Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me say I appreciate the disappointment that families experience when they want to conceive a child and they are unable to do so.

The GNWT provides services to treat underlying medical conditions that cause infertility, both diagnose and cause infertility. This is part of our insured health services. And that would include medical examinations to determine the reasons for infertility as well as treatment and surgery to correct physiological and anatomical causes of infertility.

When it comes to IVF, in vitro fertilization, this is not an...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this would be, I think, decided on a casebycase basis depending on the diagnosis received from the physician and what followup steps are required. And if this is part of our insured health services, then there's the potential for access to medical travel.

I'm not familiar in any detail with what Newfoundland and PEI offer so I'm unable to make that comparison. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Mr. Speaker, this would go through the normal referral process of the patient going to a general practitioner potentially leading to a more specialized investigation and if a diagnosis is provided that requires treatment out of territory that is an insured service, then that would be part of the regular medical travel program where I'm sure the Member is familiar with the criteria for providing medical escorts. So we're talking about two different things here. We're talking about infertility as a medical condition and we're talking about in vitro fertilization. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide a personal explanation pursuant to rule 1.8(1).

Mr. Speaker, a copy of the letter addressed to me by the Native Women's Association was provided to the media. The letter is regarding my response to a question asked in this House on February 23rd, 2022.

The media reports on this matter have not quoted my response in full to this question. I believe this has resulted in me being misunderstood.

Mr. Speaker, quoting from the February 23, 2022 Hansard, the question asked was "Will the Minister finally admit that we are in a mental health...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to the table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Question 102219(2): Living Well Together Training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are not exploring any of those options. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Question 90519(2): COVID19 Community Mental Health Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you. I'd like to say again how proud I am of that program and the people who finished it. We have supported this program from its inception, and we created the addictions aftercare fund so that community governments, Indigenous governments could hire the Indigenous wellness workers to work for them directly.

I don't have information how many of those positions have been taken up by the Indigenous and community governments at this point.

The wellness workers are welcomed to apply for any job that is advertised by the GNWT, but we are not making offers outside of the regular staffing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're now in phase 4 of the CYCC program. So we are, in fact, planning to evaluate it in this fiscal year.

So it's a twopart process. The first part is underway now and before the end of the school year, and it is really addressed to educators and people who may not be in the job in the fall. The second part is with service users and with others who have interacted with the system.

So I'm confident that it will be a robust evaluation, and it will include who's using the service, what's the balance between children and community use of the service, whether...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Member for that suggestion. I'll take that up.