Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for raising this particular issue. The Member did raise this issue in July and at that point I was able to read the report that the Member has referred to, and the report suggested that we can support this small number of children who are affected here in the Northwest Territories with a very small sum of money.

I have since directed the department to move forward to find the money from within to provide hearing aids to young children that the Member is describing. They’re in the middle of that process now. I was going to wait until a little bit later...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a constituent of the Great Slave riding, Mr. Kieron Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following the document, entitled the “GNWT Response to Committee Report 17-17(5), Report on the Review of Bill 44: An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act.” Thank you.

If I remember correctly, the legislation that the Member is referring to is specific to family law, which is specific around divorces and custody issues that are going through the courts and not necessarily child protection. Within child protection we have provided significant rights and responsibilities for extended families that include grandparents, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters. Once again, I will certainly take the information the Member is presenting and have the Minister of Justice take a look at it.

Mr. Speaker, I need some clarity before I can actually answer that question. Is the Member talking about through divorce proceedings or custody proceedings, or is the Member talking about through child and family services?

If the Member is talking about services through child and family services where a child may be apprehended or placed in different custody, the grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, brothers, sisters and other persons qualify as extended family, and under child and family services we work with the extended families, including the grandparents, and where appropriate we can...

We do encourage residents who are struggling with addictions to attend a number of counselling sessions. I believe it’s four, depending on the nature of the addiction. But we also recognize that sometimes four sessions is too much. Sometimes now is the time. If you are suffering from mental health or an addictions issue here in the Northwest Territories and you know now is the time, you need to speak to a counsellor or health practitioner, let them know that now is the time, I need to go now, and we can get a referral through the department in 24 hours and we can begin the process of getting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In 2014-2015 we had a total of 174 residents who took advantage of the treatment facilities available to Northwest Territories residents. In 2015-2016, to date, we’ve had 109 residents of the Northwest Territories take advantage of those same treatment facilities.

Just as a note, we have put in an expedited referral process to ensure that people can get to those facilities as quickly as possible. Sometimes now is the right time for individuals. We have seen some significant success with those bonafide referral processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Member’s opinion. I disagree with him. I’ve made a commitment; we’re going to stand up to the commitment. There’s a significant amount of work that needs to be done and they were hoping to do it this week, but they will do it the week after or the week after, depending on what the chief of the community says is appropriate.

Department staff need to work with the authority and we need to work with the community to conduct a functional program assessment of the wellness centre that exists. They also need to complete a health assessment with the needs of elders and residents with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re committed to getting this done and are working with the community of Deline to get this done. We had actually hoped to go in this summer, but due to staffing issues and the fact that Deline was probably one of the busiest communities in the Northwest Territories this summer, we didn’t actually manage to get in there.

Last week, during our bilateral meetings with the Sahtu, I committed to getting in there as quickly as possible, prior to October 23rd. In fact, we were hoping to go in this week, the same time that the Sahtu AGM, the Sahtu Health and Social Services...

I’ll commit to meeting with the Member after the sitting today to get the specific details. We, as the Department of Health and Social Services, I, as the Minister, have committed to the families and working with families, and I recognize that family law and divorce is a responsibility of the Department of Justice and I am sure that our two departments can work together to find a solution that the Member is referring to.