Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Health and Social Services Northwest Territories Help Directory 2019."

The Member might want to go back and review Hansard for the last two and a half years. She has certainly brought this up a number of times, and it is a priority. The Member should not be blind to the fact that, based on her recommendations, her encouragement in this House, we did go for an RFP; we had no applicants. We went out for another RFP; we had no applicants. We reached out to some stakeholders; there was some indication of a desire to work together. We were going through that process when, in October or January, February of this year, the Member said we really need to make progress. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member's continued commitment and dedication to this particular program and the important work that it has done in the past and the important work that we need to continue to do. I did have an opportunity to meet with the Member earlier in May, where we had an opportunity to discuss the current status. Last session, I indicated that I would direct the department to move quickly to put in a day program. They did proceed with that work, but then they came back to me after they had an opportunity to talk to the other stakeholders, and the stakeholders...

There is not a budget line referred to as "foster family appreciation" or "foster family gratitude," but there is specific budget within each of the regional offices of the territorial authority specific for supporting foster families, Foster Family Coalition. Within those budgets, the three authorities and the regional operations are able to support foster care appreciation activities and initiatives. So, although there is not a specific line, the dollars that they have available can be and are used to provide appreciation and gratitude to those who are doing this incredibly important work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Foster parents make a significant difference in the lives of children and youth, and their efforts and commitment really needs to be recognized and supported and celebrated. Mr. Speaker, we do do that as a government, and we do support the Foster Family Coalition, who takes significant efforts to do this, as well.

Mr. Speaker, each year we take time to celebrate the important contributions that foster families make in the lives of children and youth within the Northwest Territories. For example, over the years, there have been a variety of events to help honour and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. June is Senior Citizens' Month. As the Minister responsible for Seniors, I want to encourage all Northerners to join me in recognizing and celebrating the valuable contributions that seniors and elders make within our families and our communities.

With a focus on aging in place, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made it a priority to help seniors and elders live in their own homes for as long as possible by ensuring that the right kinds of supports are available to them.

For its part, the Department of Health and Social Services continues to make progress to...

I had an opportunity to sit in the gallery and listen to the youth parliamentarians during their debate, and it was great to be there, it was great to hear everything they had to say. I have to say, one of the things that I found unfortunate is many of the things they were talking about, including the ability to have some supports online and using tools that are useful to them, they didn't seem to recognize that they existed, which means we have failed to do our job to help get that information out to them.

What I can tell you is we have a significant number of supports that are available...

This is an incredibly important area. I don't think there's a Member from a small community throughout the Northwest Territories, an MLA, who has not raised traditional foods as an issue. The designer of Stanton, the Health and Social Services Authority, has recognized the value in that, and we have taken steps to make sure that we can provide traditional foods in Stanton, and from there we can learn and develop opportunities to look at other locations.

Having said that, they're not serving traditional food today. The targeted rollout date of the availability of traditional foods, as I said...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our commitment to cultural safety and culturally respectful healing is a system-wide endeavour, and the Health and Social Services system is making changes to service delivery to ensure that this commitment is reflected across the entire Northwest Territories. Yes, a number of activities have taken place in the new Stanton. We are hoping to learn from these initiatives to make sure that, where we can roll them out in different communities, we will. Some of them are infrastructure-related and may not be able to be done in hospitals that are already constructed, but...

I wasn't suggesting it wouldn't be part of the agreement. I just suggested it's too early to presuppose what that agreement is going to look like, so I appreciate the Member suggesting that I said or suggested something else. With respect to a phone line, we're totally open to that. It actually does make some sense. We've tried to set up a situation to give those neighbours an opportunity to call somebody within the system already. If it needs to be clearer, if we need to set it up in a more structured way, we're happy to do that. I think it's important that we work with our neighbours. This...