Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sorry to hear about the Member's friend. Unfortunately all of us know people who have cancer or have had cancer and have lost people we love to it. It is very difficult.

I'm interested in screening because it is a means of preventing further interventions by the health system. It's better quality of life for the patients themselves, and it's just better overall if we can provide prevention in the form of prescreening rather than addressing problems when they get to such a severe stage. So that is something that I'm personally very interested in, and I'm willing...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't imagine a worse situation than being told that you have stage 4 cancer. And that's certainly something we want to avoid at all costs. Screening is something we could do. We could certainly do more of it. We've tried new approaches, specifically with colorectal cancer. There's a FIT test, that's an acronym, and it's a selfadministered test, and we've sent FIT tests out throughout the Beaufort Delta where there's a high incidence of colorectal cancer. And we have pretty good uptake on that. It's a very preliminary screening tool. There could be...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a new idea that the MLA is presenting today so I can't really commit to how long will it take to make it operational and to provide the results to her. But I have committed to looking at some of the ideas that she raised that are, it seems to me, quite simple to implement things like exit interviews and job satisfaction surveys and so on. So I will do my best to provide this information as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes that she is in fact unforgettable. And I do appreciate her advocacy always about nurses. And I'm alive to the issues around job satisfaction. They've been reported to me personally and reported publicly that there is dissatisfaction within the NTHSSA, and some places, about working conditions, compensation, and so on and so forth.

I am very interested in hearing from the nurses. I can say that it is easier to retain a nurse than to find a nurse and get him or her to move here and take that job. We have an...

Yes, thank you. I don't know what's involved in commissioning but there is a sixmonth period allocated for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 31, An Act to amend the Pharmacy Act be read for the second time.

This bill amends the Pharmacy Act to add a definition of "unscheduled substance"; allow a person to sell an unscheduled substance from any retail outlet if certain conditions are met; require a person who sells a prescribed unscheduled substance by retail, or who supplies or distributes such a substance, to meet certain conditions when selling, supplying, or distributing the substance; establish regulation making authorities...

Yes, thank you. Just to clarify, Mr. Speaker, the reason Health and Social Services is involved in this conversation is that pandemic response money has been funding the Spruce Bough up to this point, and we have a commitment of that money until the end of September. When it comes to working with entities like the Housing Corporation and the CMHC, then the Spruce Bough will need to do that. They don't need the Health and Social Services as an intermediary. So, really, that  it all depends on the course of the pandemic in terms of this shortterm funding. The funding was provided in order to...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a dollar amount but it is true that the funding that was extended to the Spruce Bough during the pandemic continues until September the 30th of this year, at which point we're hoping that the transition to stable and longterm funding from a variety of sources will be solidified. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are taking a whole of government approach to seniors aging because it cuts across many different departments. And one of the things that we're working on together is an elders strategy which will look in more detail at the gaps that exist across government in services for seniors and to make a plan to fill those gaps. So that includes housing. So we recently  the Minister of Housing and I recently went to Fort Good Hope for the opening of their new seniors housing. And the collaboration there is that the Housing Corporation built the facility, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important commitment to me. I plan to age in place here. I know some of my colleagues do as well, and their parents as well. And so the services provided are very important.

In the 18th Assembly, the department commissioned a home and community care study. It was delivered in September of 2019. It had 22 recommendations. And the department followed up by responding formally to the home and community care review. And so that is basically our strategy for what we're doing with home and community care; how we're addressing those 22...