Glen Abernethy

I do hear the Member. We do not provide homecare just because an individual is old. All homecare needs to be referred based on needs of an individual, and there is a range of services that we can provide through our home support, which does include activities of daily living support as well as some food preparation. So there is a wide range of services, but they do need to be referred out, so I would not be prepared to commit to providing home-support workers to the independent living units because some of those individuals might be independent enough and not actually want or need those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the Member's concerns, and I hear those concerns from his constituents. I have heard them across the Northwest Territories. It's been asked several times. The answer is still the same. When it comes to long-term care, we are looking at level 3, 4, 5 acuity, individuals who actually have some high, complex needs, and, when we build long-term care facilities, we need to build them in close proximity where a greater range of services are available, things like doctors and other professionals who can provide support to those high-need patients. When it comes to...

In 1970 the vaccine was developed and started to be administered to citizens across this country.

I have directed the department to do some additional work in this area to see if that is a possibility. It was a question I asked when I brought forward the legislation the first time, recognizing that it is going to take a bit of time to operationalize this and make this official. At that time, the concern was having a legal document that had two names on it could be problematic, especially when it came to being out of jurisdiction or working with the feds on things like passports. I have asked the department to explore that and seek a second opinion on that because, in my mind, it's not two...

Sorry, I was just using that as one of the examples of the systems that are used by the Government of the Northwest Territories. EMRs are electronic medical records. Right now, EMR and every other system we have only recognize the Latin alphabet, so if an individual were to be using their name and using the traditional font, which is where we want to get to, those systems would not recognize those names, and that's a problem. It means we could inadvertently adversely affect somebody's care, their ability to go outside this territory to receive care. This is something we don't want to happen...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 41, Tobacco and Vapor Products Control Act, be read for the second time.

This bill repeals the Tobacco Control Act and replaces it with a new act. This bill creates prohibitions and offences, including in respect of the sale, supply and display of tobacco products, vapour products, accessories or prescribed substances or products; imposes requirements in respect of the display of signs respecting the legal age to purchase such products, accessories or substances; imposes an automatic prohibition in respect...

Frankly, the best way to protect against measles disease is to get immunized. Children 12 months of age and over and adults born after 1970 and onwards should have two doses of the vaccine. Immunization is available in all communities, all community health centres or local public health units. Measles can be dangerous for infants, and I think we really need to be concerned for those who are unvaccinated under 12 months. Pregnant women are also at risk. Those with weakened immune systems are at greater levels of risk. For these higher-risk individuals, a different form of immunization reduces...

There are kind of two different answers here. If the Member is looking for information for himself, we do have protocols that have been established as far as how MLAs engage with departments. I would be happy to set up meetings or appointments between the Member and local staff, like the COO in the Deh Cho. I would also suggest possibly meeting with the territorial manager of [4:42] Health Services here in Yellowknife, who is with the NWT HSSA. It might be valuable for the Member to help educate him. I am happy to arrange those, following our protocols.

If he is asking the question as a citizen...

The last update I had, and I believe it's still current, was on February 24th, and at that time, there was one laboratory confirmed case of measles in the Northwest Territories.

In my previous answer, I actually talked about some of the work that we are doing in this exact area to increase the number of referrals. In addition to that, in this current fiscal year, the one that we are in and is about to end, we did create some new rehab therapy-type positions in the Beaufort-Delta. Those services used to be provided by Yellowknife with the existing teams. That meant that there were about five or so clinical travel days up in the Beaufort-Delta. Those travel days are now going to be reallocated to the southern portion of this territory, which means that the number of...