As my colleague to the right of me says, we have 286 days left in our mandate, so I’m sure that we can find a day or two to explore this further. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you. I think that’s okay. I want to ask the Premier, with the work that’s going forward and what we’re discussing here, can that somehow go out now to the regional levels to the executive and say that we want to look at this, even just to put ideas together so we can have some further discussions on how we get together in terms of having this type of think-tank in our regions?
I’ll get our crackerjack team together and we’ll come up with some options. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As it stands, the service delivery model does not authorize funding for a full-time nurse in Tsiigehtchic. Last October Minister Abernethy told the House that his department is looking into best practices in other remote areas in Canada and around the world. The purpose, he said, is to access our service delivery model and examine models from other jurisdictions to see how, if at all, they can be applied here in the Northwest Territories.
Minister Abernethy further stated that, “A review of the Integrated Service Delivery Model, medical travel, community health work training and the utilization of telehealth are being incorporated into the review of this review.”
Will the Minister give an update on the status of these reviews and what can be expected in the way of a renewed Service Delivery Model? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Health, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reviews the Member is talking about are all part of the entire health transformation we’re going through right now where we’re looking at how we’re providing services in all communities throughout the Northwest Territories in order to enhance services. That work is ongoing. The legislation will be coming in front of this House shortly and the planning will continue through to 2016, when we hope to go live.
But at the same time, we’re not just waiting for that to happen. We are implementing Med-Response, which I’ve mentioned several times in the House. We did a soft launch in November and we’re looking at doing a hard launch here in the middle of the month. During the soft launch of that program, we have seen that communities where there are no nurses, CHRs are able to call into that number and get the support and direction they need.
We are trying to do a number of things, and at the same time, we continue to review what other jurisdictions are doing around other types of professionals, community-based professionals, people from the communities that provide services in communities like Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, Minister Abernethy stated in this House that he has been told that one of the major concerns in remote communities is emergency response. He also stated, and he just mentioned, that the department is in the midst of rolling out Med-Response, which will have a direct positive impact on the service delivery in places like Tsiigehtchic.
Can the Minister inform this House when residents of Tsiigehtchic will have access to Med-Response and how can they access it after hours? Thank you.
In addition to Med-Response, I also mentioned some training on first responder training. I know that MACA has already begun delivering training on first responder in Tsiigehtchic. I believe that started in June 2014.
With respect to Med-Response, the residents are not the individuals who would call Med-Response, it would be the professionals in the community; in this case the CHR or CHW that happen to be in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.
I don’t think the Minister knows some of the situations that the community goes through. Many times a lot of these emergencies are during the evening, even after midnight sometimes.
What can the community do in situations like this? Many times when people phone these numbers for assistance, they are asked to give basically the diagnostics of what the patient is going through. Many of the people that are responding don’t have this medical training. You almost have to be a doctor to get help in our small communities.
What can our communities do in cases like this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is true for all the communities in the Northwest Territories where we don’t have emergency rooms, so many of our small communities are in this particular situation.
When an individual in one of these communities is sick or experiencing an emergency, there are numbers they can call into their health centre, whether it’s a community health nurse or, in the case of Tsiigehtchic, CHR or CHW, or in Tsiigehtchic they may actually choose to call the emergency room. Those professionals will still be able to contact Med-Response to help coordinate medical response in those communities it if requires medical travel or air ambulance but also to provide some clinical direction. So those individuals will still need to call the numbers that they call today.
If the Member has some concerns about the numbers that need to be called in Tsiigehtchic, I would be happy to sit down with the Member and address those concerns. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are still waiting a formal policy change in the service delivery model. In the meantime, I have a practical suggestion. The current arrangement has a nurse visiting Tsiigehtchic one day a week for most of the year.
Will the Minister commit to funding a nurse to spend two days a week in Tsiigehtchic instead of just one, as most of that is due to travel? Thank you.
In Tsiigehtchic, a community of 128 people, we do have a public health nurse going in there one day a week. I hear the Member; we will certainly take that under consideration, but we also have two times a year where there is a public health nurse in the community for six weeks at a time. There is some room for discussion and I would be happy to have that conversation with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Public Works and Services. Today I am following up on my Member’s statement.
The Energy Charrette held three months ago released its report a month and a half ago. One of its key findings was the urgent need for an energy efficiency act for the Northwest Territories. Getting this act in place needs to be a priority for us.
Will the Minister please confirm to the House that such an act is indeed being worked on by his officials for adoption during the life of this Assembly? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The energy efficiency act was last amended in September of 2009. We were currently using it up until December 2014. There will be another review of the consolidated energy efficiency act.
Any time there are energy codes or anything, regulations in the act, then the Department of Public Works uses the current energy efficiency act. Thank you.
I didn’t hear that the Minister was going to put this act in place.
Again, the charrette was very clear in its view that the energy efficiency act would be a cornerstone towards a secure energy future, economic sustainability, environmental responsibility and, most importantly, reducing the cost of living. To now leave this important work for some review later on in the 18th Assembly would make a bad track record even worse.
Will the Minister commit to bringing this act forward for adoption during the life of this Assembly?
Public Works and Services will be involved in organizing a construction workshop here in Yellowknife that’s an annual thing. That will be occurring sometime in April. What we will be doing as one of the topics will be discussing the energy efficiency act. Actually, sorry, I believe that’s in the middle of this month is when the date of that workshop will be occurring.
Thank you for that information from the Minister. Glad to hear that’s happening. That’s part of regular business. Unfortunately, we’ve had lots of meetings during the last six or eight years like this and the Association of Communities has raised the need for an energy efficiency act and standards.
Will the Minister, again, commit to bringing forward this legislation for adoption by the 17th Assembly? Third time.
I’m not sure that the department would be in the position to complete a legislative proposal to look at the energy efficiency act for the Northwest Territories. Currently, we are using the energy efficiency act that is used across the country. We use the energy efficiency and national energy efficiency codes when we do our buildings and make sure that all of our buildings are under the National Energy Code. These are building that are designed that exceed most of the energy efficiency requirements across the entire country and within the Northwest Territories. I’m assuming that Nunavut and the Yukon also have highly energy-efficient units, but we can compare well to any of the national standards. We do exceed the national standards in energy efficiency. But to actually commit to bringing a legislative proposal to the Assembly on the energy efficiency act would be something that I would need to discuss with the people that will be putting the legislative proposal forward, because I don’t know the timing on that. I would not be able to commit, but I will be prepared to have that discussion with the department as soon as I was able to do so.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s response is entirely unacceptable. This has been raised repeatedly, and now through our expensive Energy Charrette – yet another one – it has been raised as the answer to a lot of our issues and providing benefits including addressing the cost of living.
How often does this need to be done? Now we’re sloughing it off again. The Minister is giving responses like need to discuss, we’ll try and discuss, don’t know what the timing would be like.
For goodness sake, this is long overdue. Long overdue. Lots of other jurisdictions in Canada have done this. It has been raised repeatedly. It has been raised in a workshop that we funded to get this done.
That response is entirely unacceptable. I have no further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about what kind of services we have in terms of supporting some of our first responder service providers in the Northwest Territories, who, I must say, are identified as having some of the highest rates of post-traumatic stress disorder. These are our firefighters, our doctors, our nurses, RCMP. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
What is our government and the department doing in terms of reaching out to these service providers and making sure that they do have the supports should they need them?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t actually have any programs at this time dedicated strictly or particularly to post-traumatic stress disorder, but we do have psychiatric assessment and treatment that is available both on an in-patient and outpatient basis. So if an individual is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, they can access outpatient care or treatment through a referral from a nurse or a doctor or other professionals here in the Northwest Territories. So I would strongly encourage individuals who are going through this to get in touch with their medical practitioners. Thank you.
Thank you. In some cases just talking about mental illness is a tough thing to do for anybody, even if you are a doctor and understand the situation, to bring up the issues and the symptoms that you’re dealing with. Particularly in the North because we have such a small population there’s a good chance that if you end up in an event you might know the person and that can really cause really high stress and make you more vulnerable to PTSD.
I’d like to ask the Minister, other than what he’s said now, how are we getting that information out to these first respondents as well as to the doctors and nurses?
How are we getting the information that there are those resources that he mentioned available? Thank you.
We’re trying to do a number of things to increase awareness of mental health issues here in the Northwest Territories. We did release a magazine last year, which was Mind and Spirit, which encourages people to read, talk and understand mental health issues. One thing I’d like to encourage all Members to do, as well as all the Ministers and all residents of the Northwest Territories, is to take Mental Health First Aid. That creates an awareness in the individuals so they can recognize when people they know might be struggling.
At the same time, we do have community counseling programs that are available. This is free counseling available to individuals who are either suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or may know somebody that is and they can refer them to. A lot of these situations the Member is talking about actually occur while the individual happens to be on duty or at work. Many organizations do have employee and family assistance programs. I would encourage individuals to access their employee and family assistance programs to begin the process of healing.
I would also suggest that individuals should call the NWT Helpline, which may be another resource for individuals who may not be willing or prepared to talk to either a friend or somebody they know, but might be interested in getting some advice from somebody that’s a little bit more anonymous.
So there are a number of programs out there. We are constantly trying to encourage people to talk about mental health issues, to create awareness and lead people to the help they need. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I went to World Cancer Day, and talking to some of the individuals, they have a speaking forum, or a talking circle group here in Yellowknife, which is a great way to talk about it. So I was wondering if the Minister has any resources available that he can set up some type of forum for our first responders that want to get together and talk about these kinds of issues.
Are there any resources in the operations budget or any resources that he can think of that we can address this in a talking circle forum? Thank you.
Thank you. That’s certainly an interesting concept and certainly something that I will have the department look at. At this time I cannot say that there are actual funds available to do this exact thing, this exact roundtable of conversation, but it’s something that’s certainly interesting and I’ll have the department take a look at it. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary again, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We talked about the Mental Health Act and post-traumatic stress disorder. So I just want to ask the Minister – I know we’re going through a review of one of the bills – under one of the provisions in the Mental Health Act it talks about involuntary admission. Sometimes when a person who has mental illness doesn’t want to admit themselves, they have people they work with that care about them.
Are there any amendments being made that we can make right now to the Mental Health Act that can address these issues? Thank you.
The Mental Health Act is currently in the process of being completely rewritten. Timing-wise to do an amendment and then interfere with the process that’s underway might actually slow things up.
The types of issues the Member is talking about are going to be addressed under the Mental Health Act. We had hoped to have the Mental Health Act in front of this House in the life of this government, but it’s taking a little longer to draft than we had thought. We think we may be done drafting in the summer, which means we’re not going to have enough time to bring it to the House to go for first, second and third readings.
So, what I would like to propose to do is, as soon as the bill is done, in our August sitting I would like to table that document so that it is available to the public to review and consider, so that it can be the first bill that is going through first, second and third readings in the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, and I’d like to initially thank the Minister for the MACA fall update which we received a little while ago. One of the pages in the update talks about municipal access to information and protection of privacy legislation, and this is a recommendation from the Information and Privacy Commissioner which has been stated for many years running. Those recommendations from the Information and Privacy Commissioner have been supported by the standing committee again for many years running. But recently the government seemed to agree, and as the update states, we entered into a process of consultations, and apparently there was a discussion paper put out.
So, my first question to the Minister is to ask what the status is of these consultations and the discussion paper. How close are we to seeing some finite end to this long process? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to get the update on that and provide it to the Member. I don’t have it with me right now, so I’ll take the Member’s question as notice. Thank you.
---Question taken as notice
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the Stanton Territorial Project that’s coming before us. It’s not an issue of the merits of the renovations, I think those are well-articulated out there how important this facility, this hospital is to the Northerners and we need to make sure it’s kept up to speed and certainly up to date and able to provide the needed services. The issue really comes down to this, and it’s about the money, how we renovate.
So I’m going to ask the Minister of Public Works these questions, which first off is: Why is the path of Public Works particularly focused in on building up Stanton Hospital while it’s in full operation, rather than building either new or building a separate addition to it and attaching it later on? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Public Works, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It has been determined that the Stanton Hospital still has a lot of building left in it. It was built with the concept that at one point there would be a full mid-life retrofit, and we can’t shut the hospital down.
There have been many incidents where they have done mid-life retrofits to hospitals and they continue the operation of the hospital. It would be difficult for us to relocate the hospital while we’re doing a mid-life retrofit to it. Thank you.
