Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did have some initial conversations with the Minister of Health and Social Services for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. They have since stopped being the Ministers of Health and Social Services, so I will follow up with the new Ministers to see if there’s any interest in a pan-territorial approach. Thank you.

There’s a program that we’re supporting called Talking About Mental Illness, which is actually a program that we’re intending to get into the schools, which will encourage people, youth, to talk about mental health issues and we’re anticipating seeing some of the delivery of that this fiscal year. Thank you.

We do see this as a challenge and it is something that we want to fix. I agree with what the Member is saying. We actually have begun negotiations some time ago with the Government of Alberta in order to increase the amount of coverage that is being provided by these northern support nurses that happen to be in Alberta. Unfortunately, those negotiations have temporarily ceased as Alberta is going full forward into their budget process as well. We anticipate those discussions will continue once their budget is concluded.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s $113,000 for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, $183,000 for the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities and $39,000 for the Hay River Community for Persons with Disabilities for a total of $335,000 in the Disabilities Fund.

It would be inappropriate to talk about individual cases. But I can say that we do work with our residents of the Northwest Territories, and when they do have challenges with the NIHB benefits that they’re entitled to receive, we do participate with them. We do work with them by providing the doctors’ notes and everything they need, and those issues do get resolved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just to confirm, the Member is talking about the CIHI at this point?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, just to be clear, these are grants and contributions. There are dollars that are flowing out to other organizations such as the authorities but as well as other organizations for specific programming. This is in no way, shape or form indicative of the entire budget being spent on mental health and addictions by the Department of Health and Social Services. I believe that number is closer to $15.7 million. For some specifics I will go to the deputy minister.

In this process we don’t want to dictate to any of the communities or regions what project would be appropriate for them. This is a community-driven initiative. So it’s what the community wishes to see and how the community wishes to see it unroll.

As I said to Member Blake yesterday, we’re there to add clinical advice and expertise if they seek it, and if they want some of our people there, we’re willing to participate as well. So if they want a youth program, they can have a youth program. Thank you.

That actually falls under the out-of-territory hospitals expenses.

The work to set them up is actually occurring right now, but the money actually hasn’t been transferred. A supp will be coming to Committee of the Whole later, in the next couple of weeks. It’s a transfer from ECE. So we’re beginning the work now and when the supp is passed, the money will be there and the dollars will be used to create the program in Tuk. So it is going to be new in ’15-16. There is only a month and a half left in this fiscal year.