Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker As Canadian residents, the residents of Fort Liard can receive services anywhere in this country with no cost as long as it’s medically necessary. So if they travel down there for a doctor’s appointment or if they travel down there for an emergency situation, those costs are actually covered through reciprocal billing.

What I believe the Member is talking about is when members of the community choose to go to Fort Nelson as opposed to going to the health centre, they want their travel covered. Our recommendation is that we use the health facilities here in the Northwest...

A couple of things. Your income doesn’t really affect your ability to access government funded long-term care facilities in the Northwest Territories or extended care. So it doesn’t matter if you make a ton of money or have no money, it’s based on need. So I’m not sure I understand that particular question. Hopefully the Member will be able to help me understand where he’s going with that.

On the other side, there is nothing stopping a private business from opening up a long-term care facility and charging whatever they feel an appropriate market rent or market fee would be to do that. There’s...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to provide an update on our plans to improve care and services for our residents by improving the Health and Social Services System.

On June 4, 2015, Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, received assent in the Legislative Assembly. With the assent of Bill 44, we now have the legislative mechanism to bring the NWT Health and Social Services System together.

This milestone is the result of years of work and collaboration between many different stakeholders, including the chairs and public administrators of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. A lot of questions there. Just to be clear, the RFP for Stanton was prepared to ensure the broadest potential options for bidders to develop the most affordable and efficient proposal. The procurement process that we went through does not limit the redevelopment solutions. A full range of proposals were considered for Stanton, including renovation of the existing building and provision of a completely new hospital. A new build proposal was considered, provided that the proposed solution did not include demolition of the existing hospital, and addressed the GNWT’s...

We are trying to ensure that all of our staff are up to date, they understand the policies, they understand the policies that exist. We are actually doing a medical travel review and modernization to improve the medical travel experience. One of the things that we’re doing is focusing on client service and making sure that all of our medical travel staff have gone through and are certified as customer service agents, which means they will be able to work better with our clients.

In the case the Member is describing, I would certainly be happy to look at it to make sure everything worked out, or...

We have the 10 extended care beds at Stanton currently and other than the Dementia Facility... Sorry, that’s it for extended care. So, 10 extended care in the Northwest Territories at this point in time.

For long-term care beds, we have eight in the Tlicho, 22 in the Beaufort-Delta in the Inuvik Hospital, none in Norman Wells at this point in time, 26 in Fort Smith, 25 in Hay River, 17 in Fort Simpson, 28 in Aven Manor and 28 in the Dementia Facility. Then at the hospital we have 10 extended care. So there are 151 long-term care beds and then 10 extended care beds. With the construction of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s projected to be nine positions that may be affected by this. I will not give the names and the specifics at this point because we want to give the CEO at Stanton the opportunity to talk to the staff and make sure they are fully informed before we release their position which will, in fact, identify the individuals. It is nine facilities maintenance staff. BHP will be taking over the facility’s maintenance of the project effective 2018 when the facility officially opens.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When an individual travels as a medical escort with a patient, there’s an expectation that they will stay with that particular person. We do know that we have people going out for really long periods of time and we actually have a policy that says after 21 days escorts can swap out and we cover those costs. However, if an escort wants to leave before the designated swap-out person, they are technically on the hook for recovering the costs.

Now, we do recognize that the situation the Member is describing has happened and can happen. So, we do have an extenuating...

It’s a little difficult for me to make a commitment to bind future governments in this particular case since the procurement won’t actually happen until the life of the 18th Assembly. But as I said, I will certainly share that information. The department has the information. I’m sure the Department of Public Works and Services has heard what the Member is looking for. I will commit to ensure that that information is shared.

I know the Minister of Finance has indicated they will be providing updates to committees moving forward. That will be in the life of the 18th Assembly. I’m sure that the standing committees responsible and whoever happens to be on Cabinet will be able to set up a protocol to make sure information is being shared in a timely and appropriate way.