Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't say specifically. I know that we have been working on the guidelines with our partners for a long time. I will get the department to give me a heads-up and I will share that information with committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what's in there is a reduction of two positions in the Health and Social Services Administration Office in Inuvik. However, post-printing of this document, the decision has been made to reduce only one of those vacant positions in Inuvik. The second position now identified is a vacant position in Yellowknife in the information system support. So the insured service coordinator and administrative assistant were the ones in Inuvik; and now it's just one of those.

The paid caregiver program? Okay. So, Mr. Chair, the paid caregivers is one of the action items within the action plan that is put together for the Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. We do have some federal money that, obviously, doesn't appear in this budget, that we've been able to obtain from the federal government to do some design and some piloting on those paid caregivers. Now, it could be one of a number of things: one of them would be family support; one of them could be different people in the community. We are using those federal dollars to develop some different pilots...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we had this discussion in the last budget, if I remember correctly. The lease on that is coming due. The Department of Infrastructure is doing some physical assessments on those buildings, trying to determine what, if any, life is left in that building, so that we can make an informed decision on next steps. If it is determined that there is still life in that building and the Y can stay in that building, we will certainly be coming back with a supp to make the appropriate adjustment in this line. I do remind the Member that this is a grant in kind, so it is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to chronic diseases, which obviously includes heart disease, we're trying to take a prevention approach, which means we are really focusing on trying to encourage healthy lifestyles for residents of the Northwest Territories, but also put in place mechanisms to help educate people on how to prevent some of these things from occurring. We also need to make sure that we're enhancing screening. We are providing quality screening so that individuals can get screened early so that, if treatment is required, we can provide it.

There are a number of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was a Regular Member when the Privacy Commissioner came to the Assembly and encouraged us strongly to put in a Health Information Act. We have put in that Health Information Act. I believe it was in 2014 or 2015. We have done a significant amount of work. We have significant obligations to report. We have hired designated and dedicated people to this file.

A significant amount of work still needs to be done. We have a lot of training to do. There has been some suggestion that we need to simplify the act. That may require a rewrite. It also could be done...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not certain of the mechanism by which the authority chose to fill it, whether they chose to fill it on the term or an indeterminate. I do know it's a half-time position and it is currently filled. I will endeavour to get more information for the Minister on whether they've been hired as terms or indeterminate. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I haven't been around for 20 years. I have been around for a little while. I guess I have been around for longer than 20 years, but I haven't been around in this building for 20 years. I made a commitment to the different family violence organizations early in the life of this Assembly that, a year after we went live with the territorial authority, we would be in a better position to sit down and have a discussion, work together to develop a formula. That work has actually be initiated after August of last year, when we met our one-year deadline. I think we have come a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That already exists according to the legislation for the authorities. the Ministry of Health and Social Services is responsible and accountable for provision of services through the Territorial Health Authority, and they do that through a board which the Minister appoints. I certainly take recommendations from others on the membership. Ultimately, this budget before you does have a significant amount of money that is flowing to the authority, so I would suggest that, if you have questions that are specific to the authority throughout the document, there are areas that are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member's point, and I accept what she's saying. When the assessment was done, it was felt that the highest need was for frailty, and we wanted to make sure that we nailed the highest need. I take the Member's point and we'll certainly continue to have those discussions with the deputy and the department to make sure that they're considering that. Like I said, we haven't seen any proposals yet, and if we find that we have missed something in the future, we're certainly willing to explore it again. Thank you, Mr. Chair.