Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as a government, we are committed to addressing the issues of homelessness and recognizing that homelessness is a very complex situation caused by many factors. Health and Social Services is committed to working on the items in the action plan that have been identified as a Health and Social Services responsibility. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarity, have we finished the administrative and support services section, because all the questions seem to be related to community health programs?

Mr. Speaker, this is a serious issue, not just in the Northwest Territories, but across Canada. We have made dollars available to the NWT Seniors' Society, who I do have to applaud for the amazing work that they have done on creating programs and awareness around elder abuse here in the Northwest Territories. We have made technical staff available to them, as they need, to help with information, but they have really taken the lead on the development of this. We do what we can to help promote it and to get that information out there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm completely aware that this is a regional health centre, and I recognize without question the value in moving forward with this facility.

The Member has suggested maybe Stanton bumped this facility. I do have to point out that Stanton facility has been in discussions and negotiations for well over ten years, probably approaching 12 years. The first time that we had a conversation about the Fort Simpson is when we did some initial assessment on the pilings, which proved to be wrong, as a point, which was about 2012, so it's only been in the works for a couple...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the federal election, there was an indication that there would be money allocated to provinces and territories by the federal government, about $3.9 billion over a four-year period. We don't actually know how they plan to distribute those dollars or what the criteria is for utilizing those dollars are. If past predicts future, and they use the same types of formula as they have in the past, which is often population-based, we could get as much as $3.6 million over the four years, which works out to just over $900,000 a year.

We, and all the other...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the planning study for the Fort Simpson Health Centre is in this fiscal year, so there is no money showing up for next fiscal year. We plan to have that work done this fiscal year.

No, there isn't, Mr. Chair, as far as I'm aware.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me on my left is Derek Elkin, assistant Deputy Minister of Health and Social Services, and on my right Perry Heath who is the director of infrastructure planning.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "The NWT Community Counselling Program Client Satisfaction Report 2016," and the "Public Performance Measures Report 2016: NWT Health and Social Services System." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I indicated, there is an interdepartmental working group doing this analysis. We are paying close attention to what some of the other jurisdictions are doing. Some of them are already moving forward with some regulations and I've had an opportunity to talk to some of the other Ministers of Health who have the same issues, and they've indicated that although they're moving forward on regulations they understand that that's cursory or initial and we won't really truly have an idea of what those regulations will be or should be until the federal government comes forward with their legislation...