Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do not know what the rationale for the $80,000 co-payment is or, rather, the level of the $80,000 co-payment. I know that my predecessor once referred to it as an arbitrary number. Clearly, we need to review the use of co-payment and the amount of the co-payment. That work is currently being done as part of the medical travel review, where we are reviewing a number of aspects of the medical travel policy, including the co-payment. We want to take into consideration not just the family income, but the size of the family; the illness that the individual...

I do not sit on one of the Regional Wellness Councils. The Regional Wellness Councils are the ones who, to some degree, determine when they are going to schedule their meetings. They are required to have one meeting, I think it is annually in public. All their meetings are supposed to be in public to some degree. They can go in camera. I am not prepared to, and I am not going to, dictate when and where they have their meetings. I think we need to leave that up to them. They know their regions best, and they know when they need to get together to have those conversations.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that we do have some resources out there when it comes to H. pylori and providing information. As far as workshops, I'm not sure that we've actually provided workshops in the past or that we actually have the information to provide workshops, but I will talk to the department to find out how best we can get that information out to residents of the Sahtu but also to the Northwest Territories where appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Through our discussion with stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, one of the things we constantly hear are that options are important and that one size does not fit all when it comes to programming. The use of technology to assist in delivering services to more remote communities is one that the department is exploring. In the meantime, we do have a number of mechanisms where individuals can receive services, including our 24/7 NWT Help Line. We have the opportunity through things like Facebook to do group sessions, group counselling sessions. There is the Kids Help Phone. As...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, prior to the move to a single authority, the Beaufort Delta Regional Health and Social Services Authority had a really good relationship with the IRC and the Gwich'in. I am confident that that relationship is still strong and still working since we have moved to a single authority. I know that the regional operation of the territorial authority has worked closely with the IRC in the delivery of some training, things like applied suicide intervention training and others. At a departmental level, we have worked with different Aboriginal and Indigenous...

Mr. Speaker, the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly include a commitment to take action so that seniors can age in place. Our government’s mandate builds on this priority by committing the Department of Health and Social Services to complete a projection of programming needs, develop updated capital plans to address the need for long-term care beds, and to develop a regulatory framework and financing options that will allow us to meet the growing demand for long-term care in the Northwest Territories.

As Minister of Health and Social Services, I remain committed to supporting seniors...

The review of medical travel actually started in the last Assembly. There was a significant amount of public consultation that was done. The department went out and sought information from users of the system from across the Northwest Territories. A lot of data was gathered.

A number of things have happened. We have put in an appeal process, I personally think it still needs a little bit of tweaking, and we have put out a handbook to help people understand and navigate the system, but clearly, more needs to be done. The area the Member is talking about is certainly one of the areas in which we...

The opening of the new health centre and long-term care facility in Norman Wells will be a significant accomplishment for the region, for the delivery of services in Norman Wells and that region. We will definitely have an opening ceremony event. The Regional Wellness Council will absolutely, without question, be involved, as well as regional leadership and the MLA, of course. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

With the move to a single authority in the Regional Wellness Councils, we are hoping that the Regional Wellness Councils do have an opportunity to travel throughout the regions that they represent. As the Member said, the Regional Wellness Council in the Sahtu did have a meeting in Tulita. They have a meeting scheduled in Colville Lake and they will over time get to all the communities that they represent.

As far as getting information, program information, out to the communities, one of the reasons that the Regional Wellness Councils are so important is they can help us tailor our message to...

The Strategic Framework for Mental Health and Addictions Recovery recognizes the importance of culture. This is foundational to the work that we do and will be reflected in the action plans, including the one for child and youth mental wellness. The implications of colonization and the resultant loss of culture are a clear and strong focus of the work we will be doing to ensure culturally relevant and capable services and supports for residents of the Northwest Territories. The Child and Youth Mental Wellness Action Plan emphasizes the importance of providing access to landbased programs...