Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a few people in the gallery today from the NWT Seniors’ Society and the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society: Dawn Lacey, Barb Bromley, Esther Braden, Yvonne Quick, Martha MacLellan and Kim Doyle.

I’d also like to recognize and congratulate all of the inductees into the Education Hall of Fame. In particular I’d like to recognize Val Neville Carter. Everybody in their life has somebody who’s had a positive impact on their life, and if they hadn’t known that person, they might not be where they are today. For me one of those individuals is Val Neville Carter...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe that it is the mandate of Health and Social Services to address that particular question. I know that question has been asked of by the Department of Justice in the past and I don’t know the status of the response, so I’m not the right person to answer that question, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve had an opportunity to travel around the Northwest Territories and talk to many, many residents. I also attended the TRC hearings in Inuvik, where we had an opportunity to hear many people talk about their experiences in residential school and the trauma that has resulted.

We do have a significant number of people in the Northwest Territories who are suffering from mental health and addictions issues. To that end, we have moved forward with a Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan to help address these issues, to help residents of the Northwest Territories who have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ve already responded to this and identified or, rather, made a commitment under recommendation 7 this work is already in progress. Thank you.

I am aware of the situations as the MLA has brought them to my attention. I have directed the department to work with the boarding home to put in mechanisms, so that we, as a system, can be aware of these issues that our residents are having.

The safety of our residents is paramount. We want to make sure that they are safe and that they have access to the services and are not missing the services due to injuries that may have happened in the boarding home. I have already asked the department to work with the boarding home to put in mechanisms so that we can be informed and recommend changes to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to immediately taking some actions, I agree with recommendation number seven. To that end, I’ve already committed to developing a new accountability framework for child and family service programs, which will be done in July.

In addition to that, steps have already been taken to appoint CEOs as assistant directors under the act, and new, more rigorous quarterly reporting requirements will take effect in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There has been a lot of conversation about medical travel in the House over the last couple of months. We do support some individuals having escorts with them who can help them with all those types of things that the Member is bringing up.

If a resident of the Northwest Territories travels to Edmonton, we also have some professionals located in Edmonton, nurses who could provide some guidance and support to individuals and help them understand how to navigate. Those individuals are available to our residents if they need them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to building the stronger linkages with Aboriginal government, we agree, and to that end we will be looking to add child and family services to our agendas for government-to-government meetings with the Aboriginal governments and we will ensure that there is appropriate follow-up at the staff level.

There are a wide range of degrees of hearing loss that children may experience. Regardless of the hearing loss identified, rehabilitation services are provided. So hearing aid prescriptions and other types of things, fitting. There’s also speech-language pathology which is available and will help individuals who have some degree of hearing loss. So there are programs available to youth, children and babies in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The action plan will focus on building stronger families. In this role of the family preservation worker with the intervention support programs and other things that they do, those types of things will be of key importance.

Obviously, we need to do more work to determine to the extent to which we can change either the focus of existing positions, or in the future whether or not we may require new positions. This work will actually be coordinated as part of our caseload analysis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.