Alfred Moses

On that note, we also have some northern residents who live in Edmonton who provide help and assistance for northern people who go down there. I just want to thank them and take a moment for that.

Should a client, specifically seniors who might be frail, who might need assistance and in some cases don’t have a medical escort, goes down to these boarding homes and should they have a slip or fall in the bathroom, does the Minister’s office get updated on any kind of serious issues or incidents that happen to clients in these boarding homes? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a government, sometimes we do face challenges with a lack of resources to provide certain programs and services in the Northwest Territories. As a result, we often have to partner up with organizations from the South, and a particular organization is the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

Although it’s June, I’d like to take time to reflect that the month of May was, and is, Vision Health Month, and actually the Senate of Canada officially declared May as Vision Health Month.

As the primary provider of vision rehabilitation programs and services to Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Members, I would like to introduce and recognize my nephew, Mr. Dawson Kovacs, who recently achieved a gold medal at the NWT Skills Competition in the area of safety and he’s actually en route right now to the nationals to compete in Mississauga.

At this time, I would like to wish all delegates of the Northwest Territories a great time and best of luck at the nationals where they are heading off tomorrow. Welcome, Dawson.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This motion was one of really good discussion and debate in terms of whether or not we want to compensate non-medical escorts.

As you already know, we go through the budget session and we see the costs that are associated with medical travel, and they are very high and that’s one of the areas that we’re already exhausting a lot of our financial resources on medical travel and trying to find ways that we can mitigate that and still provide the services to residents of the Northwest Territories.

Aside from that, if you look at all the work that this government and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, on May 27, 2014. A clause-by-clause review was held the same day. The committee thanks the Minister and his staff for presenting the bill.

The purpose of the legislation is to ensure ongoing financial aid to students. The bill increases the maximum aggregate for principal amounts outstanding for all loans to $45 million for 2014-2015 and subsequent years.

Following the committee’s review, a motion was carried to report Bill 24, An Act to...

Mr. Speaker, the photo therapy from the BiliBlankets actually helps reduce the bilirubin that is built up when the decrease in red blood cells happen. If there is no immediate action taken, that build-up of the bilirubin can become very harmful to the infant. Hence, we have the medevacs.

The cost of the BiliBlanket is about $4,000. If you put the costs associated with a medevac, which is thousands of dollars, why wouldn’t the Minister look at purchasing more BiliBlankets through the Northwest Territories rather than continue to possibly send more medevacs out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 25, 2013, I asked questions to the then Minister of Health and Social Services regarding BiliBlankets for babies and the lack and shortage of BiliBlankets that we have throughout the Northwest Territories. The questions came because we had a medevac in Inuvik at the time, and the family was concerned that if another baby had come while they were using the BiliBlanket, what would have happened to the other baby.

BiliBlankets are used when a baby is born and has yellow jaundice. For those of you who don’t know what jaundice is, jaundice occurs when there’s a...

Just in terms of the information the Minister is seeking and mentioning that he’s going to commit to, I just want to confirm commitment that he will get a full inventory of BiliBlankets that we have in the Northwest Territories and for the regions and whether he will look at doing something in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am following up to my statement today. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I stated in my Member’s statement, the last time I brought this issue up with jaundice and the lack of a BiliBlanket being available or having an extra one on hand at the Inuvik Regional Hospital was brought up in February 2013. I was wondering what kind of updates have been happening since then in terms of looking at securing extra equipment such that somebody who does come in that needs a BiliBlanket that we have one extra one on hand. Can I ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think one of the main things is with the data collection monitoring, with the monitoring system, what kind of data collection will we have on file and how will that be used to develop future strategic plans, and will there be a data component in place and will it include not only drug misuse and over-prescribing but also stats that are related to overdose of prescription drugs? Thank you.