Bob Bromley

Is there a target in terms of the portion? Are we asking for sort of a 20 percent flexibility for nurse practitioners? That sort of thing. Do we have an idea yet of what we’re looking for there?

It must be wonderful to have all these resource people. We’ve just started here and we’re up to quite a few people. I wonder if there’s been any consideration to providing the same level of support, or even maybe a tenth of that, for this side of the House for our committee staff, who are certainly hardworking people and haven’t changed in numbers, to my knowledge, for quite some time.

Thanks for the comments from the Minister. I know that the Minister recognizes that this is a serious situation and will do good work to get this rectified, and I ask that we would be kept apprised of the progress on that.

As the UN decision pointed out, Ms. Kell’s traumatic experiences point to the need for greater public understanding of property law and ensuring that clients of our LHO partners are aware of their rights. Since we are trying to stress the breaking down of silos and coordinated actions across government, such as through the development of the Anti-Poverty Strategy, can the...

I’m just having a hard time accepting that this late in the game we don’t know what specialized services are required. This is our own system. I can spend 15 minutes on the Internet, or so could our research people, and find out what all the other jurisdictions are doing, what they’ve had put in place. We’re talking accountability here. What specialized services are we missing that are required for diversion from court systems into mental health? From what I’ve seen, these are just mental health programs. I want to hear now the specifics, so that we can have some accountability in knowing that...

Yes, it does.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First, I just noticed that the NWT hospitals funding is down $7 million. Maybe I could start with getting an explanation of what’s happening there. I know our expenses have not changed there.

Just one further clarification there. Does that include an updating of what we measure or is it just the updating of information relating to what we’re already measuring?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the House is aware of the recent United Nations’ decision that finally brought justice to NWT resident Cecelia Kell. In 1995 Ms. Kell fled her abusive relationship to a safe haven in the Alison McAteer House.

While she was away, her non-Aboriginal spouse, who was serving as a director of the Rae-Edzo Housing Authority, had her name removed as a co-holder from the Aboriginal housing lease with the approval of the LHO board. Ms. Kell was served an eviction order and lost her home. That began a legal journey of 17 excruciating years through a series of rulings...

So the unspoken here is that it’s all a gap. We do not have any programs and services in place currently in mental health to assist with the diversion program. Is that what I’m hearing?

Actually, I’m happy to just accept the Minister’s. I had forgotten some of those things, and he reminded of some of those things. So I think that’s fine. I’m happy to move on.