Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Denise Canuel, who is the director of policy with the Department of Health and Social Services. On my right, Mr. Druyan, who is the legislative counsel with the Department of Justice, who worked on this piece of legislation.

I am pleased to be here today to introduce Bill 13, Marriage Act.

This bill will replace the current Marriage Act. The current act predates the 1988 consolidation of Northwest Territories health statutes. Minor amendments have been made to the Marriage Act since then; however, none have kept pace with the Federal Government’s Civil Marriage Act and with other provincial and territorial marriage legislation.

It is important that we update the existing legislation now to ensure compliance with the federal Civil Marriage Act and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The bill reorganizes the...

At this time, we are not planning to do a pilot of a patient advocate in any communities throughout the Northwest Territories. I know the Member would be disappointed if I did not bring up the quality assurance professionals that we have in the system today. The quality assurance positions are also patient representatives, so they have a double role, Mr. Speaker.

Now, increasingly over the last number of months, it's becoming clear to me that having those two positions as a single position probably isn't the best way to do business here, in the Northwest Territories. Quality assurance tends to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we brought in Building Stronger Families, it was a five-year implementation plan and, in a fundamental way, a new way of providing child and family services in the Northwest Territories. The Foster Family Coalition has been an important partner moving forward. They provide significant training within their own organization of families who want to be foster families, to help them prepare. One of the recommendations that came out of the review, the Child and Family Services Review, was to expedite the process for family members who want to foster family...

Income is assessed on a case-by-case basis and it is not something that is currently collected within the Child and Family Services information system. A Child and Family Services file may contain information on a family's financial situation only if that information is shared by the family for the purpose of care planning and assessment of the family needs.

For example, Mr. Speaker, if a family identifies that they are an income assistance recipient, then this information can be documented and may help in planning. There are situations, Mr. Speaker, where the incumbent would formally collect...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. We did a significant amount of work on this in the previous Assembly, where legislation was actually passed to allow us to support human and tissue donation. In the Northwest Territories it was agreed at that time that given the magnitude of the project and the small size of the jurisdiction it made more sense to actually cooperate and join with Alberta on their registry. They have far greater capacity than us. We had actually entered into negotiations with them at that time and had some dollars set aside and allocated to support this...

Yes, please.

As I indicated, I have already directed the department to look at the possibility of spitting out the roles, our quality assurance/patient representatives, into two separate roles. That wouldn't necessarily address the Member's issue about community-based advocacy or guidance, because that would likely be a regional position.

When I was up in the Beaufort Delta last week, when I met with leadership to talk about the critical incident review, the leader of the IRC, the president of the IRC, indicated to me that they were working with the federal government. There was a pot of money out there...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 577-18(2): Prescription Drug Monitoring Program." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that number in front of me. Thank you.