Statements in Debates
We haven’t engaged the federal government in this area at this time because this is still going through the budget process. As soon as the budget process is through, I think we would be… As the Minister responsible for Seniors, I know that we are having an FPT meeting and I’m sure that will be one of the topics coming up. If not, I could ensure the Member that I will engage the other federal Minister responsible for Seniors to see how that is going to impact the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know recently that a seniors handbook was published which lays out the programs from the various departments. For Health and Social Services, we are offering things in the health area. We offer home care for independent living, long-term care for elders and seniors that need it, and also for other health programs and extended health benefits which provide prescription drugs, medical travel, medical supplies, appliances, prostheses, hearing aids, dental services and eye glasses.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “A Shared Path Towards Wellness: Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, June 2012.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this time their plan is to move our medevacs to the international airport. At this time there is no plan to continue to keep a strip open at the Municipal Airport. However, like I have indicated, our deputy minister is continuing to have discussions to see if that is a possibility. They are currently using some flights that are going to the international airport as a backup for the Municipal Airport, and it’s been working fine. So far it seems like individuals have a fear that the international airport is a long way out. I think it’s about 45 minutes, and that could mean a matter of life or...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are slowly expanding long-term care in the territory. Right now we are increasing long-term care in the Tlicho region by nine beds, or I think 10 beds, going from an eight-bed facility to an 18-bed facility. We’re expanding regionally again in the Sahtu by providing an 18-bed long-term care facility. Unfortunately, in the plans we don’t have an additional long-term care facility going into the Mackenzie Delta. We have one in Inuvik, as I indicated, but we don’t have a plan to build a long-term care facility in the Mackenzie Delta. So we’ll have to work with Health...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our deputy minister has been meeting with the Alberta Health and Wellness people and they last met in April of this past year. They had indicated that they had promised that they would provide us with some continual updates as things change at the Municipal Airport as they go for closing the Municipal Airport. Recently the DM has asked if she could participate in the Transition Advisory Committee at Alberta Health and Wellness, but we have not received a response on that yet. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard a lot about this when we travelled in the Mackenzie Delta. The fact that there is no long-term care facility, as we refer to long-term care facility where there is nursing care and all of that, in the Mackenzie Delta in the three communities that this Member represents. However, they did talk about reopening and re-profiling the Joe Greenland Centre from the type of care that was being provided and shut down to where the Housing Corporation will be renovating that facility and then allocating those for elders within the community of Aklavik and perhaps...
Mr. Speaker, it’s fairly obvious what the issues are in mental health and addictions from our perspective. We are trying to develop a plan that moves forward. There are gaps in the system. That’s what we need to address. This action plan, we’re trying to develop something that moves us forward, gives us a better view of what those gaps are, what those issues are, and then the whole base that through business planning process we will be able to fill those gaps and develop something on the longer term.
We do actually know where we are trying to go. We have a pretty good idea that we have...
Mr. Speaker, the nature of all of the action plan is prevention. If we are able to incorporate a good action plan around mental health and addictions, that is overall prevention. The whole action plan is about prevention, about trying to defer or avoid future costs for treatment or future costs for having people in the hospitals and so on. The whole idea of this program is to reduce those costs in the future to do the upstream work so that we have positive impacts downstream. Thank you.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had many discussions about mental health and addictions since I’ve become the Minister of Health and Social Services. This action plan has been in the works for quite some time. The plan right now, as a department, we’re seeing something with a shorter time frame that’s more of an action plan rather than a strategy is something that we need in order to start to move forward and try to make some progress in the mental health and addictions field. This doesn’t mean that we will stop working on mental health and addictions at the end of three years. It is hoped, and...