Alfred Moses

I also understand that the Housing Corp will be taking over the responsibility for the land that the Blueberry Patch currently sits on. Has the Minister’s department decided or proposed what to build on that land?

As I mentioned, housing is a concern across all communities across the Northwest Territories, and if we are going to decentralize and start creating jobs and oil and gas kicks back up, we need some houses for residents and people who move up there.

I would like to ask the Minister what he is proposing to put on that land once the Blueberry Patch is demolished. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about the Skills for Success Initiative whose focus is to improve employment success for NWT residents, close skill gaps for in-demand jobs and respond to employer needs. This initiative is driven by labour market evidence, best practice research and information, and stakeholder input and feedback. Just with that last little statement there, that leads to this last couple days where there is actually a symposium going on as we speak.

We have territorial, Aboriginal and municipal governments, education and training partners, industry, business, NGOs...

I would like to thank the Minister for that very comprehensive response to a second medical opinion. They’ve done a lot of work and I agree that residents shouldn’t be afraid to offend any medical practitioner or physician in seeking a second medical opinion. He did mention something and I was going to ask a question in terms of the lack of physicians in the Northwest Territories in some of the regions and the medical costs. He understands the situation we are in, where some of the regions don’t have physicians and we have locums who continue to come through.

Would he be looking at reviewing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 22, 2013, in Committee of the Whole, I asked the then-Minister of Health and Social services, during the review of the main estimates, questions on the right to a second medical opinion. There were some good questions and there were discussions of the review of the right to a second medical opinion. I bring this forward again today only because I’ve had discussions with people who were concerned about their medical results and their diagnosis and weren’t sure if they were getting the right treatment. Every resident in the Northwest Territories should have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We did make the comments in the House yesterday when we read the report in. I do have a motion, Madam Chair.

I move that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are very honoured to bring this motion forward. We don’t have to scratch the surface very far to find family or domestic violence, which has very devastating impacts on individuals and communities.

Family and domestic violence almost never occurs without warning. In most cases there have been repeated incidents of violence and indicators of risk as well as opportunities for agencies and individuals to intervene before death.

It’s important to try to understand the factors that lead to such tragedy and lead to needless deaths when intimate relationships take a fatal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Ms. Bisaro.

Since the 2009 review, the department has done a great deal of work to restructure the delivery of official languages programs and services in the Northwest Territories. The Minister has referred to this as the department’s “new approach.”

In the absence of a final response from ECE to the 2009 review, the standing committee has struggled to reconcile the direction that ECE has taken with this “new approach,” with the vision outlined in the standing committee’s 2009 report, which was based on the development of an official languages services model...

Some of our highest rates of health risks and health incidents are in the Northwest Territories and fall into the area of people who live in poverty, who live on income assistance and housing, who can’t afford to go to Yellowknife or Edmonton to get that second medical opinion. Some of them are even afraid to go to the hospital and will take their word as trust.

I’m asking the Minister if he would be willing to look at paying costs up front for individuals to have the right to go get the specialized medical diagnoses in areas that might provide those such as Edmonton, who I know we have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned back in February of 2013, I asked then-Minister of Health and Social Services about the right to a second opinion. He mentioned that they were hiring a policy officer to review the health benefits. The review of a second opinion is within that review.

I would like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, what is the update on that review of the health benefits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank all my colleagues who spoke in support of the motion. It is a very important issue that we have in the Northwest Territories and right across the North and Canada, and I think the direction we’re giving to government is the right step to address this issue. I did mention earlier about all the different organizations working on, when a death occurs, the work that they do. This feasibility study will bring all these organizations together to understand that, yes, we’ve got to work together, we’ve got to make the recommendations so that it stops now...