Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the questions. So in the work plan attached to the response to the Auditor General's Report that was tabled in May of last year, we made a commitment to engage with Indigenous governments and communities to inform approaches. First of all, to define what is equitable and what do people want in more detail. So I've met with the NWT Council of Leaders to begin that discussion. And in the next year, according to the work plan, we will be establishing a territorial addictions working group with key stakeholders and to develop a work plan...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 77, Nursing Profession Act, be read for the second time.

This bill repeals and replaces the Nursing Profession Act, SNWT 2003, c.15. It will

Establish a single regulatory framework for all nurses in the Northwest Territories;

Update the name of the regulating body responsible for the regulation of nurses to the College and Association of Nurses of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut;

Establish new nursing designations for active members of the college, including

registered nurse authorized prescriber

licensed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that information to hand so I will write the Member a letter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have layers of mechanisms to ensure that the services that we deliver are appropriate, culturally safe, and effective. We have, of course, the new patient advocates. We have the office of client experience, which will look into particular complaints of the kind the Member has brought forward. The people who work in the health centres are licensed by regulatory bodies. Those bodies have complaint processes. We also, of course, are accredited on a regular basis. The next accreditation exercise will take place in September. So accountability is...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the Member would like me to say yes, and he wants me to leave the past behind. But I think that when we're looking at spending tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, I think it's really important that we take away the issues from the previous treatment centres. Most importantly, that they were never more than they were never filled to capacity, that there were issues that related to staffing, that related to the programming, that kept people away. So the idea of committing tens of millions of dollars to do the same thing again...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to take the liberty of recognizing my constituent Stephanie Irlbacher Fox who is in the gallery today with the Indigenous leaders.

Mr. Speaker, we do not have a treatment facility that is based in Indigenous culture. We do have treatment centres that provide Indigenous content in their treatment. All of our centres are AA 12step-based facilities, which would be very familiar to people in the North.

I think the Member is aware that Poundmaker's withdrew from providing treatment last fall and that we have been on a journey to find a new treatment...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, good afternoon. As Minister of Health and Social Services, I am deeply concerned about the harm alcohol does in our territory. Alcohol misuse continues to have significant, even devastating effects, on individuals, families, and communities, resulting in poor health, social problems, and economic costs. We know that alcohol impacts NWT residents disproportionately compared to other regions in Canada and alcoholrelated hospitalizations and deaths remain several times higher.

In January, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction released new guidelines with the...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 77, Nursing Profession Act; Alcohol Strategy for the Northwest Territories Final Report March 2023; and, Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act, Three-Year Report 2023. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a department with over 1,800 staff and a $610 million budget. So I don't know if the Member really wants me to explain everything that we're doing to serve the residents of the Northwest Territories. I support, and our staff supports, the goals that he has enunciated that people are treated with respect, with dignity. They are provided with effective care that resolves their issues.

Diagnosis is a really complicated process. It can vary between a practitioner being able to look at somebody and diagnose an ailment almost immediately to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we have to take a step back from this question and the efforts that this Member has made, and which I appreciate him making, to try and improve the quality of health care in small communities like his.

What I see is that there is a historic mistrust of the health and social services system, which I understand. It has very deep roots and despite our best efforts at cultural training, cultural sensitivity, and antiracism training, those problems persist. And it is my goal to live up to those values which the Member enunciated in the preamble to his...