Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question and for talking to me about it.

I can advise the Member and the House that normally a custom adoption process should not take that long at all. It’s quite a routine process. The department does not have a direct role to play. It merely ratifies adoptions that have been agreed to. Usually this is a pretty speedy process and without too much hardship.

I just want to offer some answers to the questions raised.

Mr. Chairman, I think it’s really important that when we delete a capital project, it’s a serious matter, and it warrants a full debate. I would encourage Members to reconsider the vote and take a vote with all the information.

I’m happy to have the opportunity, first of all, to answer some of the questions that the Members may have. We should also note that while this is an interim appropriation, we have agreed that the capital budget will be a full budget, because we know that you can’t approve a quarter of a building. When you...

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding that there has been quite a bit of work and analysis that has been done on this and on how the policy could come about, how that would be implemented and how we could lay that out. I have to get the details of that to see what work, exactly in detail, has been done and where we are with that. I just haven’t had the time to look into that further.

But I do want to assure the Member that a lot of work has been done on this issue by this government. I’d just like to look into that further, get back to the Member and then maybe we could have more discussion at...

Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to make that commitment to look at the process to see what improvements, if any, could be made and whether or not it would require legislative amendments. It is my understanding that over the years we have gone a long way in improving and supporting this process, but obviously if there’s any room for improvement, I would be happy to look at that with the Member.

Question 99-16(2)

Public Service Medical

Mr. Speaker, it is my understanding — and I’d be happy to look into that — that as the system stands now, as long as the parties agree on the adoption arrangement, they put the documents together through the adoptions commissioner in regional offices. They just have to submit that to the Supreme Court, and the department issues adoption certificates thereafter. In the situation that the Member has brought forward to me, there were some logistical errors and uncompleted documents that caused difficulty.

I just want to reiterate that the custom adoption process is quite simplified. It’s a process...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not going to help the Member read that letter. The paragraph before the paragraph that he’s quoting, which he is reading out of context, I say again, speaks about case-management approach and two-way approach. The part that the Member is quoting is about the responsibility of the client to contact, but that is only a little part of what you’ll have to do, and that is a part of a client-focused and client-driven recovery program that is very, very important for anybody who wants to combat their addiction for life.

Mr. Speaker, I state again that there are follow-up processes, that there are aftercare programs within our alcohol and drug addiction programming. I’m saying to the Member again: we do that already. That is my answer. I am not being stubborn; I am giving the answers. We do that work already, and the workers that we have in our communities do that already.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services, the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, and Capital Health Authority in Edmonton are working with the leadership and residents of Aklavik to investigate the incidence of H. pylori infection in the community.

A team of 25 health professionals and researchers from Capital Health and the University of Alberta, working together with the employees of the G.N.W.T., spent four days in Aklavik in February. They took tissue samples from 300 persons — every consenting adult in the community.

These tissue samples will be examined...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated two days ago in referring to that letter, there is another paragraph in that letter which shows a very client-focused, case-management approach where any resident from the Northwest Territories who gets to go to any kind of treatment program, before they are discharged, are encouraged to work out an aftercare program. They have a say in who could help them with their aftercare and to stay in the sober-for-life program, whether they be friends, whether they be addiction workers, whether they be AA programs. They work out the package, and they work with the workers.

So in...

Mr. Speaker, my two-page letter, which the Member tabled, was in follow-up to the questions that he asked in the first session. If you read that letter in totality, it does state that we do all the work that needs to be done between pre-treatment, the treatment issues, post-treatment, aftercare.

This government in the last five years has spent millions of dollars. We have hired over 40 community wellness workers as well as mental health and addiction coordinators, and they’re actively in the healing process of anybody who comes to their attention. I believe that the program covers all of that...