Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, last week was Disability Awareness Week in the Northwest Territories, as well as National AccessAbility Week across the country. It is a time to promote inclusion and accessibility in our communities, and to reflect on what we can all do to make sure that everyone is able to contribute to and be a part of community life. With that, I'd like to provide an update on the Government of the Northwest Territories Disability Action Plan 2018/2019 - 2021/2022, which was tabled in October 2018 and is the final deliverable of the Disability Program Review and Renewal Project.

Work is under...

Time is meshing together. I either made a statement on that today or yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was today. The bottom line is, the quality improvement plan is a living document. We're hoping to have the document go live, reckoning that it will continue to evolve over time, but yes, it does and will include these types of things as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

When a child is under the care and custody of the CFS system, the director is in a sense the parent of the child, the de facto parent, and the director does have the ability to provide some responsibilities in this area through child protection workers within the system.

The practice expectation when a child or a youth does go missing is that the child protection working is to take all measures required to locate the child. This includes, obviously, things like questioning last-known contacts of the child or youth; seeking out possible locations that the child or youth have visited or regularly...

I did have an opportunity to speak about this exact issue earlier in this sitting. In the new Stanton, we do have the ability to prepare country foods. We've put in flash freezers and other tools that will actually help us prepare. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to go live with this new program at Stanton until July. Right now, we're working to help train up our contractors who provide food services, to make sure that they are aware of how to do this. They will be visiting places like the Yukon hospital that actually already does a really good job in this area, and we are looking...

This is a good question, an it's important to note that every resident in the Northwest Territories, in fact, every resident of Canada, has a right to a second opinion if they're not happy with the information or the prognosis or the diagnosis that has been provided to them by their healthcare practitioner.

Obviously, in a smaller community, sometimes it can be more complicated because there may only be one or two community health nurses or NP's available, so they will have to come out of community. We don't provide medical travel support and those types of services for somebody who is seeking...

Yes, absolutely. To help us with that, we are actually putting in a new information system. The price tag on that is $1.55 million. It's the community counselling information system. That is going to help us track that information. Until that is fully in place, we will be doing our best to collect that data because we, like the Member, like all Members, we want to make evidence-based decisions in this area, so we will be tracking that information, as well.

There are a number of things that we are doing in the plan that tie together. The Member has had an opportunity to read it. Within the plan, we do talk about a seamless care pathway, which is from beginning to end and includes coming back to the communities. There is no question the Member is absolutely right. We do have some transition issues bringing some of these individuals who were homeless before they went for treatment back into homeless situations. We are not just studying, Mr. Speaker. As part of this plan, we have already reached out to the Housing Corporation and engaged in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate my constituent Brenda Johnson who was indicated into the 2019 Education Hall of Fame yesterday morning. Brenda spent 31 years working at Mildred Hall School as a program support teacher, eventually moving into coaching roles at Range Lake North as well as NJ McPherson schools. She is currently the curriculum coordinator at the district level and continues to be a role model for others on how to work with diverse groups and students.

Her priority has always been building an inclusive environment for students. She develops and supports teaching...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 58, Justice Administration Statutes Amendment Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 12-18(3): Report on the Review of the 2018 Report of the Auditor General of Canada of the Northwest Territories Child and Family Services." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.