Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, addressing poverty, as the Member is aware, certainly is the responsibility of all departments, all boards and agencies, as well as NGOs and individuals themselves. The Department of Health and Social Services can do things to help individuals combat poverty here in the Northwest Territories. There's a large list, but I'll just touch on a couple of the things that we're doing.

Throughout the Northwest Territories, we've been holding community health fairs to help people understand the types of things we all need to be doing, making healthy choices to support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the positions exist. We have filled positions. We have had people resign. We have had turnover. Some are more stable than others. We are committed to filling the positions. We continue to move forward to fill those positions when incumbents do leave. Our goal is to have those positions full at all times. They are not currently all full. We are recruiting where they are vacant.

I think this is an incredibly important question. In order to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories, it is going to take all of us working together. One of the challenges we have had in the past, where we had multiple authorities often competing for resources, is we had a difficulty with quality control. We would hire a quality control individual at an authority, and if that person left, then we had no quality control in that authority. As a single authority, we have more individuals involved in quality control who can provide backfill when a certain individual or an individual...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to point out that that's purely an opinion of the Member. The departments are working hard to move forward legislation. They understand that a significant amount of work has been done. I've had an opportunity to talk to staff within my department, as well as staff within another department, who are committed to getting this work done. The reductions or corrections that have been done in this public service are done with significant discussion, analysis, to make sure that it does not adversely impact the work that needs to be done by this government...

The mandate is an incredibly long document with a lot of specific detail, and as a Cabinet, and an Assembly I hope, we continue to be committed to that mandate and are moving forward with those different pieces of work.

Some of these pieces of legislation and some of the work the Member has described is quite large, and, in the first year of the Assembly, we continue to make progress, but we never  I don't believe  made a commitment to completing all of this work in the first year of this Assembly. I think that would be impractical.

I can tell the Member today, I can tell all the Members today...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to join my colleagues, leaders from across Canada and around the world, and ordinary people everywhere in speaking out against the terrible events that took place in Quebec City on Sunday.

For centuries, the people of the Northwest Territories have had to rely on each other. We know that we are stronger when we stand together than when we stand alone. Respect, tolerance, and diversity are the essential part of the northern character. In fact, that ability to be warm and welcoming is an essential part of what it means to be a Northerner. People from all over...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following seven documents entitled "Followup Letter to Oral Question 37318(2): Nursing Services in Tsiigehtchic;" "Followup Letter to Oral Question 38218(2): New Health Governance Structure," "Followup Letter to Oral Question 43918(2): Medical Travel Policy and NonMedical Escorts;" "Followup Letter to Oral Question 44318(2): Staff Recruitment for New Sahtu Regional Health Facility;" "Followup Letter to Oral Question 44818(2): Implementation of Recommendations to Improve Responses to Sexual Violence;" "Followup Letter to Oral Question 45418(2)...

The regional wellness councils are regional representatives who are responsible for helping bring the voice of the people to the authority. First, to help make programs specific within individual regions, but also through the chair of the individual Regional Wellness Councils to bring that voice to the territorial authority to make sure that every region, every community's voice is heard at a territorial level.

I have had an opportunity to meet many if not all of the members of the regional wellness councils. We have unfortunately had a little bit of turnover already. We are looking to go find...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a very complex question because every case and every situation that comes into a health centre will be different dependent on the different conditions that a citizen or a resident may be presenting with. In the Member's statement, I think he actually answered a number of the questions for himself, I mean, things that are reality. We know this is going to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories.

We are working on a strategic plan, or rather, the authority, with input from the regional wellness councils, is developing a strategic plan that is...

The Member continues to refer to the devolution process where we had a number of bills that came forward. That process required us to mirror the legislation that existed, and there was a commitment to move forward from that point to devolve and then evolve. As I've already indicated, we have five LPs coming to committee during this sitting from the Department of ENR which are all devolution-related bills. Massive pieces of work, significant input and work required by the departments to get that work done. Once the LPs are approved by committee, we'll set forth drafting instructions at which...