Sandy Lee

...with the Member. We toured all of the communities in Sahtu. Leadership did speak to us about a working relationship and interaction with the local health centres as well as health board. I’ll do my part to make sure that our board and our health care delivery system is accountable to our people. At the same time, I did encourage the local leadership and Grand Chief Andrew that there is... At any time when the community leadership have concerns or questions about the services or lack of, or good or bad or the ugly, anything, I think health boards and health centres will benefit from that...

I believe an issue similar to this was looked at before, and I’d be happy to share with the Member and the committee on that front. Mr. Speaker, I think in making sure that our seniors get the services they need, whether it’s housing, transportation, health and social services, income security, whether it’s the tax provision or income deduction, I think the fastest service is delivered when an issue comes up. It’s dealt with at the department level right away, and it’s something that we do. All the Ministers do that on a daily basis and, obviously, we could continue to work on improving that...

Yes, I would be happy to look into that. We do, as social service Ministers, or social envelope Ministers have met and we do meet, but with the Strategic Initiatives committees under Building Our Future, a lot of our work falls under that, so we’ve been doing that work under that committee. But I will be happy to undertake this task and work with the Member as the chair of the committee to see how we can refine this process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 7-16(4), I wish to table the following document titled Breakdown of Health Professional Visits to Tsiigehtchic 2008-2009. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Seniors issues and the provision of services in Health and Social Services for seniors is not just a small issue in a small community, but it’s emerging as one of the biggest challenges that our government faces and will continue to face. It is a big area of work and task and challenge that the department is working on. So I think in coming days we will be discussing more on that. So I want to put that out there and specifically to small communities, yes, we continually work with the communities, regional health authorities and every partner to deliver and improve our services to seniors...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the questions. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be the Minister responsible for Seniors and I do deal with issues that deal with seniors that goes across the government. But when it comes to administering programs and delivering services to our people, whether it be in income security or in housing or in health and social services and other areas, each department is responsible for delivering those programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents to table. The first one is the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services System Annual Report, 2007-2008. The second one is further to my Return to Written Question 1-16(4), which is a document entitled Physician and Social Worker Visits to Tsiigehtchic, 2008-2009. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Monfwi, that Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill includes amendments to the Child and Family Services Act that would:

clarify terminology describing plan of care agreements, care plans and case plans;

exclude from the requirement to report information about a child needing protection, such information as is received in the course of a judicial proceeding;

shorten the time after which a child protection worker must apply to the court for a declaration that a child...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize a newly elected woman councillor to the City of Yellowknife, Mira Hall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document titled A Foundation for Change, Building a Healthy Future for the NWT 2009-2012.