Glen Abernethy

There isn’t a specific fund for that but there are different types of training that are available to all residents of the Northwest Territories. Things like First Aid, Medical First Aid, and Mental Health First Aid. There are a number of programs that are available. But as far as specific palliative care training, no, there isn’t. But we do have some dollars in our budget that allow staff to put in some overtime to provide some one-on-one support to families and the patient if needed.

Just a reminder, this is palliative care for short periods for certain medical conditions. It certainly can’t...

That will give us the ability to insert it into the capital planning process, which the Member does know takes a bit of time. I do hear the Member clearly around palliative care. We want to make sure, where possible, individuals can be supported for palliative care in the communities. While we’re doing the planning study and we’re getting the information which we can have further discussion on, we are making sure that our staff are trained so that the communities can support palliative care where medically possible in our communities in individual’s homes for short periods of time. In Deline...

The initial work being done by the contractor is going to be done, I believe, at the end of March, at which point we will start putting together the results and how we’re going to move forward. Of course, this is a consensus system, so we will be sharing those results and having further discussion with the Members as the report comes in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I went into some detail on this when we were in front of Committee of the Whole, but at this point the working group has actually gone out to a number of communities in the Northwest Territories. What we’re trying to do is get a small community, a large community and a remote community so we can get a variety of different inputs and opinions. We’re also looking at all the data that’s been gathered on medical travel over many, many, many years. So that’s been thrown into the mix. There will be some discussions with different stakeholders and groups in Yellowknife. They’ve also been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple people in the gallery. I can’t see if two of them are behind me, but I’m hoping they’re there. Ms. Rachel Kirizopoulos, who is the executive assistant/research analyst for the office of the chief public health officer, Dr. Andre Corriveau, who has been working with the anti-poverty file with us, as well as Mr. Grant Gowans, who is the senior advisor of anti-poverty.

I’d also like to take the opportunity to recognize a respected consultant for fundraising, communications and advocacy issues, a member of various committees and boards for a...

We actually do conduct a number of performance or satisfaction surveys throughout the Northwest Territories on different functions. I can’t say for sure whether we have a specific one in the Beaufort-Delta for home care, but I will check and I will confirm that with the Member at a later date. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member mentioned in his statement, Our Elders, Our Community has been released as a framework for taking action to support seniors and elders throughout the Northwest Territories. Under that document we are taking a number of actions, including developing a number of action plans. One of the action plans is about respite home care for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories, which will benefit all residents in the Northwest Territories including those in Fort McPherson and Aklavik.

The Member has mentioned a couple of times that he has concerns about the...

None of the other provinces or jurisdictions actually provide ambulance services for individuals who are outside of their jurisdictions. Once again, we only cover medically necessary treatment while people are out of the territory. If they go down for procedures that aren’t covered here, we wouldn’t be covering those either.

This is something that’s consistent across the country. We don’t actually provide ground ambulance services here in the Northwest Territories for residents, either, and most of the costs that come from ground ambulance are billed directly to our residents. Most people, a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Travel outside of the Northwest Territories within Canada and outside of Canada is certainly different. The NWT Health Care Plan does cover residents for medically necessary hospital and medical expenses when residents are travelling outside the Northwest Territories and we have reciprocal billing agreements with the different provinces, which actually articulate or dictate what those costs that we’re covering are. We do have an agreement with most of the provinces and territories to direct bill the Department of Health and Social Services for doctor visits and hospital...

Thank you. The Member is correct. I mean, as we move forward with system transformation, we are doing that work and that work does take into consideration population, but it also takes into consideration the demands, as well, because not every situation has the same demands. A home support worker in a community could have a multiple number of clients and some of them could be simple with maybe a visit a week. Others are going to take a significant amount of work. The demand will change in communities as the needs of our patients change over time. So, we need to be able to be flexible with that...