Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my time as health Minister is drawing to a close so I'm unable to commit to any further examinations of the medical travel policy. But I encourage the next Assembly to continue its focus on improving those services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're always interested in hearing about people's experience with medical travel in an effort to improve it. We have done reviews of different aspects of the medical travel policy while I have been the Minister. And at this point, our primary focus is negotiating with Canada to sign a new NIHB agreement, which includes the compensation for medical travel, to include a wider range of escorts. We hear many complaints about the lack of escorts, and we would like to improve that but we need the funding from Canada to make that work. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share the progress we have made in strengthening our mental health support services. Our focus is on the pressing issue of suicide prevention as well as our ongoing efforts to enhance the mental wellness and addictions recovery system.

Each suicide and suicide attempt has a profound impact on friends, families, and communities. The distressing surge in suicide rates during 2022 has underscored the urgent need for a renewed approach. In June, I had the privilege of travelling to Iqaluit with key staff from of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Child, Youth and Family Services Strategic Direction and Action Plan 20232028; and NWT Department of Health and Social Services 20222023 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories remains committed to transforming the child and family services system to better serve children, families, and communities. Our primary concern is addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous children and youth within the child and family services system. We have made progress on this issue through quality improvement plans starting in 2019, but there is still more to do to ensure the child and family services system is culturally safe, that it supports children and youth in a meaningful way, and helps more families stay together.

Late...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is flexibility within the Health and social services Administration Act to bring Hay River health and social services into NTHSSA, but in the meantime they are part of an integrated health and social services system in the NWT where people from Hay River receive treatment anywhere else in the Northwest Territories, and vice versa if someone's in Hay River, they get treatment there. There are a couple of significant barriers. One is that Hay River health and social services has its own collective agreement. And so their staff are not GNWT staff. So...

Mr. Speaker, throughout this term, departments across the Government of the Northwest Territories have been working towards our mandate commitment to enable seniors to age in place with dignity, and we just heard some of that detail from the Minister responsible for NWT Housing. To focus this work, Regular Members passed a motion calling on the Department of Health and Social Services to create a framework for seniors. That work is now finished, and later today I will table the GWNT Seniors' Strategic Framework. This framework is an inventory of measures required for improving programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 77, Nursing Profession Act, be read for a third time and, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't make that commitment for the time that I have left in my term. But I will say that there have been some favourable changes since this issue was last discussed. So the projected cost of bringing Hay River Health and social services into the public service when it was last calculated in 2015 was $20 million and that was based on the functional costs of amalgamation but also on the pension liability. My understanding is that the pension is now in a much more positive position. So it's likely that that number has gone down. But as I said, I think the...

Yes, thank you. Just to reiterate what I said earlier. Functionally, there is already amalgamation in service delivery. But, specifically, the work that needs to be done involves the public service. So there would need to be some work done with regulators, pension providers, and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to complete a detailed cost analysis of the cost of bringing that health authority in. There would need to be negotiations with the Union of Northern Workers because they hold the collective agreement with the health authority staff. And then there would probably need...