Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't believe we will be ready for a supplementary appropriation during the next fiscal year. Once we get a model approved, then we have to do the design, do the implementation, job description writing, that will help us quantify what the costs will be so that we can come forward, identify what can be covered with existing funds, what we may need additional funds, so that we can have an informed discussion during business planning, looking at all of our services from a holistic point of view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, they are eligible. I am not 100 per cent certain whether it actually impacts the rent that they might pay, because they are paid some money. I don't believe it does, but I would really need to verify that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe we have a contract with the travel agent who books the flights, but we do have a Standing Offer Agreement with Canadian North and First Air, so the travel agent's requirement is to book on those two. Occasionally if there's some unforeseen circumstance or other driving issues, we can go to Air Canada or WestJet, but our Standing Offer Agreement says first and foremost Canadian North and First Air.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the amount on 172 of $3,630,000 is the money that is going towards all the initiatives focused around family violence in the Northwest Territories. The number on 173 of $395 is how much will flow to some of the different organizations across the Northwest Territories to support family violence. It is all in the $3,630,000. One is a grant. This section has gone up by $120,000, which is some additional contributions we are providing to three of the shelters based on some forced growth.

More importantly than the small increase, I made a commitment to the shelters...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the positions have been filled, the ones within the department that are doing the consultation and analysis. We have had a discussion paper put together with different options for a territorial program. That public consultation is going to be starting right away. I think we have got one date confirmed, and we are about to go out and announce some of the other dates, both in Yellowknife and in communities that would be receiving benefits from a territorial program. We have started receiving some input from all of the stakeholders, like physicians and others, so...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have heard an awful lot over the last number of years of the importance of grandparents and extended families and trying to get children placed with grandparents and extended family first as opposed to, say, necessarily going into the foster care system.

In order to get grandparents and extended family members compensated for when they do take a child, we have put in an expedited referral process, so an expedited assessment process, for family members so that we can consider them foster parents and place the children with extended family, e.g. grandparents...

Noted, Mr. Chair, and we are always looking for opportunities for quality improvement. If you have got individuals who are willing to flag that, please have them flag it so that we can include it and take it from anecdotal to reality so that we can move forward on that.

I guess when it comes to language, the only recommendation I would have for individuals who wish to have non-medical escort as a result of language barriers is do not also take a unilingual person with them. Try to find someone who is bilingual. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a multitude of reasons that a family might find themselves in difficulty, where they either need to enter into a voluntary service agreement or, in worst case scenario, there are abuse issues and the child needs to be apprehended. In many cases, it may be as a result of struggles the parents are having around addiction issues or other issues. Often we find, but don't have a correlation, that often people are in situations of neglect or abuse. Many of them are faced with poverty. It is an issue that we obviously try to address here in the Government of...

Just for the record, Mr. Chair, the Minister of Health, federal Minister of Health, clearly knows my position, as does the Minister responsible for Social Services, as does the federal Minister responsible for Addressing Poverty, as does they all do. I have no problem continually mentioning the value of a national pharmacare strategy. I did raise it in our last social services FPT, where we were talking about poverty. It is certainly an opportunity to help this country address poverty, having a national pharmacare strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to go to the deputy for detail, but I think the important thing here is that obviously there is an opportunity for us to work with MLAs in those regions to get that information out. We will certainly have further discussions on how we can get that information out. For some more specific detail, I will go to the deputy.