Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Members’ comments. The Members are correct; our current Mental Health Act came into force in 1985 and there has been no significant amendment since. This bill will completely replace the old Mental Health Act.

Mr. Speaker, there are gaps in our current mental health system and residents are falling through the cracks. It’s clear that change is urgently needed and the time is now. This legislation will fill those gaps and modernize the current mental health framework. The bill streamlines the current assessment and admissions process and also removes some...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Ms. Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of Health and Social Services; on my left is Mr. Thomas Druyan, legislative counsel responsible for drafting this piece of legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to be here to discuss Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act.

I appreciate the questions and concerns raised by community members and health and social services providers during public meetings hosted by the Standing Committee on Social Programs throughout the Northwest Territories.

The primary purpose of Bill 44 is to allow for the transformation of the health and social services system so that it can work as one system. This will be achieved by amalgamating all the health and social services...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is about the departments working together for the common good, trying to improve services for youth. This isn’t an elimination of the entire program in Education, Culture and Employment but it is a recognition that by working together we’re able to support a Healthy Family Program in the Beaufort-Delta, in Tuk in particular, and this is our way of working together to float some money. We’re also partnering with the community and with the Inuvialuit to make this happen. This isn’t an elimination in any way of the education program. This is us working together to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 55, Mental Health Act, be read for the second time.

This bill replaces the Mental Health Act. It modernizes mental health legislation and includes an approach to promote the care and treatment of patients in communities where appropriate. It provides for the establishment of a review board to hear, in a timely manner, applications by patients, persons acting on behalf of patients, medical practitioners and other persons. A consequential amendment is made to the Property Assessment and Taxation Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is one of the aspects of consensus government that I really like. The department went out and did a bunch of work and did consultations around the Northwest Territories on how to improve the health and social services system with a focus on the client, and we drafted a bill based on all that consultation. Then the Members got a hold of the bill and they went back out and they did some consultation and they offered amendments and motions that actually, I believe, truly have made this a stronger and better bill. For instance, the Members have talked about the need to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 55, Mental Health Act, be read for the first time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the members of the Minister’s Advisory Committee on Anti-Poverty who have joined us today. They’re the individuals who have worked together, worked hard to consolidate all the information from residents across the Northwest Territories in the development of working together on an action plan to reduce and eliminate poverty in the Northwest Territories. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to both recognize and thank Bronwyn Watters and Julie Green as well as Mark Heyck.

June is also Senior Citizens Month and June 15th is World Elder Abuse Day...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Working Together: An Action Plan to Reduce and Eliminate Poverty in the Northwest Territories.”

On behalf of the NWT Network to Prevent Abuse of Older Adults and the NWT Seniors’ Society, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Networking to Prevent Older Adult Abuse: A Comparative Research Study.”

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time today I will table “Working Together: An Action Plan to Reduce and Eliminate Poverty in the Northwest Territories.” This collaborative action plan demonstrates our government’s commitment to work in partnership with other stakeholders to tackle poverty in the Northwest Territories. It builds on the great work that produced “Building on the Strengths of Northerners,” the Anti-Poverty Strategic Framework, in 2013. Like the strategic framework, this action plan was developed by all levels of government working together with representatives from the private...