Shane Thompson

Thank you Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that explanation. It does help. It gets that information out there so people understand it better. I guess my last question is: if the youth's parent/legal guardian can't sign the consent form and they don't use the children's lawyer, can the department sign the consent form so the information can be shared with the guardians and their MLA? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that answer. Again, I can speak on what I've been told. I just have to tell you what I've been told. The praise from the constituents who have gone out for the treatment didn't come here. They've been very supportive of it. If you can pass on the message to the staff and say that they're going out and getting the training and tell them they're doing a great job and that. When you talked about replacing the equipment, was it a huge cost to be replacing this, or is this going to be a capital item that we will be seeing in the fall? Thank you, Mr...

I appreciate the Minister for that clarification. It does help a bit. In regard to this children's lawyer, are the youth able to communicate with this lawyer to say that they can share their story with their parents or their guardian?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess this is going to be the area where I am going to go with it. We have heard about chemo, the treatment here being changed and to update our staff. Now we are looking into April, from the last thing I have seen in the news in here. Can the Minister please provide us an update on exactly where we are going on it? Because I have a number of constituents who have to make the trip to Edmonton. They are concerned. They would like to be able to do it here. Can the Minister please provide us an update on the status in this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I again thank the Minister for that answer. I appreciate that, and I will be able to get that information to the parents and guardians in future. Mr. Speaker, if a youth becomes a ward of the department, can the youth sign the third-party consent form so information is shared with their legal guardians, parents, grandparents, and the person's MLA? Presently, we cannot seem to understand who can get this information out there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to this here, I think there is one on page 190. Is this the section where we talk about chemotherapy? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to be real quick. I guess I'm a little bit concerned at how we're going to be able to pay the Finance Minister the $92 million if we're not seeing, I understand the efficiencies and that, but if we can suddenly see this growth of a debt, we're going to be owing that Finance Minister some huge amount of money after a few number of years. Is this part of the plan? I understand we don't want to affect the quality of it, but at some point in time, we need to make some savings so that we can help alleviate some of the costs. Is that part of the process? I understand...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about some unique challenges of what happens with youth who become wards of the department. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. My first question: when it comes to treatment programs, why would we send youth down south instead of using the resources in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not asking just for the Nahendeh riding and the Deh Cho. I totally understand that. My biggest issue, though, is we are starting to see a huge number of children being diagnosed with autism, and it is a lot of work. I mean, I know down south they actually have a person who works one-on-one with the child, whereas we have classroom assistants and people out there. I applaud the department for providing this service. I think it's a great first step. However, we need to get more positions in the communities or regional centres, anyway, that we can spread out the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Ms. Mathison. Now I understand the better picture. It is very clear, because in the new auditing process, we need to show that as a debt. I greatly appreciate that. When will we start to see some savings? Because right now my understanding is that we're $92 million projected by the end of this fiscal year. When will we start seeing savings with this transformation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.