Glen Abernethy

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...

Mr. Speaker, the challenge of that is if we put one nurse in the community we could actually create some liability issues. I know we do it during freeze-up or break-up but we don’t have one-nurse stations here in the Northwest Territories; we’re trying to ensure that there’s proper and adequate backup so that the individuals who are on call during the evening don’t have to be on call every day 24/7. It can be quite extensive. I’m happy to have that discussion. If the Member can have that person share their information with us and let them express their desire, we’ll certainly have that...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to continue implementing the Building Stronger Families Action Plan to transform Child and Family Services, including work around the Child and Family Services Act. The main purpose of the Child and Family Services Act is to protect children in situations where they may have been harmed or where there is a risk of harm. The Act serves the best interest of the children by protecting them from exposure to abuse and neglect. The performance audit of child and family services, conducted by the Auditor...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to present the 2016-2017 main estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services. The total proposed budget for the department is $414,234,000. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $7.3 million or 1.8 per cent over the 2015-2016 main estimates. These estimates continue to support the objective of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed budget include:

forced growth of $12.9 million;

subsets of $9 million;

funding for initiatives totalling $5.3...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that commitment was made prior to my term as the Minister of Health and Social Services and we have had debates in this House before. At this point in time we’re not planning to put an LPN in the community but we have been working with the community to come up with an alternative, a community-based solution. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we have attempted to get into the community a number of times to work out that pilot with the community where we think there’s a significant opportunity to train somebody local to provide some of the emergency response as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our goal is to build this on the success of the existing midwifery programs, to enhance access to birthing services, both pre- and post-natal care, and begin work on the development of a territorial midwifery program. We are doing that work now. We have been able to hire two midwifery consultants, which proved incredibly difficult. We had some significant turnover in that area, which really delayed our ability to move forward with the midwifery review that I had indicated in the previous government. We have those consultants in place, they are going through...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated we don't believe, at this time, it's going to take some additional funding. We need to actually get into the program with the City of Yellowknife to figure out how it's going to roll out. As the demand ramps up, we might require some additional funding, at which point we are going to come back to the business planning process and have that discussion with committee. Mr. Speaker, the department was an active participant at the April homelessness community partnership forum and is participating in the two different working groups that were...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Housing First Program includes providing participating clients with what has been termed wraparound services. Discussions have been had between the Department of Health and Social Services and the City of Yellowknife, where the City of Yellowknife has clarified that the intent of their Housing First proposal is to have 24/7 supervision and support of clients on site. That does not mean or does not include on-site clinical services 24/7. The Department of Health and Social Services has committed both publicly and in meetings with the city to ensure that...

Mr. Speaker, I feel that although we did have some delays, now that we have our positions in place, finally we are able to get some qualified applicants to do the work. They are going at this as quickly as they can. This isn't their only job. They're also working on the evaluation frameworks that are being put in place in Hay River. If we're going to continue to roll out these programs, we must be evaluating the work that's being done; they're doing that important work. They're also working with physicians and the practitioners in Fort Smith, Hay River, and Inuvik, learning from what they're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all costs will be factored into our analysis. One thing that the Member does need to remember is that bringing in midwifery services does not actually help us or result in a reduced number of physicians that are available in the Northwest Territories. There are no cost savings with respect to midwifery services replacing physicians' services. Physicians are still a key component of birthing in the Northwest Territories even with our existing midwifery services that we are providing in different communities. It doesn't mean that births that are difficult...