Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, I mean, I've said it once, I'll say it again: until we do the analysis, we won't know if we are spending our money wisely and effectively. We might actually be able to get significant benefits for our residents with the existing money if we change the way that we're doing business. I think this is practical and responsible. The Member is absolutely correct, we have an aging population here in the Northwest Territories, and there are some more demands. Does it require more money? Does it require us to change the way that we're providing home care services and reprofiling money from...

Mr. Speaker, we have made no financial reductions in the area of homecare in the Government of the Northwest Territories. It's conceivable that we do have some staffing changes from time to time that may have a temporary impact. But I come back to my original statement, at the end of the day the homecare that's provided to an individual is based on clinical needs, those clinical needs can change. I would encourage the patients to deal with their practitioners to ensure that they're getting the level of support they need to ensure that they're meeting their clinical needs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the intention at this point is to have an annual conference on the antipoverty work that's being done across the Northwest Territories. This is actually a great opportunity for people from across communities who are undertaking community and regionbased activities to come together and learn from each other and share best practices. What's working in one community can be done in another community. So it's a wonderful opportunity to come and keep the conversation alive and keep it current and mould and change as needed, based on new information.

This year, we...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "Mind and Spirit: Promoting Mental Health and Addictions Recovery in the Northwest Territories," and "Building a Culturally Respectful Health and Social Services System, October 2016." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we won't have a clear indication of whether or not we need some additional resources, how much those additional resources might be until we're actually done the Continuing Care Action Plan. I'm certainly going to bring that to committee so we can have some discussions.

Before we ask for more money, Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we have to do is make sure that the current dollars available for homecare are being spent wisely and that we're getting maximum benefit for every dollar that we're spending; that we're getting the outcomes that are intended.

The Members know, all...

Mr. Speaker, we have been working on some of our respite and home care services for seniors across the Northwest Territories. We have identified respite beds that are available across the Northwest Territories in our different facilities, and we're looking to get more information out there about the types of programs that we provide under home care.

We do provide home support in most communities and certainly all regions in the Northwest Territories. They are based on a medical referral. You do have to be referred for home care and a physician or a practitioner will identify the degree or range...

Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, residents of the Northwest Territories when they travel to other jurisdictions like BC and they go to a hospital or health centre for medically necessary care through reciprocal billing agreements and whatnot, those services are provided to those residents and there's no cost obviously to our residents for doing that.

Where we have a challenge with BC is where a health practitioner in the Northwest Territories makes a referral on behalf of one of our residents to something like an MRI or a specialty clinic that's available in Edmonton or Calgary or in Alberta for...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is right. We could probably debate this for an extended period of time, but at the end of the day we do respect our seniors. We are putting programs and services in place in support of seniors. We have a healthy relationship with the NWT Seniors Society. In fact, one of the members of the NWT Seniors Society said just because I happen to be 65 doesn't mean I'm infirm or unable to do these things.

When an individual is challenged, they have some limitations. Of course, Mr. Speaker, we are going to provide non-medical escorts. With respect to the situation that the Member...

Mr. Speaker, one of the roles of the committees of Cabinet is to help to break down barriers between different departments and get departments working together on cross-purposes. This is certainly an area that I think would fit nicely within the Safety and Wellness Committee of Cabinet, and, as I said, I've referred it to that committee for discussion to see what we're currently doing, what we can do within existing finances, existing resources, and what partnerships we need to work on in order to get that information out.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I just need to confirm whether there's one in every health centre across the Northwest Territories; I can't remember off the top of my head if that is the case. I'll also work with the authority to make sure that appropriate training is available.

We do have challenges. We do have a significant amount of turnover, and sometimes we have individuals who are only in for a couple of days, but I will work with the authority to make sure that there's reasonable training to ensure that most of our nurses can be trained in a timely and reasonable way.