Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return and ask some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services in follow-up to my previous questions.
The Minister defines the Foundation for Change as an action plan. I have to say that for me, an action implies that one would actually do something and it has some definition to it. The Minister sort of implied that she doesn’t know what it is that I’m asking for. Well, we can be in harmony, we can have the same philosophy, but what action is it that the department is actually putting in place? What definite action can the Minister tell me that the department will put in place to accomplish any one of the Child and Family Services Act review report recommendations? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thought that I already stated on Friday, as well as in answering questions this morning, that we have accepted 62 out of 73 recommendations; 62 out of 73 recommendations. We prefaced our response to the report by saying we support the work that the committee has done. We agree with the committee that we need to do more to enhance family support and working with children. We have put explanations on 10 recommendations that we could not accept as they are written, but if anybody would take the time to read those, we explain why and we talk about how we could work with that.
Mr. Speaker, in that way, the committee report and our response is very much in line with the Foundation for Change action plan. The Foundation for Change action plan has many, many different aspects to it: ones to do with wellness...(inaudible)...wellness programming and the state of wellness of our people; we talk about how to increase and improve accessibility to health and social services programs by doing things better, by using technology, by using… I mean, there is just so much to that; and sustainability. This is something that we’ve been talking about for two years, Mr. Speaker. The action plan lays out quite straightforwardly how we want to do that.
We appeared before the committee two weeks ago where we told the committee members that we were on target, but the Member wanted more information and we will get that. Mr. Speaker, I think the action plan is very clear about exactly how we’re going to get there and what we want to get done. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am having a very hard time. I guess it is a matter of semantics. But in my mind, I really don’t know how the department is going to accomplish all of the things that they have in the strategic plan that the Minister talks about.
I would like to ask the Minister to tell me... I am going to give an example from the Foundation for Change. The action is: expand respite care for families of children and youth with special needs. The expected result is families and caregivers are provided with relief time. I would like to know from the Minister how those two statements tell me how the department is going to accomplish the expected result.
Mr. Speaker, I say that is a good example of how simply and straightforwardly we put our action plan.
Mr. Speaker, we see a vision in the Northwest Territories where we will have more families getting assistance from this government as to how they could get respite care and get a break. In doing that, Mr. Speaker, we have expanded the respite care program to include NWT-wide. We have enhanced funding and it is in this year’s budget for $75,000, and as Members have stated, we are working on a territorial-wide respite care program. That is new because before we only had a respite care program in Yellowknife and delivered by one agency. We are expanding that program, and in the previous answers which stated where it is moving to, it is moving to, I believe, in Simpson and Fort McPherson. I could be wrong about the communities, but we lay out in what communities we are moving, so we are working on it and we did a presentation to the standing committee where we suggested from models on how we do that.
Mr. Speaker, I think that is a very good example of how much in detail and how methodical where we are going about dealing with an issue that everybody here has asked us to do. I think that is a good example of how I fail to see how the Member could suggest we are not giving enough information. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for her response. I would like to suggest that all that information in her response should be part of the Foundation for Change. That is the kind of detail that committee is looking for. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I didn’t hear a question there. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
