Range Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 40)

Mr. Speaker, I was in the community of Fort McPherson with the Member in January. It was one of my first tours that I had as a Minister. I visited all of the Health and Social Services staff there. We have a whole floor of social workers, health protection workers, community wellness workers, the healing society; we have a lot of people there that are assigned to help the people of the community. What we are trying to do is see how we can service the community better by putting all those resources together and enhancing services in Fort McPherson. Mr. Speaker, I’ll just leave it at that.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 40)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question from the Member. As the Member is aware, I have been to Tsiigehtchic twice since I became a Minister, and I have had meetings with the community. The Member has talked to me about this issue repeatedly. I do appreciate what the Member is asking me to do, and I have been working on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, right now all of the authorities are directed to operate in such a way that they balance their budgets. For authorities like Beaufort-Delta and Stanton, where they have been experiencing deficits, they are having to look at all the...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker, all of the projects that we work on with respect to homelessness or housing issues or municipal downtown issues we do in partnership with the municipal governments. I have great faith in the ability and capacity of the City of Yellowknife to address these issues. I’m aware of lots of community groups that are working on that, so I’m happy to work with them. But I do believe that this is an issue that should be spearheaded by the municipal government and the community groups, and I think the leadership should be left there. If there are any proposals that the government should look...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Planning is ready, and we have the presentation material. Any time the Members would like to have it, we’ll be happy to provide it.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

I’m happy to advise the Members that the new plans, which are a lot more affordable and workable, are being shared by the public administrator with the employees. It would involve short term measures of moving admin offices out of Stanton, which will create a lot more space. We are doing work in the emergency facility there to deal with confidentiality and privacy issues. Building of the dementia centre will address the crowdedness in extended care. And there’s new work being done in the consolidated clinic that will deal with primary care services.

There’s a lot in the mix that would impact...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker. Once again my information is that the doctors have been writing on the form that they fill out to get medication and palliative care pharmaceuticals that the doctor prescribes to patients…. They have been notified to put palliative care on the application. Green Shield knows about it, and it’s been running very smoothly. Maybe the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and was not aware of it, so I will make sure that the pharmacists are made aware of that. If a Member knows of any difficulties that any patient in palliative care is experiencing, I would like to know about that too. Thank...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question. Following up on the Member’s recommendation, we have implemented that. We have a process now where as long as the doctor says in the application for medication to Green Shield or whoever is administrating our health insurance that it’s palliative care, Green Shield has been processing the documents on a 24-hour turnaround basis. By all accounts, I understand that it’s working out really well. It was in practice almost within a month of the Member asking for this to be implemented.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker, there is no plan to establish a seniors’ secretariat, because within the fiscal environment that we are working on, we are not able to look at expanding government bureaucracy. Even if there were a secretariat, whoever is working there would have to work with departments across the government, because seniors are looked after by Health and Social Services, by Income Security, by Housing, and in many, many different areas.

I think the point, the more important thing, is that we work together, and the Minister responsible for Seniors does do that. We work closely with the NWT Seniors...

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker, there is not a plan to set up a secretariat for seniors separately. However, we have a Minister responsible for Seniors who worked with the NWT Seniors’ Society and other seniors in the territory to address the seniors’ issues they advocate for on behalf of the seniors in the Territories.

Debates of , 16th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 39)

Mr. Speaker, as the Member pointed out, this is not a new issue. It is a natural phenomenon, as the Member has stated. Municipal governments around the world take care of issues that the Member is raising. So I do believe that it is within the power and responsibility of the municipal government.