Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, one of the things that we committed to in the response to the OAG recommendations is to engage with Indigenous governments to identify barriers to people attending addiction services and take a look at our standards and policies for contracts to make sure that they are culturally safe. So this is work that we plan to do in response to the OAG.

But in the interim, I had a meeting with the NWT Council of Leaders, which included leadership from the Member's region, to talk about addictions and aftercare. That happened at the end of September, and...

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I'm not planning to provide any more information than I have already provided about the contract with Poundmaker's Lodge. It ends at the end of this month.

We have five other treatment options that residents can go to. There are three in Alberta, one in BC, and one in Ontario, as well as they can stay home and use the community counselling service, the community on-the- land programs, and so on. So while we are not going to continue with Poundmaker's, we do have those other options. And recognizing that we don't have a specific Indigenous option...

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the cultural safety division of the department, which is called community, culture and innovation has a mandate to help with all programs and services to ensure that they are culturally safe and antiracist. So that would be in place in any initiatives that are put in place. At this point, the asks are, I'm going to say, primarily processoriented with a view to collecting better data so that we know and we have a better idea of what the outcomes are, and we're certainly committed to doing that work. We want to be able to show that what we're doing...

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the intention is to look at individual income at this point. But what I want to stress is that this is not a program at this point. It's a discussion. We have provided four months worth of public consultation, and that now extends until November the 23rd. There are many ways to participate, including a town hall that will take place in mid November with more information to come. So if people feel that there should be a different way of calculating income, that it should be household income or some other form, then certainly that input is welcome...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize to the Member but I'm not able to answer that question; I'll have to take it on notice. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, falling pregnant is not a medically necessary intervention provided by our healthcare system, and we have no plans to change that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question from the Member. We've done a jurisdictional scan, and there are some large jurisdictions with big populations and big revenue bases that can support specialized services such as fertility treatments. But that is not the case here, and fertility treatments are not covered. Thank you.

Thank you for the comment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. So the GNWT provides services to individuals who need a diagnosis and treatment for an underlying medical condition that is preventing pregnancy from taking place, and this is part of our insured health services. So if that service is required here, it would be provided here. And if is required in the south, then medical travel would pay for that to happen in the south. So that's the "why aren't I getting pregnant" answer.

In terms of assisting people who don't have underlying medical conditions to get pregnant, that is not part of insured...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have with me information about how many people attended the four previous treatment centres that were offered in the NWT, but I will ask the department if they can produce that information.

I also want to say that we have had a preliminary conversation at the Council of Leaders about alternatives to one single facility for healing and treatment, which is what the Member asked for, to see if there's something that could be developed on a regional basis that would better meet the needs of both treatment closer to home and the particular languages and...