Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize students from the Aurora College Social Work and Nursing programs who are visiting the Legislature today. They are accompanied by their instructors, Vanessa Rankin and Jodi Brennan. I am going to attempt to pronounce these names, and if I get any wrong, please don’t hold it against me.

Within social work we have Michelle Bourke, Diana Bui, Jessika Claros, Jordon Moffitt, Amanda Pike, Romy Quackenbush, Sade Sada and Alice Thrasher.

The nursing students we have are Laila Nesbitt, Sarah Pope, Constance Afoakwah, Adoma Akua, Beth Thompson, Sasha Stanton...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The legislation actually provides, with support from committee, that we made an amendment that if somebody at a community level is having difficulty, the recommendation would be, get them to the health centre and the health centre can do an assessment, and based on their current status, whether or not they’re a harm to themselves, whether – and thanks to the committee for this – they have recently harmed themselves or others. The community health nurse can then make a referral, have that individual go on an involuntary basis to Stanton or the closest location that is...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one final point on facilities. I had the opportunity to travel to Iqaluit in April when I had an opportunity to visit a mental health transition housing facility providing transitional housing and support for individuals who are struggling from mental health issues.

In talking to their Minister over there, they have such incredible success with it just helping with the homelessness problem, but also helping people to prepare to be ready to go out for treatment if that was their choice. Also, helping people with mental health transition back into the community. It was...

Thank you. I think Mr. Bromley’s comment goes directly to Mr. Dolynny’s comment about the requirement for a review of the legislation, and as we are rolling out to developing regulations and recognizing future strategies and action plans, there is a possibility that we may have to do some legislative reviews. I believe the department, the government would be open to that. Mind you, it will be a new government, but I anticipate, given the interest in this particular area, that reasonable responses will be provided.

Mr. Speaker, the number of new cancer cases in the Northwest Territories is expected to rise dramatically by 2030. According to Canadian Cancer Statistics 2015, a report released by the Canadian Cancer Society earlier this year, the number of new cancer cases in all of the territories will increase by approximately 60 percent within the next 15 years, largely due to an anticipated increase in the seniors population.

To guide our planning for this increase in cases, the Department of Health and Social Services has developed the NWT’s first 10-year Cancer Strategy, Charting Our Course: Northwest...

I would like to say that we won’t have to come forward for a supp for Norman Wells because I’m hoping that the department and FMB and the Department of Finance are able to finalize what is actually required and included in the business planning process so we don’t have to come forward for a supp. But, at the same time, I do recognize that some of this stuff is fluid and we are doing the planning but we don’t know the exact opening date of the Norman Wells facility so there are still a couple of ifs in the air. But I would like to say that hopefully we won’t have to come forward for a supp...

I’ll just repeat the same thing. I mean, we have the list of positions that have been approved, including the full-time and the relief, and those were deemed to be essential for opening the new facility and running the new facility. There were a number of other positions and many of them are, like, point five of a position or point 25 of a position. It was very difficult to provide a sound justification without actually being able to get into the facility to open it.

I’m happy to share some of those numbers with the Members from Hay River, but I do want to be clear that that does not mean that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We were talking about a similar situation the other day with respect to Stanton and new facilities. When it comes to Hay River, when the building began construction the Hay River authority was tasked with figuring out how many positions would be required to properly run that facility. I think, as in most cases, there was the “I would love to have” list, the “absolutely need” list and the “I would like to have” list. The 32 was the dream list of adding programs, enhancing some services and doing some things slightly different. But given the mandate of the project, it...

That question is kind of impossible to answer standing up here today. Every individual is different and every situation is different. Not all individuals end up having an amputation; not all individuals end up blind. We want to manage diabetes with the patients to avoid having to go down that particular road.

We also know that diabetes is often complicated with other conditions, so how do you determine whether it’s strictly diabetes or another condition that has actually resulted in the particular amputation or blindness? It would be very difficult for us to actually quantify what is...