Great Slave

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

Not at this time.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

I do, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to take this opportunity to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for their thorough review and debate on this bill. I believe, as many of them have said, that this is an incredibly important bill. I really appreciate being here to help bring this bill across the finish line. I really appreciate the Members and support from all the Members. Thank you so much. We’re moving forward. There were a number of recommendations put out to us in the committee report and we will be responding to committee on all of those. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today on my right is Lisa Cardinal, director responsible for health and social services professional licensing; and on my left is Thomas Druyan, legislative counsel. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 74)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here to discuss Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act. The Health and Social Services Professions Act is a result of five years of work by the department and reflects significant feedback from professionals as well as the public. This act will provide the foundation for future regulation of health and social services professions in the Northwest Territories.

If passed, this legislation will enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to regulate numerous professions under one legislative framework. This includes modernizing existing...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t have too much to add. These are very similar questions that were asked during oral questions last week by the other Member for Hay River, Jane Groenewegen. We do an assessment of an individual biannually, so two times a year we’ll do individual assessments to determine if there is an opportunity to bring them back and what the current status is. Where we have an opportunity to repatriate, we do.

I also had an opportunity, during the previous budget session, to indicate that we are going to have our territorial services take a look at all the individuals down south...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving forward with health transformation, we want to bring the Hay River Health and Social Services into the public service. The Department of Health and the Department of Human Resources have been given the mandate by Cabinet to enter into negotiations with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, the UNW as well as superann to figure out how we can move forward with that to actually make that happen, recognizing the potential costs, articulating, determining what those costs might be so that we can bring it back to the House. The work is beginning this year...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 73)

We are not challenging the Conference Board of Canada’s assessment of D minus for health outcomes here in the Northwest Territories. We acknowledge that the health outcomes for our Aboriginal people are less than our other residents in the Northwest Territories. This isn’t something that we’ve been hiding. Members in the House have been very clear about the challenges they see in their communities. We’ve been working with Members and we will continue to work with the Aboriginal governments. We have made improvements such as the Aboriginal health and community wellness division which is working...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 73)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the intents or purposes of the Conference Board of Canada’s How Canada Performs report is to provide decision-makers with tools and assessments they can use to help improve their system. We are going to take these recommendations that have been provided by the Conference Board of Canada to help improve the system. As I’ve already indicated to the Member and to the House, we are doing a number of things here to improve the results for Aboriginal people as well as all people in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to work with our Aboriginal partners, our...