Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today we had a really good briefing from Skills Canada NWT and it got me thinking about youth programs and all the programs that they do with such a small office. But it got me thinking to a bigger level, and today I have questions for the Minister of Youth in regard to possibly the creation or the development of a youth symposium.

First of all, I just want to ask the Minister of Youth, has there ever been a youth symposium for youth providers of the Northwest Territories, in his knowledge as the Minister of Youth. Has there ever been a youth symposium where providers...

Thank you. Under the socio-economic agreements, is the Minister negotiating dollars for this type of training? He did mention it, but I mean specifically for Skills Canada, because Skills Canada are a small office that do a lot of really good work and they have participants who have gone through the program who have won national awards, international awards, and it would be a great opportunity to continue to support these individuals that go through the Skills Canada program. So is the Minister negotiating specific training dollars for Skills Canada so that we can start supporting participants...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When an individual is brought to a health centre emergency room by a peace officer or someone in the community under a mental health disorder, a written report has to go to the Minister’s office to ask for the individual to be detained. How is this addressed in the small communities when we have, possibly, communication challenges as well as somebody in the community possibly not being able to fill out the proper forms and allowing these people to get back out into the public when they really do need the help? How is this addressed with these written reports and does he...

The Minister flowed perfectly into my second question in terms of evaluation put on by the nurses. In the Northwest Territories we have eight communities that do not have a resident nurse. When we come up with these issues dealing with someone with a mental disorder, what is put in place for those eight communities where there is no resident nurse readily available to do that assessment? What is the protocol for the communities that do not have a nurse, that can’t provide that type of assessment?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to welcome a former resident of Inuvik, Mr. Dez Loreen, who also was a student youth councillor when I was on town council at one time, and a very good advocate for Inuvik in terms of reporting the news as well as other information that’s happening around Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Welcome, Dez, to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have written questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the NWT Mental Health Act for treatment data for the fiscal year 2009-2010 to the present.

In accordance with Section 6.(a) and (b) of the Mental Health Act, how many voluntary patients applied for hospital admittance in the Northwest Territories and how many of those voluntary patients were denied admittance due to a lack of beds and/or space?

In accordance with Section 8.(1) of the Mental Health Act, in how many cases has a medical practitioner had to make an order for the...

Can I get a confirmation from the Minister that all the lay dispensers underneath the Mental Health Act were actually transferred to the new job term health workers, and whether these health workers are covered under the Mental Health Act to provide those types of services, and whether they’re going to amend that changing and add health workers to the Mental Health Act so that they understand they’re covered for any type of liability to provide any type of emergency services?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Quite frankly, I’d just like to ask the Minister how the Mental Health Act is being enforced in small communities where there is no psychiatrist and, in some cases, no nurses to complete a psychiatric evaluation or assessment, specifically in the isolated communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to continue on today with some of the findings that I had read in the Mental Health Act. What brought me to there is how many people are slipping through the cracks in the Northwest Territories. When I read the document it raised a lot of questions and I tried to get some of those addressed in my written questions yesterday.

Some of the questions that came across to me that I wanted to make sure that our government knew and the people of the Northwest Territories knew about were protocols. What are our protocols in the small communities in the health centres...