Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to introduce Ms. Deborah McLeod and her husband. They are my constituents, and I wish them the very best for their retirement. Thank you.

Absolutely. That is possible. One of the contemplated uses of the on-the-land healing fund is, in fact, after-care and family-based after-care. The Indigenous governments decide on the program. It is a community-based program, and they apply for the money to implement it in their communities according to their own needs. Certainly, the money could be spent on after-care.

I always appreciate the opportunity to plug our on-the-land healing fund. It is $1.8 million annually. It is a very flexible program. People can use it for on-the-land, individuals, after-care, family-based treatment. It is allocated to Indigenous organizations. It is easy to get, and it is very much a community-based program where people can decide on their priorities and how they want them implemented, whether they want to hire staff and so on and so forth. This is on offer to all communities, all Indigenous governments in the NWT, and I encourage them to apply for it. Thank you.

At this point, we don't have a relapse prevention plan, and I'm not aware that there is work being contemplated for this. A person can relapse for a lot of different reasons. They are not necessarily programmatic, that something was missing in their treatment or after-care. There are a lot of different factors that push people into addiction and pull them out of it. What we're doing is a range of supports that is providing people with after-care, with a way to hold onto their sobriety, but we don't have a relapse prevention plan that is called that.

I would like to assure the Member for Deh Cho that we are not playing Russian roulette with the lives of anyone in the NWT, including the people who live in Fort Providence. It's my understanding that healthcare workers are in the exempt list, which means that they have very specific procedures to follow. They have to have a COVID test. They have to wear a mask. They are not allowed to socialize after work or leave the place in which they are staying. There are efforts to bridge the gap between providing the medical service required and keeping the population safe from this person who has...

I am not aware that the department is looking at hiring a public veterinarian. We would certainly be working with ENR in the event that they are looking at hiring a public veterinarian so that we can work together on making sure that zoonotics do not proliferate in the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a matter of fact, the Chief Public Health Officer has the authority to accept or deny applications for self-isolation. She has mandated, of course, that people isolate in the four hub communities, and there have been questions about exceptions so that people can go to their home community to isolate. I realize that that is the case in Fort Providence most recently. There is not a process that respects the privacy legislation, that allows the CPHO to contact the leadership and say: so and so wants to isolate; how do you feel about that? Rather, the advice that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member not leaving me out in the questions today. He was able to teach me a new word today, which is "zoonotics." Zoonotics is where viruses and other pathogens can be transmitted from animals or insects to humans, so rabies would be an example of a zoonotic. Public health has a role in monitoring and responding to those risks when they are present in the population, particularly in investigating human illness that may be a result of a jump from an animal to a person, so the focus here is on the person rather than the animal. Thank you.

I have no detailed information about how Nunavut created a plan to get the federal government to provide money for a healing centre in Nunavut. I certainly could find that out. I want to reiterate that it does not have to be up to the GNWT. Indigenous governments and Indigenous government organizations could band together to write a proposal for federal funding for a healing centre and to have some focus around what kind of services they want in that centre and where the centre will be located.

There will be a letter going to all of the patients awaiting surgery at Stanton this week so that they can have an update on what's happening there directly from Stanton. In the meantime, if they are having pain management issues, and I know that's very common with leg, hip surgeries, then they should continue to be in touch with their healthcare provider to have appropriate treatment for that and that also can be done virtually if people are housebound. We want to expand the capacity, obviously, and we need to tell people when this is going to be resolved. Unfortunately, there is no specific...