Glen Abernethy

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it was last October that I tabled that "Building a Culturally Respectful Health and Social Services System," which outlined a bunch of the work that we are doing that line up really nicely with the recommendations that came from the recent critical incident review.

My intention, and I have made a commitment to the family, to the leadership in the Beaufort Delta and to Members of this House, is to expedite that work and to try to get it done as quickly as possible, recognizing that it is a massive piece of work and that changing attitudes and...

The Member references the fact that 8 per cent of children in fire/police referrals are for financial assistance; that number is actually taken from the director's report that was issued to the Members a number of months ago. Of a total of 2,309 referrals in 2015-16, 184 were for financial reasons. We've reviewed those, and typically what those referrals are when they occur is that the family is not eligible for, or rather, has already spent this month's financial assistance and they need assistance with food, clothing, or rent, which is something under the new system we can actually do. When...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the culture awareness training that the Member is speaking about is for Child and Family Services statutory appointed child protection workers and adoption workers. It includes a mix of infield community Indigenous engagement orientation followed up by in-person classroom-based core training with elders and educators, and then follow-up and an after-engagement infield engagement which is usually or is intended to be evaluated by the regional supervisor and supported by the department's practice specialist.

Mr. Speaker, there is some upfront work that we...

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...

Absolutely. We are working closely with our partner departments, both housing and education. There is a lot of data out there. It is a matter of compiling it and putting it together in a useful format so that when we come to committee and say, "this is the baseline," we can defend it and understand it. If it needs to be changed, we are happy to do so. We do need to do the work so that we can make informed, evidence-based decisions in this Assembly.

Moving forward, I commit to providing and ensuring that all communities in the Northwest Territories have adequate homecare supports based on a formula, based on numbers that actually make sense.