Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Unfortunately, we are not as far along as we would like it. We have basically done everything that we need to do on our end. We had agreements to move forward with the Alberta government. Since their election, it has put a bit of a hold. They have indicated that they’re still happy for us to come on board, but they weren’t ready or prepared to actually begin that process. They had other things they needed to take care of in Alberta. We will be part of the Alberta registry, and that’s what the onetime costs were to set up our portals and those types of things to allow NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I indicated, the way that the mains are presented are to line up with how we are required and needed to report for CIHI for tracking data, so we’re to create a logical system. I hear the Member that there’s some confusion about how it is between the business plan and the mains. We will work to make sure that everything’s lined up. Midwifery services under CIHI falls under nursing services recognizing that midwifery services aren’t exactly nursing services but that’s where CIHI has put them, so that’s why they’re identified in that particular section. We will...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these were internal re-allocations. I believe they were vacant, but we will confirm.

I can’t remember the exact date of the court case, but it was actually a number of years ago. It took the Government of the Northwest Territories a couple years to actually figure out how we’re going to bring in this or meet our obligation under that court ruling, and we rolled it out during the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I’m pretty sure that the situation the Member is describing didn’t happen while I was here because I certainly don’t remember it. It must have been a long time ago that it actually happened. The piece that I said after the mic went off was: Anything we do still has to be within standards, so it has to meet certain criteria. We’re open to that. I’m happy to have discussions with the communities, with the regions. I’ll be travelling with the Member to visit his communities at some point. I’m sure we’ll have an opportunity to have that discussion and hear what the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on Metis health benefits, we’re hoping that that is in fact the case, but we actually have no details on how they plan to move forward to address that particular court ruling. We will be following up with the federal government to see what, if any, dollars will flow our way.

The Member is correct, we spend about $2 million plus dollars a year providing Metis health benefits. We’re hoping that those are the type of dollars we see from the federal government. At this time, we have no indication from them what they intend...

I can’t say when those negotiations will begin, but they certainly will not begin until we have concluded all the other collective bargaining negotiations that are underway, because as I said, it’s often the same people. As far as the pension costing, we are continuing to do that work. It isn’t simple. Superann has a lot of questions. They have a lot of concerns. We need to ensure that whatever happens is fair and reasonable. We don’t know what the cost on the individual basis might be. We certainly don’t want our employees, the employees of Hay River to be in a worse position. We want to make...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m happy to answer the question now or we can wait till page 195 where that actually falls. It’s up to you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, late in the life of the last government, we brought in the new Mental Health Act which is going to go live, I believe in January. Part of the act is the implementation and utilization of something we call assisted community treatment. These positions are going to help us bring that to reality to help provide services that are outlined under the new legislation that didn’t exist under the old legislation.

We believe this is a significant step to move forward to providing better mental health services across the Northwest Territories. These positions, at least one...

Still not 100 per cent sure I understand the question, Mr. Chair. Under the legislation there will be board chairs for each of the regional wellness councils. Those board chairs are going to form the territorial authority, there is one authority. Other members will form regional wellness councils. In the legislation it allows us to basically keep Hay River as they are until such time as we roll them in. As a result, there will be a public administrator who is technically acting in the capacity of chair of the regional wellness council that we’ve established in Hay River, but will still...