Thank you. I hear the Member and I agree with the Member, but we are still limited by the existing act. We have to be careful on what we do because we may be in a position where we breach the legislation, which we don’t want to do. We have to change the legislation. The changes are coming. I’m looking forward to working with the Member and all the rest of the Members to improve this legislation.

In the meantime, one of the things that we’re trying to do, as a government and as a department, is break down some of the stigma that exists around mental health and mental illness and provide people...

I have been having very similar conversations with constituents and front-line professionals myself, and there is no question that the current Mental Health Act is outdated, is not meeting the needs of our people, but it is the act that we have in place so we have to continue to be vigilant with the act we have and individuals have to keep coming forward and identifying individuals who are in need and reporting them to the RCMP and/or the health authorities as appropriate.

The bottom line is that the act doesn’t meet the needs of the people and we have to change the act so that we can actually...

Mr. Speaker, one of the things that has become incredibly clear as I travel around the Northwest Territories talking about these wellness councils, is that in each of the catchment areas, for lack of a better term, like the Beaufort-Delta or Inuvik or the Sahtu, the way that the particular council will be formed will be definitely tailored to the particular area. In Hay River, as an example, we will obviously have to work with the Hay River town council as well as the other areas that might use Hay River as a catchment area to come up with a reasonable approach to selecting the individuals...

We have to work with the authority; we have to work with their pension provider to figure out what the actual full cost of that is. We didn’t start doing it immediately in the summer. We wanted to move along a couple more steps to make sure that there was any interest in us moving forward to the one authority. If there was no interest, obviously doing that work wouldn’t have been necessary. So there is an interest; we are starting to move forward with the action and the steps necessary to make this happen and we are in the process of quantifying what those costs will be. As I indicated, as...

Mr. Speaker, this is a significant undertaking that’s going to take some time. We could rush it but I would be worried that we wouldn’t get it right, so we need to take the time in order to make sure we dot all of our i’s and cross all of our t’s and do all the work that is necessary.

Right now, as I have indicated, the first step is to bring forward the legislation that will allow us to create this entity. I plan to bring forward that legislation in the winter session. I hope it passes in the life of this Assembly. That’s my expectation. As soon as that legislation passes, my next step is to...

As we move forward, we are taking into consideration all the recommendations from the Auditor General, because the Auditor General made the exact comments that the Member is talking about. When it comes to lack of clinical standards, right now, with eight authorities, we have eight different sets of clinical standards and they’re not always the same, which actually makes it incredible difficult to have one system and guarantee that all of our residents have the same level and access to care. So, as one authority, the regional wellness council chairs will come together, form the board, and that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is participating in bring your child to school today. The department hosted students who have been involved in learning how the Department of Health and Social Services works on projects that help NWT residents access health care services and also learn about nutrition. They provided some great incite and ideas on how the department could focus some of their efforts, so I would like to recognize the two individuals here with us today, Grade 9 students from Ecole St. Patrick High School. That is Ethan Carey and Josh Deleff, and with them, as well, is Josh...

Mr. Speaker, I’ve had a lot of conversations with our director of territorial services as well as social workers on this particular issue. We know there are significant limitations in the legislation itself and we have to make those changes. I actually anticipate that the legislation is going to take less than two to three years to be rolled out. We are hoping to have legislation available in this government, in this Assembly, but it likely will be in the next Assembly. But we are moving on it because it’s that important.

As far as dealing with the individuals, we are continuing to make social...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year we actually went out and started doing some consultations and getting input from the communities. We had a discussion paper that was put online and shared with committee. Both the department and the committee went out looking for additional input on that. We’ve used that data to develop an LP. The LP has gone to committee. On October 20th the committee returned the LP and I am now taking that forward to Cabinet. As soon as it is passed in Cabinet, we will be issuing drafting instructions from the Department of Health and Social Services to the Department of...

When I was in Hay River, the concerns I heard were: is this centralization, what about bringing our people in from Hay River into the public service, and the other one was the board and how would we get back to a board or council for Hay River representation. Absolutely, this is not centralization. Even if we work together and partnership purchase to get economies of scale, we are still going to need the individual in the Hay River for Health and Social Services Authority or the regional hospital to coordinate the purchase of the supplies they need. We will still need those individuals at the...