Alfred Moses

I’m glad that the department is keeping up to date on all these national standards. In fact, this is the first ever national level set of indicators that identifies and reports on the mental health of Canadians.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, if this report is something that the department wants to move forward on, will he bring together stakeholders to look at these indicators and act on them, much like the Anti-Poverty Strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Can I get confirmation on how much that contract was? How much did we contract with Dalhousie for?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I made references to two different reports that came out. One was the Mental Health Indicators for Canada. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he or his department is familiar with this report that was released on January 22nd and if it’s been something that’s been brought up a lot among the Health and Social Services Ministers across the country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the update on the agreement and the funding from Health Canada. Speaking with mental health and addictions theme day again, I think that’s one area that we might be lacking in. I think we need to provide more services and programs. You heard it today in some questions about the waiting times to get into counselling. I’m glad that we’re streamlining people to get down to treatment and getting to the institutions that they need to go to, to get the help that they need, but it’s when they come back to the communities, especially if it’s a small remote community...

If the Department of Human Resources isn’t up to speed or not familiar with the national standard that’s being adopted right across Canada, in fact since it was released in November, there’s more than 21,000 copies that have been downloaded from the website.

Will the Minister direct his staff to take a look at this implementation standard and see whether or not it is something GNWT can adopt for themselves for employees who do the hard work in our government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In my general comments to the department yesterday, I talked about the importance of early childhood development, and development is what we’re really discussing here and the critical years are zero to two, zero to three, and I think that a lot of Members thought that this department should have been the head lead on early childhood development and looking at that. Committee was supportive. Once again, as mentioned, we did try to bring in a motion for, I think, $1.2 million for early childhood initiatives which was also defeated. But I think we’ll put that on the agenda for standing committee...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I made reference earlier in my Member’s statement about the psychological health and well-being of our employees or any employees, for that matter, in the Northwest Territories and the National Standard of Canada for Psychological and Safety in the Workplace that the Mental Health Commission of Canada did. I would like to ask my questions to the Minister of Human Resources.

I know the GNWT has its own program, the Employee and Family Assistance Program. What does the government pay to run the EFAP and how often is that utilized? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate that, because I’ve heard it a couple times from local residents as well as residents from the small communities. Not just Inuvik but right across the Northwest Territories. I think we have to make sure we have an adequate supply should this happen.

Just moving forward, I was speaking with a physician on the plane ride coming back to Yellowknife and he was talking about this TED Talks and where this physician was talking about the use of remote technology. When we talk about ambulatory care services, a lot of it is very time sensitive, and actually trying to get into communities...

I’m glad to hear that that analysis is being undertaken and I think that there will be cost savings and also in terms of time for the patient, rather than have to go all the way down to Edmonton that they can actually come to Yellowknife. I know we got an e-mail not too long ago from the Minister in terms of a sonographer, in terms of breaking down in Inuvik and the amount of ultrasounds that patients might need was about four or five a week. Any update on that? I know in the e-mail it had mentioned that there is a shortage across Canada, but is there an update on when that’s going to be...

Just for clarification and just why some of our employees are not going to work and why some are missing work and why some are going on stress leave and why some are maybe sick all the time is another area that I think we need to look into, because when people are sick and people are getting stress leave we’re still paying them and we’re also paying for somebody to fill in their position. So, those are indicators that we really need to address and look at and how to fix those. I think, as we move into this one system, we’ll be able to identify those a lot more. Just more of a comment. I just...