Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member has indicated, the current wait list for the Public Guardian is unacceptable in all ways, and I have already directed the Department of Health and Social Services to review the business processes to make sure that the business processes make sense and we're getting the most efficiencies and utilizing our money in the best way. As part of this business process review, I have asked them to analyze how applications flow, assessments, referrals, and also do some trend analysis on the increased demand that we're having on the Public Guardian Office. This review...

As the Member indicated, there are currently 68 individuals in the Northwest Territories under a public guardianship, and there are about 80 individuals that are under private guardianship that had to go through the full assessment process. The Member is right; the numbers are increasing, with the 72 referrals in front of us that will likely result in some additional individuals requiring either public or private guardianship.

The first step that we're taking, Mr. Speaker, is doing the review of the program to make sure that it's efficient, that it's meeting the needs, what changes we can make...

Under the Act, any person assigned the responsibility to prepare such a report by the Public Guardian can become an assessor. This could be a nurse, it could be a psychiatrist, it could be medical practitioners, it could also be clinical social workers. So these are individuals that exist across the Northwest Territories, and we're looking at training people across the Northwest Territories to be assessors as one of our initial steps. But also we are looking at individuals outside the Northwest Territories, so it's both.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is a diverse workplace, with employees working in many different locations and in a variety of capacities. Regardless of the kind of work they do, all employees have a fundamental right to be healthy and safe in the workplace. Ensuring we have a strong, safe, and healthy workplace allows the GNWT to deliver key services and programs to residents of the Northwest Territories.

As the biggest employer in the Northwest Territories, it is important that the GNWT leads by example. By creating a safe and healthy work environment, the GNWT can...

Mr. Speaker, medical travel is actually currently being reviewed and one of the pillars that is being reviewed is escorts when and how they should be supported. We did go out for public engagement. We got a significant amount of feedback from residents across the Northwest Territories as well as other stakeholders and we are moving forward with that plan. I’ll have a conversation with the department, certainly, and I’m certainly willing to continue to have a dialogue and discussion with the Members across the floor about what we should be covering under escorts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are physicians across the Northwest Territories providing obstetrics services. We also have midwifery services in Fort Smith, Hay River, as well as the MORE OB program up in Beaufort Delta, and we have birthing here in the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, and I think it’s to the Member’s point, there are individuals that do have to come out of their smaller communities to centres like Yellowknife or Fort Smith, Hay River, or Inuvik to facilitate birthing. To bring those individuals in, the mothers, we do bring them in on medical travel and we do provide...

Mr. Speaker, the department has $82,000 in annual funding, and ongoing funding which was available to implement What Will It Take? training across the Northwest Territories. We’re looking at branching out and launching a broader media campaign to create awareness of the program, but also to start working to break down some of the other myths that exist around family violence. We have been attending the community healthy living fairs that have been taking part in the Northwest Territories and we’ve been promoting What Will It Take. We intend to keep running this program. How it looks in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has indicated, the campaign was intended to break down some of the myths and stigma that exist around family violence and create awareness. The program has had a number of workshops delivered across the Northwest Territories. In 2015-2016, as an example, there were 26 workshops that took place. Twelve of those were facilitated by the Status of Women with 146 participants in communities across the Northwest Territories. We also had other facilitators providing the workshop. FOXY facilitated 14 sessions for youth across the Northwest Territories...

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order under rule 24(k), use of abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to create disorder. I have waited until today to raise this point of order because I wanted to review Hansard. Yesterday, during her Member’s statement, Ms. Green said while speaking of members of the public service, and I quote from page six of the unedited Hansard from Thursday, June 16, 2016, “... while we may not like to speak to it, these higher levels raise possibilities of malfeasance and corruption in this spending of public funds.” On the same page, Mr. Speaker, Ms. Green...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, June 24, 2016, I will move that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.