Alfred Moses

Just in terms of putting this type of responsibility on the workers in the small communities to now assess what a person is going through, what kind of training are they getting in terms of knowing when to call a medevac or when to admit somebody into a health centre until they get the proper treatment that they do have?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think there’s some good discussion. I’m going to focus mine around the psychiatric nursing unit at Stanton and also just for the whole territory, what kind of psychiatric services we have. It’s also mentioned, there’s a little paragraph that talks about the unit includes beds for withdrawal management. How many beds exactly are in that psychiatric unit and how many are allocated for withdrawal management? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make a couple comments here. The first one is with the day shelters here in Yellowknife and Inuvik. I just want to talk about the importance of having these in place, especially during the winter months, and that funding. I know funding in Inuvik was supposed to go to the Day Shelter. That money was resituated so that it could into an emergency shelter in the evenings. I know, speaking with some of the board members, they talked about the importance of doing a day shelter now, so we’re looking at both emergency shelters and day shelters.

With the day...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to ask the Minister, how do we promote one of our other big attractions, the Mackenzie River? We can look at possibly providing some kind of package for the Mackenzie River. I’d like to ask the Minister, are we promoting our Mackenzie River expedition?

In regards to the Sunrise Festival, I know the department really does a great job in promoting our northern lights, and we do see that. It’s pretty evident here in Yellowknife when we see all the tourists here. But like I mentioned in my Member’s statement, there’s no other place that I know of in the world that has a celebration of welcoming back the sun. This is huge and I think that it’s something that we can market as well. Also, the Minister had mentioned in his Minister’s statement before about the Oil and Gas Strategy. We know the economy is slow and that oil and gas activity is not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to welcome Mr. Richard Letourneau. He’s a constituent of Inuvik Boot Lake and I just want to thank him for all the work he does in Inuvik at the school. He’s also with the French society. I hope you enjoy the proceedings today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Last question. Just in terms of that, to make that assessment from a medical practitioner, I think that’s why that time after withdrawal, that time for observation to look at the patient, keep them in the hospital for 24, 48, 72 hours, which also can be done within this act, to see what other psychiatric assessments might need to be done on this patient, and then in terms of medical practitioners, you know, communities that don’t have nurses, how many psychiatrists or medical practitioners do we have in the Northwest right now that can actually do that kind of diagnosis?

I know we’re unique in the North in terms of barriers and challenges, especially when it comes to the remote communities. I just want to make reference to a news article on CBC, I don’t know how many years ago, but they were talking to a psychologist or psychiatric physician that talked about not being able to do a correct assessment because he couldn’t see the individual and talk to him, so I think there are some flaws in there. I just want to put that out there.

In terms of withdrawal management, do we have a policy right now in terms of how long do we keep an individual who’s going through...

What are we doing for the small communities that just have health centres and specifically with the eight communities that don’t have nurses that can provide any kind of medical treatment for anybody that might be going through some withdrawals? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I’m kind of intrigued in how the Department of Justice and Department of ECE both contributed to the Day Shelter here in Yellowknife. I believe there’s only one other Day Shelter in the Northwest Territories and that’s in Inuvik, and whether or not the department would work with the other departments in looking at accessing those funds, as well, because the cost of doing business further up north is a lot higher. So, I’m intrigued and wouldn’t mind getting more information on that, and I’ll ask the Ministers when it does become time to review this. Thank you, Mr. Chair. More of a comment.