Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my Cabinet colleagues, I wish to table the following three documents entitled "Correspondence with Prime Minister Trudeau Regarding NWT Legislative Assembly Motion – Apology and Compensation to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation Relating to Damages from the Giant Mine"; "Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2016 Northwest Territories and Nunavut"; and "Workers' Advisor Office for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Annual Report 2017." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What we heard clearly from the residents of the Northwest Territories, in particular the youth that we engaged during our planning for this action plan, is that youth wanted access year-round to counsellors, not just during the academic year, but they still wanted access to the counsellors through the schools. We will be working with the DEAs in the schools to set up some sort of agreements to articulate how much time these individuals will be spending in the schools. It is our expectation that, during the school year, the majority of their time will be spent in the schools. Outside the school...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are to be three different action plans coming out of the framework. The first one, the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, is out, and we are already moving forward with that. The next two action plans are the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, and the next one would be the Addictions Recovery Plan. We are working on both of those now. We hope to have them out in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, preferably in time to help inform the next round of business planning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

First and, I guess, foremost is that we do offer, and we do make our counsellors available to the families who are struggling so that they can continue to work through their grief process and come to terms with the horrible incidents that have occurred. We want to do more than that. We want to support communities, as well.

We strongly encourage residents of communities to attend things like the Mental Health First Aid program as well as the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. The more people who can attend these things in the communities, the better. That includes the families, as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our first priority when a tragedy like this happens is to work with the families, to make sure that we have counsellors and other supports meeting with the family to help them address their grief and their loss. That has always the first priority. That is something that we made available in the Deh Cho region.

We also recognize that, given the large number of incidents and crises that were happening in the Deh Cho, there was a significant demand on all the workers in the community and the region who were reaching out to community members and families. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 8, Emergency Management Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We did have a public meeting with the committee, and the information on how we determined where the counsellors were going was included in that presentation, including the indication that, for some of the smaller communities where the school sizes are much smaller, we wouldn't be putting a counsellor in those communities.

Having said that, one of the reasons that we have gone with the clinical supervisor is not only to provide clinical direction and support to the counsellors, but also to help coordinate the outreach to the smaller communities. Our counsellors will be setting up relationships...

We are going forward with two regions this year. One of the regions that we happen to be going forward with is the Deh Cho, and what we are looking for in the Deh Cho is to establish three new counsellor positions, as well as one new clinical supervisor. The three counselling positions, one is going to be located in Fort Liard, one is going to be in Fort Simpson, and the other one is going to be in Fort Providence. The clinical supervisor is going to be in Fort Simpson.

The framework that the Member is referencing is a foundational document that sets the direction we are going to move forward in a number of different areas. It is going to result in three different action plans. One of the action plans, the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, has already been released. The Addictions Recovery Action Plan and the mental health recovery action plan are still in development. They will be developed during the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Having said that, with respect to the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, one of the key items that, I think...

As a government, this is certainly one area that we can do better in, break down some of our silos and make sure that staff in one department know what is going on in another department. We have been trying to work with our partners to make sure information is shared. We have been able to collaborate on a number of initiatives. We have been able to work with community members in the Deh Cho region. We have participated with them on different events.

For example, on February 7th and 8th, the department staff attended workshops in Fort Simpson that offered mental wellness, suicide prevention, as...