister: How
are you going to deal with that issue? Does Nalcor have
an obligation, even though they were bumped through the
union, to issue a layoff slip to those workers so they
can at least have some income?
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Minister of
Innovation, Trade and Rural Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SKINNER: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, a couple of
points for clarification. Point number one, workers do
not need a Record of Employment to apply for EI
benefits. The workers can go to any Service Canada site,
it is a federal site, and EI obviously is a federal
program. They can go to any of those sites and they can
apply for EI benefits without a Record of Employment,
point number one.
Point number two, Mr.
Speaker, the workers were bumped through a collective
agreement process, a duly agreed to process. Those
workers, when the expropriation occurred, were working
in the hydroelectric facility. The day that we took
ownership of it, on March 29 of this year, there were a
number of months where people exercised their obligation
to bump. So those workers knew, because there were
consultations had with them, that they were going to be
bumped out of their job. The only thing that was not
known here was the heartlessness of AbitibiBowater to
indicate to these people that they would not live up to
responsibilities.
For the Leader of the
Opposition to try and put that responsibility on Nalcor
or the government is absolutely ridiculous!
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The hon. the Opposition
House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
My questions are for the
Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development as
well.
Minister, the Province
sunk $15 million into a fibre optic deal four years ago.
The Request for Proposals were called on this $52
million project in 2007, and they closed on April of
2008, yet there has been no award, I understand, of the
contract to date.
I am
wondering if you could give us an update as to why this
delay?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural
Development.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SKINNER: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
I certainly am happy to
provide an update to the House Leader for the
Opposition.
Mr. Speaker, what we
refer to as the Government Broadband Initiative is the
Request for Proposals that the hon. member is referring
to. His timeline is correct. That request went out just
over a year ago now, and there has been, I guess you
could call it, a delay. I would prefer to say that there
has been extensive work done on the amount of
information that we have in relation to that Request for
Proposals. It is a very large project. It involves many,
many dollars. I won’t say how many, but many, many
dollars. It is probably one of the biggest projects that
this Province has undertaken, and there was a lot of
work that had to be done to make sure that we did the
proper due diligence to understand all of the
information that came in.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for the District of Signal Hill-Quidi
Vidi.
MS MICHAEL: Thank
you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, Eastern
Health’s performance on last Friday raises many red
flags concerning how well the Cameron recommendations
will be put into practice.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the
Premier: How can the people of this Province be assured
that Eastern Health will implement the Cameron
recommendations fully and carefully after the recent
display of incompetence?
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Premier.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
PREMIER WILLIAMS: I
guess, Mr. Speaker, the assurance that we can give the
people of the Province is that we, as a government and
as a Cabinet, and through the minister and his
department, are doing absolutely everything we can.
As the hon. member
opposite knows, we have already made expenditures in the
breast cancer area of approximately $50 million. There
is another $21 million to $23 million in the Budget this
year. We are doing everything we can to implement it
properly, to the best of our ability. These are
significant amounts of money we are tracking down
through. Of course, there has now been a new CEO
appointed to Eastern Health. She will be in the position
in the very near future. We have to assume, of course,
that she is going to have to put the proper
administrative procedures in place and we need to allow
that to happen.
We are tracking it to the
best of our ability and we are being as vigilant as we
can. That is why, I guess, my reaction yesterday. I was
quite annoyed at the way this was handled last Friday. I
felt that enough is enough. We will continue to do it to
the best of our ability. Unfortunately, we can’t be
there, as ministers and as members of Cabinet and
members of government, in the hospital every day, in
every hospital of the Province.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
I ask the hon. Premier to
conclude his answer.
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
We can’t micromanage,
but we will certainly do whatever we can to the best of
our ability.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for the District of Signal Hill-Quidi
Vidi.
MS MICHAEL: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Premier for his
response.
Mr. Speaker, Eastern
Health said, in the press release it put out last
Friday, that it is working with government bi-weekly to
identify priorities for implementation of the Cameron
recommendations. We can no longer take on faith anything
Eastern Health says, as this moment, without full public
scrutiny of its actions.
I ask the Premier, if
these meetings actually are taking place and if there
will be regular updates in the progress of
recommendation implementation.
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
The member opposite might
recall that last week in the House, in response to a
question here, I had indicated that before this session
was over that I would be able to table a work plan that
shows how we are going to move forward with the
implementation of the Cameron report. A part of that
work plan will show the reporting process.
I had indicated earlier,
as well, following the recommendation of Cameron, that
we will have a full report, a summary report to the
House next March, but between now and next March we will
provide periodic public updates as to the progress we
are making and you will be able to track that based on
the work plan that I will share with this House before
this session is concluded.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Member for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi.
MS MICHAEL: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
Unfortunately, I was not
in the House last week so I did not have that knowledge,
but to add to that, Mr. Speaker, looking at today’s
technology, and how easy it is to communicate widely
with the public, good use of technology can really help
in the dissemination of information, so I am asking the
minister if he would take into consideration the setting
up of a Cameron implementation Web site with the list of
recommendations and a regular update of what government
and the health authorities are doing with regard to each
recommendation.
MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.
SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear,
hear!
MR. WISEMAN: As
I indicated in response to a question yesterday, I
welcome suggestions as to how we might engage the public
in an awareness and an understanding of not only just
the recommendations themselves but how we are making
progress towards the implementation, so I do thank you
for your suggestion.
MR. SPEAKER: Order,
please!
The time allotted for
questions and answers has expired. |
