Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, does the third-party accountability framework specifically, absolutely include NGOs like the YWCA? Does it capture those organizations within the intent and the purpose of the policy? Or does it only apply to those agencies such as Health and Social Services authorities, local housing authorities, district education boards, those ones that are directly mandated? I am trying to find out, Mr. Speaker, does our policy take that extra step to include NGOs that are not statutory creations of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. So say for our regular government departments, the housing authority through ECE, through schools, hospitals, et cetera, in order to use this futures option, would we also have to pass more legislation or other legislation enabling those agencies to do that on our behalf, or as we just did with PPD? How would that work, Mr. Chairman?

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I'm very familiar with the Minister's confidence, and I share with him the confidence of a large majority of the people who are needed, and trained and committed to the care of children. But the exception, as the Minister pointed out, is amongst the more sophisticated, if you will, psychological and medical and clinical services. Yes, the Minister is quite right; it is potentially only a half-hour plane ride from Yellowknife, but there's a lot more involved than sort of transporting people back and forth on airplanes.

So let's park that one there. We're hoping and I'm...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the most difficult times that I have experienced in this Legislature occurred in the matter under this department and this Minister’s jurisdiction, and that was the surprise decision to move the Territorial Treatment Centre from Yellowknife to another community. Mr. Chair, this one hurt because it was something of great significance in my riding and to this city. It was an action that the government, after considerable review and investigation, went ahead with, by its own admission, for political purposes, against the clinical program, psychological and...

Thank you. I’m pleased to see that commitment is there and on track. In tandem with this, Madam Chair, is the additional obligation, commitment, that is required for the O and M of this facility. I’m wondering if the Minister has any sense, at this time, of what that commitment may be, and can we expect to see that incorporated into the base for the department in future years? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under this order of the day last year, I talked about the way this Assembly had been conducting its budgetary business up to that point. Something that was a problem for me, and I wanted to see how we could address it, was the relative secrecy by which this Assembly goes about building its budgetary plans, business plans for the departments. I say relative secrecy compared to the way most other jurisdictions in Canada do this, Mr. Speaker, especially through the committee process.

Our committees here in our Legislature, and this is by our collective consensus, have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware that Health and Social Services is the department with the single most pieces of legislation under its watch. The modernization of this act is not a small piece of work. It is going to require a lot of consultation across a lot of fields. It is important that we start this work, even if it is not something that is going to be achievable in the length of this Assembly. Would the Minister commit to at least considering starting the consultation process, working toward the rewrite of this act perhaps in the next Assembly, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you. I guess I will take that one as notice, then, until the report comes out, Mr. Speaker.

On the clinical side of this question, my colleague from Hay River South told us, when she addressed this issue a couple of days ago, that 36 percent of our hospital admissions are for mental health and addictions related causes. Mr. Speaker, are we adequately resourced in our hospitals and clinics to deal with this disturbing and substantial problem in admissions and care in our hospital system? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As Mental Health Week comes to a close, I would like to bring to the attention of this House the concerns of many families and the victims of mental illness and professionals involved in health care service about the suitability of our own Mental Health Act. The NWT’s act was passed in 1988, Mr. Speaker. Today, it is clinically, administratively and perhaps even from a human rights point of view, significantly behind the times.

In most other jurisdictions, the foundation of mental health legislation has moved from the concept of where a victim of mental illness may be a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Mr. Murray. One of the big challenges that agencies which are familiar with performing or delivering this service here in Yellowknife have indicated, that to expect a similar level or calibre of service can also be delivered in Hay River is quite an expectation. This is not a slight at all against Hay River, Mr. Chair. It is simply a matter of looking at the different scales of economy, the size of communities, the levels of professional caregivers that are here in this city, and other duties that could not be supported in a much smaller community such as Hay River...