Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are 159 foster caregivers in the Northwest Territories today. Twenty-eight of those are in the Deh Cho. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "2019-20 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets"; and "Impacts of the NWT on the Land Collaborative & Land-Based Programming." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Under the Health and Social Services mandate, our responsibility is for the long-term care facilities. That doesn't mean that there isn't a responsibility for this government to move forward with living units for seniors, which the Housing Corporation has done. Over the last number of years, we have built or are in the process of building five independent living units for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories. I do have to applaud the Housing Corporation. They have worked very well with Health and Social Services to make sure that these new independent-living units for seniors have...

We are talking about a new model, and in many of these primary healthcare teams where we've seen, it does involve different types of staff working in different relationships. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to get rid of staff. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to add staff, but it does mean we need to change how they operate and work together and the structure that they provide services in. It could result in some job description changes. Those always have a potential of having some impact on employees, but we have proven that we are quite good at working with our employees to recruit...

Yes, absolutely. As part of our Cultural Safety Action Plan, the territorial health authority and health system have recently embarked on work to undertake a reform of our primary healthcare services across the Northwest Territories. This work is being led by the territorial authority and the department, with pilot projects happening in the Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Deh Cho, and Tlicho regions.

Just as an example, Mr. Speaker, two of these projects in this reform effort focus on the implementation of integrated care teams. The goal of this team approach is to provide safe, high-quality care that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today marks a major milestone for healthcare delivery in the Northwest Territories. On May 26, 2019, we began accepting patients at the new Stanton Territorial Hospital, and we implemented a detailed patient move plan to bring patients from the old Stanton hospital to our brand new facility.

I am pleased to report that our patient transfer was successful and that the new Stanton Territorial Hospital is now providing health services and care to residents. Our team successfully transferred 55 patients at approximately three-minute intervals over three hours. These...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Northwest Territories Community Counselling Program, Client Satisfaction Report 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When I stood up, I actually knew the answer to that question, and now, I've completely blanked. I know that we're trying to do the family and community caregivers across a wide-range of communities, and small communities, regional centres, but I have completely blanked. I will commit to getting the Member that information.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to start off this conversation, I want to be clear that our priority is to help keep seniors in their homes first, their communities, their regions, and then, if they do require high levels of care due to different degrees of acuity, obviously they would need to be going to a long-term care facility. Long-term care facilities are those level four, five facilities where individuals' needs are significant. They need a greater degree of care that can be safely provided in a community. We built long-term care facilities where we also have physician positions located.

Ha...

Nuka is a model that is very similar to what we are moving toward here, and we are certainly learning a lot from them, but it will be a made-in-the-North design. The primary healthcare reform is a system-wide initiative. Although our first six demonstration projects don't include Hay River, I want to be clear that Hay River Health and Social Services is participating in the planning and design process to ensure that they are a part of the effort from the very beginning. Although the pilot isn't happening in the community, they are definitely a part.

As we begin to implement integrated care...