Glen Abernethy

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.

We hope to go out for an open competition on that developmental position shortly. I will certainly keep the Member informed once we have a candidate; I'll also let him know who the candidate is, and hopefully we'll be able to find a solid person who in a couple of years can take over that CEO role in the Sahtu. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the opening of that new facility, and we plan to be moved in there and fully operational towards the end of the next calendar year, we do have to fully staff a long-term care unit. There is no long-term care unit in the Sahtu at this point so it's all new positions.

We're just in the process of quantifying how many positions that will be and they'll obviously include some kitchen staff, some support workers for the residents in the building, as well as some other janitorial positions, as well as some support positions like RNs. I don't have the exact numbers at this...

Mr. Speaker, one of our key partners in aging in place within the Government of the Northwest Territories is the NWT Housing Corporation who has a number of programs for seniors so that they can make modifications to their homes as they age to help them stay in their homes for as long as possible. There is a recognition that even if we provide greater levels of home care and the housing corp. does provide some programs to help modify homes, unfortunately, some individuals will have to go to different living situations like independent living units.

The Housing Corporation is building five...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've already mentioned several times in the House over the last couple of weeks that we're currently working on the Continuing Care Services Action Plan for the Northwest Territories which includes review of our home care services provided to date and what level of services we need to provide to meet the needs of our residents, you know, addressing the fact that we do have an aging population in addition to demands on home care. It's also looking at our long-term care demands and how we're going to address those as well as our palliative care demands and...

Mr. Speaker, I had an opportunity to meet with residents of the community of Fort Liard, as well as the Nahanni Butte prior to the election last government where this issue was raised. At that time, I made a commitment that we would follow up with BC once we concluded our negotiations with Alberta. Alberta is our go-to province when we have individuals who need to go out for services that aren't available here in the Northwest Territories. We have agreements and other procedures or protocols in place to have our residents go to Alberta and receive services there.

Once we're done negotiating our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health and Social Services is doing a review of the Medical Travel Policy. We've already made a number of changes and improvements, including putting in an appeal mechanism. With respect to whether or not we intend to modify the Medical Travel Policy specifically for an age requirement, that is not something that we're doing right now, Mr. Speaker. I've had an opportunity to travel around the Northwest Territories and meet lots of different individuals, including seniors, and I've had many seniors tell me, just because I'm 65 doesn't mean that I need...