Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past fall I ran into a very unique situation. A youth was sent out to a treatment facility where there was an incident. After a number of phone calls between me and the family, we brought the situation up to the Minister and the department for their help. To the department's credit, there was quick action taken and they were on top of it. Unfortunately, the process that is usually used to share what happened did not work this time. There seems to be a huge void when it comes to youth in care. It seems that nobody could sign the consent form, leaving a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Mr. Cooper for that answer. With this plan being in place, will this plan be shared with the standing Committee on Social Development? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, and I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my big concern is that I know, in talking with teachers and parents, we are seeing a higher increase of autism in my riding. Actually, my sister who lived down south is actually highly involved in autism and works with an autistic child, and so my concern is: how can we actually do justice to this if we only have a position in Yellowknife that is looking at the southern part and a position in Inuvik looking after the northern part? Because this is going to be a huge demand, and how can the department guarantee that we are going to...

NTHSSA financial statement of March 31, 2017. It says $67.12. I guess I'm trying to get a clear understanding of this because it does have an impact if our numbers are going up to $92. If it's gone from $67 to $92 million, then we're missing this number. I'm just trying to get a clear picture of the amalgamation. We are supposed to be actually saving money in this area, and I understand we're just in the process, but it seems to be our debt is starting to go higher in this area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to autism and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, where would we find that increase in the budget? I know it is in this area, but where is it? Which line item is it? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that. I guess I'm trying to understand this debt because I keep on hearing numbers, $67 million. Now I'm hearing $67.6 million deficit. Is this $67.6 million debt the most current accurate picture of where our situation is in regard to this authority? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess this is just going to go around and around in circles here, but, again, my constituents are not getting a fair treatment. We are seeing this, and it is consistent, so maybe the airlines are out on mechanical and they are having that problem. So, if this service continues, will the department look at alternate solutions to provide these services, i.e. local airlines or another airline company? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd just like to follow up on Mr. Simpson's questions. How much will it cost to bring in the Hay River Authority into our system? Can you please tell us that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that clarification. In regard to this area here, in my reply to the budget, I talked about the Butthead campaign, the process. I can actually say that it worked really well, from what I've seen. Has the department looked at using this, or are we using the new system or the new program that we have that the Minister talked about today? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I guess I disagree. If it's not weather, I can guarantee you it was a beautiful day on New Year's Day and it wasn't the weather. Again, that is an issue.

I'm going to move on to something else in regard to my Member's statement. It is my understanding that there is close to zero vacancies of hotels and boarding beds in Yellowknife during various moments in the year. What does the department plan on doing to help alleviate this type of situation where patients have to wait at the airport due to no fault of their own?