Great Slave

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 47)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Prior to becoming an MLA I worked in Human Resources within the Government of the Northwest Territories for almost 13 years and in that time I participated in many staffing actions. I was the lead staffing officer on many staffing actions. I worked on many, many labour relations issues and I worked on a number of duty to accommodate issues.

This legislation that is before you is dealing with individuals where we have a duty and a legal obligation to accommodate employees who have either been laid off or have medical issues, that we have to work with them to find a way to...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 46)

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, November 3, 2014, I will move that Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you. Due to the changes in the NWT Public Health Act in 2009, we were able to actually start collecting information on things like breast cancer and we have been collecting that data and reporting that data. That’s going to help us set targets. The longer that data continues, the better the information will be to help us make that evidence-based decision. So the answer is yes, we’re working with the statistics we have to improve our results here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

The Member is exactly right; it’s important to live healthy lifestyles. It’s important to eat healthy and be active, and that would help you, obviously, reduce your risk of getting cancer, including breast cancer.

Right now we’re currently working on the development of a Cancer Strategy here in Northwest Territories. The five key areas of that strategy will be: primary prevention and health promotion, so finding ways to encourage people to live a healthy and active lifestyle; emotional and cultural safety and delivery of diagnosis, getting people diagnosed early and making sure that when they...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you. We intend to have the strategy ready by June 2015, but at the same time, we’re not actually waiting for the strategy to be done. The work that I mentioned, we’re already in the process of doing. This is something that can’t wait.

We continue to work on the healthy choices, we continue to work on improving methods of getting people in and screened as early as possible. The strategy will help inform the things that we’re already doing and improve even more, but we are definitely not waiting for that strategy to be done.

I’d be happy to meet with committee and provide them with that...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 45)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do thank the Member for the question. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death here in the Northwest Territories and breast cancer is certainly a huge problem here.

Experience has shown that the best means to improve breast cancer screening is to have an organized program of systematic recall. We have put in breast cancer screening services in the Northwest Territories and those programs are located in Hay River, Yellowknife and Inuvik. As of this summer, June 2014, the Stanton Breast Cancer Screening Program added Behchoko to their organized Breast Cancer...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you. There have been some consultations with physicians and other professionals in the Beaufort-Delta. The result of those consultations, a number of challenges and concerns were raised around things like deliverables, potential complications and individuals’ responsibilities. We’re working through those right now with the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority. Once we’re a little bit closer and we have that information worked out with the physicians, we intend to do some public engagements as well.

We will not be moving forward with staffing until such time as a budget is...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you. We continue to move forward as the plan outlines, which is Fort Smith done, Hay River, Beaufort-Delta, Yellowknife, but we will look at other communities and regions as well. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Annual Report of the Director of Child and Family Services 2013-2014.” Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 44)

Thank you. Just for clarity, the Hay River program is not up and running to full capacity. We are actually working on the development of some evaluation parameters with the staff and making sure that everything is going to be appropriate for rollout and we’re looking to roll out in early 2015. We have already begun some early and initial consultations for the expansions of the services to the Beaufort-Delta, and we’re looking forward to having some public consultations up there in 2015-2016 as we move forward with rollout. Thank you.