Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, as I said, we are doing that homecare review to help us assess where we need to enhance some of our supports. In the meantime, for communities like Sachs Harbour where there is not a home support worker, our community health nurses are the ones who can actually provide some of the homecare services, recognizing that it's a small community. That has been able to work over the last number of years, but it is going to be included in that homecare review so that we can determine adequate resources for homecare throughout the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are going to be working over the next couple of months to create a number of options that we can go out and pilot with, either community caregiver or family support giver at a community level. We are hoping to have the pilots designed, at least for initial goaround, later in 2018. We are hoping to go out and start doing some piloting in 2018. I am happy to have conversations with the MLAs across the way, to help us set some priorities for where we might want to pilot some of these options. We know we want to pilot them in a variety of different...

Recognizing that we are a small jurisdiction on the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance and that larger jurisdictions like Ontario, Alberta, BC, and even Quebec have a much larger impact on the drug purchasing in this country, we have endorsed the work that is being done by the Pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance in trying to control the price of drugs, including negotiations with pharmaceutical companies and others, both at a national and international level, and we continue to endorse the work they do and stand behind the work that they do and support the decisions that they have to make...

We know that our supplemental health program here in the Northwest Territories is a very generous program, but the Member is right, and the Member from Yellowknife Centre brought this up the other day. There are some gaps in this program. We are doing a review of our supplemental health programs here in the Northwest Territories, and I intend to engage with the Standing Committee on Social Development in the coming months to discuss options to program reform. This will include actions that we can take in the short term, as well as approaches to substantial program reform over the longer term...

Mr. Speaker, I can't say for sure. We really need to get that work done, the homecare assessment, so that we can make some determination across the entire Northwest Territories where we need some additional resources or where we can better utilize the resources we have, to make sure that our residents get the best care that they deserve in all communities and regions of the Northwest Territories. As we get that information, I am absolutely going to work with Members and share it with Members. Thank you.

That's the plan, Mr. Speaker. Initially it will be somebody from the Hay River Authority. We're going to work on an agreement there. Our expectation is we're going to go out for staffing immediately and fill that position, get that person trained up. As for all medical travel, I mean, it is a nine-to-five job. There will be times when people do have to call, just so that we're clear that it's somebody always available 24/7. It's a nine-to-five job, there are some after-hours calls, and we'll be able to provide that support, as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I think the Member actually answered some of his own questions in his preamble. Building upon the comments that the Member made, one of the advantages of having the territorial authority do this, as opposed to a contractor, is we'll be able to ensure that our people have the best training and are completely familiar with the processes and programs that are in place. Also, we have to recognize that people go on holidays, people are occasionally sick; people might want to, you know, go on training or other development. Currently if that happens we're not always guaranteed that the person who is...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce that the Government of Northwest Territories has signed a bilateral agreement with the federal government to invest new resources into mental health and addictions services, as well as home and community care. This investment will provide approximately $6 million over the next five years, including $2.4 million for mental health and addictions services and $3.6 million for home and community care services.

Not only do these investments support key objectives in both our Child and Youth Mental Wellness Action Plan and our Continuing Care Services Action Plan...

We are going to move forward as quickly as possible to staff that position, but we acknowledge that it may prove difficult to get somebody. We've gone out for competitions before for lots of different jobs and not been successful on the first round, so we want to err on the side of caution here. What we're going to do is, for the first couple of months, we're going to work with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, who is going to identify a person who can help us during the transition phase while we're out recruiting so that there is no gap in service. We also want to make sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in September I indicated that we were going to look into this issue and try to make some improvements in Hay River. Since that time, we have done some analysis on how it is done. The Member is correct. It is the only place in the Northwest Territories where the service is provided by contract as opposed to being provided by the territorial health authority. As such, the contract is going to be expiring in March of this year. We are not going to be renewing the contract. We are going to be moving forward with creating a position in Hay River as part of the...