Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently there's 16 nursing or rather, care aids within Stanton Territorial Hospital, and at this point in time we're not planning on eliminating any of those positions, with the exception of two, and we're not actually eliminating those positions. Two nursing care aid positions were actually created through unfunded dollars as a pilot study, and the purpose of the pilot was to evaluate whether the level of trained staff could be used in patient watches instead of using security protocol or personnel. That pilot has come to an end and as a result, those...

I'll go through the department and get a bit of a summary of the pilot intent and what actually the results were and share that with the Members, but at the end of the day, we ended up having to put more security in that building to provide patient watches as well as other security. Those two positions were unfunded. The remaining 14 nursing care aids continue to exist, providing the exact services that the Member is referencing, important services within our healthcare facility. These two positions were created for the sole purpose of doing an assessment. The assessment didn't prove out, as a...

As I indicated, the purpose of the pilot was to evaluate whether nursing care aids, this level of trained staff, can be used for patient watches. Patient watches are used after patients who pose a risk to themselves or others and require more frequent observation -- for example, individuals who might be suicidal, confused patients who are unable to comply with treatment, patients who are at risk of actually leaving the facility, and other patients who may have some behavioural issues. The decision was made not to renew these two contracts for these two unfunded positions and rather put an end...

Mr. Speaker, supporting quality early childhood development in collaboration with other organizations is a priority for the 18th Legislative Assembly. We all want the children of the Northwest Territories to have the best possible start in life so that they can reach their full potential. To realize this goal, the Early Childhood Development Action Plan was developed to address gaps in services delivered to children aged zero to five, by creating new programs and improving existing ones. Today, I would like to update you on an exciting new approach to improve early childhood development...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For clarity, we know we need 259 beds by 2026, and based on our traditional procurement method, that takes you anywhere from $800,000 to $1.5 million per bed to build using traditional procurement, which is around $200 million to build or provide those 259 beds. We do have an average of around $130,000 per bed to operate beds, which works out to about $33.5 million at today's dollar for providing services for 259 beds. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Absolutely. I mean if the departments indicate that they have some positions they'd like to fill in the communities, we're absolutely there to help support them to select the appropriate individuals to fill those positions and we do have a couple of different programs that are available through the Department of Human Resources to help the departments actually do some hiring. We have the Progressive Experience Program that actually provides a subsidy to the individual departments to help them offset the cost of hiring summer students. They could certainly use that type of funding in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ultimately the hiring of summer students is a responsibility of the individual departments. The Department of Human Resources helps facilitate the summer student process by actually getting students registered. The Department of Human Resources has been undertaking marketing and the intake of summer students since December 2015. We've been out advertising on the GNWT career website. Posters and advertising have been placed around Yellowknife and other locations, regional human resource offices. We've done a Student Financial Assistant blast to individual...

That’s one of the suggestions that's been thrown out during the election and since the election. As I indicated yesterday, we're going to have to look outside of the box on this one. We're going to have to consider all opportunities for the construction and the provision of these 259 beds, so we're open to pretty much anything at this point. As I indicated yesterday, I'm in the process of writing a letter. I'll have it to committee this week to share that report with them. I'm also going to be seeking an opportunity to have a briefing with committee so that we can go through some of the...

Through Building Our Future 20/20, we're actually always looking for ways to enhance the employment opportunities for students, as well as just residents of the Northwest Territories. I'd be interested in sitting down with the Member and getting a little bit more insight into what the Member means by a youth employment strategy and how he would see something like that rolling out, but I'd certainly be interested in having that conversation and getting more input and feedback from the Member and committee.

MR. SPEAKER:

The Department of Human Resources, as I've indicated, will actually go out and get students who are interested in getting summer student work with the government registered. At that point, if a department chooses to hire summer students, and ultimately the departments get to choose when, how long, and where, or those types of things, with respect to whether or not they hire summer students. They can come to the Department of Human Resources and review our database to make sure that they're selecting individuals that are suitable for the types of employment that they're looking for, apply an...