Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to clarify, yesterday there was an indication that rates have not changed for foster care since I believe it was 1996. This is in fact not correct.

In 2007 there was a review of foster rates done here in the Northwest Territories, and from the results of that review, the rates increased in most of the communities in the Northwest Territories based on an assessment of food costs, including baby formula, operation of automobiles and trucks, household cleaning supplies and other paper goods, personal care items, water, fuel and electricity, reading materials and other...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to take another opportunity to thank standing committee for all their hard work on this bill. I know it was a significant amount of work. I would also like to thank the department and all the staff who worked on this. They did a significant amount of work and a significant amount of analysis in order to get this right, so I’d like just to take this opportunity to thank all the staff here as well as the staff in the department and the standing committee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure there are enough minutes on the clock to outline all the things the Department of Health and Social Services in addition to the Housing Corp, Education, Culture and Employment and all the other departments are doing to support seniors. But I will go into a few of the items that the department is undertaking.

We do have Our Elders, Our Communities, which is a framework for action on improving the results for seniors in the Northwest Territories. Our Elders, Our Communities outlines priority areas that will be used to guide future programming and design for...

I would, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department and Stanton recognize the importance of culture in health care and works to incorporate Aboriginal wellness programs into the delivery of health care services.

The department and Stanton have planned for the continued delivery of Aboriginal wellness programs within the hospital as part of the technical and program renewal of Stanton. However, we also recognize that a stand-alone wellness centre could accommodate traditional activities and act as a gathering place for patients, family and friends. Some aspects of Aboriginal wellness cannot be accommodated...

Of course this is something that has come up in our discussions around child and family services from standing committee as well as the public and is something we are already working on. I would be happy to share that information with the Member once we have concluded our review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Of course not, but I’m seeing something come from committee with the full support of committee on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is right; I’m going to say exactly the same thing again. We are doing medical travel modernization and we are including this as one of the areas that we are hoping to address, or intend to address for that program. Right now our policy is such that it allows us to do reimbursements where a second opinion is justified. But it could be that people may choose to go out for second opinions if they know their trip is going to be paid for when they don’t actually need a second opinion. So we need to be cautious. We can’t just say we’ll pay for everybody that wants to go anywhere for a...

As I indicated, depending on the outcomes of a second medical opinion, if an individual did have to travel to get that second medical opinion, we would be willing to explore covering some of the costs. I do hear the Member and I have heard other individuals express concern in this particular area. I can confirm that this topic is part of the medical travel modernization. This is a topic we are looking at as we modernize medical travel here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When you add all the programs together, whether it’s housing or education or health and social services, there is significant money going into this particular area. I will commit to getting some more quantified, sort of, results or numbers for the Member and provide that to him as soon as I can.