Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated earlier, there are four areas where we are concerned that we may not meet the March 31st deadline. I don't have the details in front of me. I know that, most of the areas, we have actually completed already. I have committed to getting the Member and committees an update of where we are. It will include that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not familiar with that program. I have asked the department to do a little bit of digging. It seems that program was a program that existed many, many, many years ago, well before my time. I could not tell the Member today why that funding was discontinued. I also don't fully understand the nature of the program, but, if the Member has some information on the program, I am happy to take it, I am happy to read it, I am happy to look at it and see if there is any opportunity for us to include the concepts and principles in the work we are doing around the continuing care action plan and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The authority identifies a client's care needs based on a home and community care assessment that is done with each client. If a client is receiving care and services through the home and community care program, their care needs are assessed on a regular basis and, if they change or they need to be modified, the program for home support can be modified. So it is based on an assessment to determine the level of supports they do need.

Complaints are always taken very seriously and are dealt with in a variety of ways, actually, depending on the actual nature of the complaints. As always, the authority attempts to work with our clients and also our partners at the boarding homes themselves to resolve any issues that may arise. If a client does experience an issue, depending on the nature of that issue, obviously, we would encourage them to reach out to the manager of the boarding home that they happen to be staying at, at the time of the incident and when it first occurs, so that it can be addressed immediately.

I can also...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The process has actually gone through an RFP in the past. I can't tell you exactly how the last one was, whether it was an extension to a contract or whether it was an RFP. I would have to check and get that information, but it does go through an RFP. The current contract that is in place now actually expires on December 31, 2019, and within the contract that we have with them, we do have the ability to extend until December 31, 2024. The contract is not renewed. The authority would follow up through the normal RFP process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The menus are reviewed by a dietician, and the contract that we do have with the boarding home has provisions requiring the contractor to be compliant with the Canada's Food Guide, so dietician and contract. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will get that information from the department so we can actually be explicit with the actual numbers. I do want to point out that there are over 80 action items in the quality improvement plan. Those build on the recommendations of the Auditor General, internal findings, and committee recommendations. A number of those actions have been completed. Nine of them are already completed out of 80 action items. Nineteen of them are ongoing, which means we have already made the improvements and now it is a matter of implementing them on an ongoing basis. Thirty-two of them have been initiated. We...

As much as possible, the answer is yes. They do attempt to triage patients as best they can; however, they're not always aware of all the information, or all the preferences, or all the needs of our clients and/or our patients. We strongly encourage our residents to let the boarding home what some of their limitations are as much in advance as possible, so that they can be properly triaged and properly placed.

Just as a note, there are some public washrooms available in the facility if one of the ones that are in the area they're staying in is occupied. So there are options, but they do try to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout the entire process, the department has been reaching out to staff in the Indigenous governments to make sure we are getting feedback and ideas from them. At the same time, I have also had some correspondence back and forth with a number of the Indigenous governments, and my deputy had an opportunity to meet with the Tlicho Government to provide some presentation on what we have heard, what we have seen, in order to get some feedback from them. We have put together a draft quality improvement plan that has been presented to committee. We have taken committee's...

I would like to table this document as soon as I can, but I have made a commitment to work with the Indigenous governments. The Member's first line of questioning actually asked those specific questions. We will meet with our Indigenous partners. We will get their feedback and their input. If it results in changes to the Quality Improvement Plan, we will make those changes, and then we will release the document and make it public. Hopefully we will do that before next session, at which point I would be willing to table it next session. If the work that we need to do with the Indigenous...