Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd love to say yes, but I can't, obviously. There are a lot of adults out there who were never diagnosed and we don't have the clinical diagnosis for them, so there probably are individuals who are FASD who have never been accurately diagnosed.

I could get some information for the Member on the number that have been diagnosed through the Stanton program so that we have some current numbers, but there isn't a real solid set of information out there on the exact numbers that would exist in the Northwest Territories. But I will provide what I can to the Members across the...

Just to be clear, we will put the legal registered name of a community on birth certificates, so if it has font we'll make sure that happens. If it does not have font in the legal registered name then it won't obviously. Going live on this particular component of this legislation, we talked about this at length at the hearing. There is a significant amount of work that needs to be done in order to make sure that we are not putting residents of the Northwest Territories in harm's way by limiting their ability to get passports, social insurance numbers.

Also eliminating their ability to travel...

Mr. Speaker, across the Government of the Northwest Territories there's a wide range of programs and services available for children living with disabilities. Specifically related to FASD, the Stanton Territorial Hospital Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Family and Community Support Program has been established and it basically conducts diagnostic clinics to screen and diagnose FASD in children between the ages of seven and 17.

This team consists of doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists and other speech language therapists who can work with these children and help identify their...

Once this passes and comes into effect, we'll be able to put any of the supported or any of the information in the appropriate fonts. If the registered name of community does not include a font, it will not include it on the birth certificate.

We haven't done too much in the way of getting that information out there at this point because we haven't actually had any budget approved indicating that we can actually, you know, conclude or move forward, and we haven't got a fully formulated plan on putting in long-term care or any of those types of things in that facility, and we're working on a development of a plan to accommodate 258 beds in the Northwest Territories and we're pursuing lots of different options and research that'll allow us to support the 250 beds across the Northwest Territories. It's many pieces of the puzzle until...

Mr. Speaker, in the design, we're looking at both options, and we haven't yet come to a conclusion, but we are exploring, basically, all the options to move this initiative forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the old Stanton facility will be managed by Venture, I believe is the name of the company, as part of the P3 Project. They're the property manager. They are ultimately the ones who get to decide what they're going to put and what they're not going to put in that facility. We have sought permission from FMB and we're seeking permission from the Members today to re-profile some of the extended care dollars and pursue an opportunity to put the 18 extended beds that we were going to build in the old building.

So we can to make a case to Venture that that would be a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government, we are committed to addressing the issues of homelessness and recognizing that homelessness is a very complex situation caused by many factors. Health and Social Services is committed to working on the items in the action plan that have been identified as a Health and Social Services responsibility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarity, have we finished the administrative and support services section, because all the questions seem to be related to community health programs?

Mr. Speaker, this is a serious issue, not just in the Northwest Territories, but across Canada. We have made dollars available to the NWT Seniors' Society, who I do have to applaud for the amazing work that they have done on creating programs and awareness around elder abuse here in the Northwest Territories. We have made technical staff available to them, as they need, to help with information, but they have really taken the lead on the development of this. We do what we can to help promote it and to get that information out there.