Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Mr. Menicoche indicated in his Member’s statement, dental services are not an insured service by the Government of the Northwest Territories. However, we do work with the dentists, and the dentists go into the communities.

What happens is, during the year the dentists have a program where they’ll contract with the various authorities, and based on those contracts, they contract a certain amount of days that they are to be in each community, and then they are paid according to the amount of days they would spend in the communities. Then they do what they can in the...

Certainly, when we see an increase in development and also that the consequence of that is an increase in the population. I know that at one point Wrigley did have a population high enough to accommodate nurses; at this time it doesn’t. As we see an increase in industry activities in that area, then we would certainly consider that and take it into consideration when we provide nursing to Wrigley. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Along with the other communities that currently don’t have resident nurses, we are looking at Wrigley. All communities that have a population of under 250 people are essentially not scheduled to have residential nurses in their community in relation to the Integrated Service Delivery Model that we use to provide medical services to the various communities. But recognizing that all of these communities that don’t have residential nurses do require some nursing, we’re trying to find models that will work in communities such as Wrigley. Thank you.

Thank you. Certainly some of the discussions that we had early on in the development of on-the-land has been that people have called for an AA-based type of program, then starting that on the land and then using AA as an aftercare program. However, I’m not sure if that’s going to be something that will be encompassed out on the land at this point.

At this point, I think the majority of the on-the-land program will be based around the connection the First Nations people have with being out on the land, and using that, I think, as the basis for developing the program. I’m not sure we would have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly that was one of the earlier objectives when this facility, Nats’ejee K’eh, closed, that we attempt to streamline the process for any individuals who are wishing to go for treatment.

As I indicated earlier, we believe that once an individual presents themselves as needing treatment, we are trying to get into the very next facility of their choice on the very next intake. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, it is certainly possible that that facility could remain with the department and be used for some form of residential treatment or support treatment overall across the territory. We are going to be having those discussions with the K’atlodeeche First Nations. It is on the reserve there, and that facility, at one point, was something that they had lobbied for, brought onto the reserve and initially was mostly a cultural treatment facility before it became a medical treatment facility. So there’s a possibility that we may run mobile treatments out of there. It’s also possible to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money will remain in the treatment of individuals within the Northwest Territories and some of it will be used to develop a youth program which is starting this week. This week we are meeting with the first opportunity to do a youth pilot program in the Deh Cho, so some of our staff are going to go over there. Some of that money is being used to treat individuals that are going out for southern treatment. We are looking at developing on-the-land programs. Again, some of that money is going to developing some on-the-land programs – in fact, we are piloting three of...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late Justin John Catholique of Lutselk’e.

Justin passed away in his home on July 25th of this year. A funeral service was held in his memory on August 3rd.

Justin was born October 11, 1981. He was only 32 years old. Justin attended Lutselk’e Dene School, also participating in training programs offered in the community for small periods of time, where he learned valuable skills such as small engines and mechanics.

Justin lived in his own log house across from his father. He was a loving...

Again, right now the Member is correct that we are currently providing coverage out of Fort Simpson, and that sometimes that is scheduled to be three days a month, from what used to be full-time nurses and the supports necessary to provide nursing services to the community. For sure we are prepared to look at what the Member is suggesting at this time. Thank you.

That certainly is still the issue; it is still one of the issues that we are trying to get around. Currently the communities that don’t have RCMP also don’t have nursing, so that becomes an issue. I can’t recall the exact area or association that we deal with the Nurses’ Association that indicates that one nurse cannot be out in a community by themselves, but I do know that a model says that a population of over 250 can be accommodated by two nurses and also by two RCMP members. That type of model is something that would fit that. With a population lower than that, we are trying to find a way...