Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for an opportunity to highlight the responses and supports that are available. I'm sure this has been a very trying time for people in Hay River and more so as time goes on.

So the community counselling services, the Member may know, is located in the Jensen Building. It's open Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5. No appointment is necessary. The counselling services are also on call 24/7 during an acute crisis such as the one now. There are virtual mental health resources available to residents as well, including things such as the Kid's Help Phone...

Abstain.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since we last sat I had the opportunity to go to six different NWT communities, and certainly some of them are small communities and they have a lot to say about health care delivered to them. And while some people are satisfied with it, other people see room for improvement and I'm certainly interested in hearing those ideas for room for improvement.

What we want for the whole population is the best possible health outcomes, whether they live in a small community or they live in Yellowknife. And that's something that we are very focused on as a department...

Mr. Speaker, Rules of Debate 3.2(3) item (h), it says in a debate the Speaker will call a Member to order if the Member, (h) makes allegations against another Member, a House officer, a witness, or a Member of the public; and, (i) imputes false or hidden motives to another Member.

By suggesting that I am downplaying, gaslighting, requiring an apology for disastrous treatment, I believe this Member is over the line. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member may be aware, we're currently facing a shortage of nurses in the Fort Resolution health centre. They've been operating quite often with two nurses rather than three. So the idea of adding more nursing positions is a risk that because we may not be able to fill them. The nursing staff who are there provide home care and wellbaby checks and of course emergency and chronic disease management.

So the nursing level is not up to where we would want it. As I said, it's two rather than three. But I feel confident that they are covering the basic needs...

Yes, thank you. And I'm pleased to note that the CEO of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services region, within which Fort Resolution is located, has been to the community a couple of times this month and has opened channels of communication with the leadership there to work on the specific issues that people have raised.

I also want to say that while people may be afraid or unsure about advocating for themselves in the moment, there is also a complaint process where people, instead of sitting with their issues, can point out what their problems are and ask us for resolution.

Because it's...

Mr. Speaker, according to the Rules of Debate, section 32(3), in a debate the Speaker will call a Member to order if the Member, (h) makes allegations against another Member, a House officer, a witness, or a Member of the public; and (i) imputes false or hidden motives to another Member.

There are various other charges another Member with uttering a deliberate falsehood, uses abusive or insulting language of a nature likely to cause disorder.

In no particular order in his statement, the Member for Tu NedheWiilideh suggested that I was downplaying concerns, gaslighting concerns, needed to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the Rules of Debate 3.2(3)(h) and (i), the statement made by the Member for Tu NedheWiilideh is out of order. Thank you.

In favour.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member is aware, this is a federal program and the NIHB benefits are federally funded. The Government of the Northwest Territories funds medical travel to the same extent for people who are not eligible for noninsured health benefits and not eligible for Metis health benefits.

So we spend about $45 million a year on medical travel. The older you are, the more likely you are to get access to medical travel. There is a very specific set of criteria. It's set by the federal government and we administer it.

It is time to look at it again, and the...