Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin my remarks I want to state clearly and for the record that I believe wholeheartedly in the principles of accountability. Cabinet shares that belief with me and that is why on December 17, 2015, all Members in this House supported unanimously for Motion 17-18(1) which was to establish a mid-term accountability review.

I'd also like to point out in case anybody has forgotten, that the Premier, prior to his selection as Premier, was the mover of that motion which established with the unanimous agreement of all 19 Members that prior to the fall 2017 in this...

Traditionally, as the Member has indicated, it's sort of been based on what the weather is suggesting, whether freeze-up is early or late. But I hear the Member and there might be some value in having set, fast dates so that the community has some certainty. I certainly think there is some merit to that.

I will certainly talk with the department and the authority to see what it would take to set some hard and fast dates so that the community can have some certainty. I don't know what that date might be. The Member has thrown out October 15th; that may or may not be appropriate based on, you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the Member's point. Yes, not everybody has access to the Internet, but the information is out there in other means. There are paper copies which sometimes are as hard to get to the constituents and residents as digital. I understand that. We are making sure that information is available in our health centres, or health stations, our regional hospitals, our hospitals, so that individuals who have questions can get a hold of that information in paper.

Through the strategic cancer initiative, we're working with organizations and creating partnerships with...

Mr. Speaker, in addition to the cancer strategy, we're also trying to work with residents across the Northwest Territories and create awareness of healthy choices. Those are not only to help prevent cancer but also help prevent other chronic diseases that are really prevalent here, in the Northwest Territories. We're trying to get more information out there on healthy diets and physical activity, reducing or quitting smoking preferably, as well, you know, controlling the amount of alcohol that one consumes, basically everything that the Member said in his statement, which I thought was a very...

I can't be aware of every specific decision that the authorities make, and I couldn't tell you when they chose to remove a nurse from a community, but I do hear the Member. Similar to his previous question about setting a set date for coming in, there might also be some value in having a set date for when an individual, a nurse, might cease their permanent stay in that community. I think that we could have that conversation at the same time, and I'm willing to do so.

The department won't be putting a nurse in the community of Tsiigehtchic. It will actually be the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority. I can't tell the Member the exact date that they expect somebody will be going in there, but I'm happy to follow up on the Member's behalf, get him that information, and get him a concrete date.

Mr. Speaker, that's one of the things that we're trying to do across the Northwest Territories. We've been holding different cancer sharing circles throughout the Northwest Territories, with different groups, working with organizations like the Gwich'in to try to get those sharing circles out to different communities. I believe we had one in Aklavik.

We want to keep doing this type of thing, where we're working with the communities, trying to find things that work with the communities but also give people who have cancer an opportunity to share and have some people to share their experiences...

Mr. Speaker, the fund that the Member is referring to is actually money for the community wellness for the Northwest Territories targeted specifically for Aboriginal people and communities. We are a funnel for those dollars and we work with the communities to flow those dollars on behalf of the federal government directly to those communities. In Yellowknife, it was agreed that, given that Yellowknife in itself with the community is not an Aboriginal-run community, the dollars for Yellowknife actually flow through the Yellowknife's Dene here in Yellowknife. They get the component that would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I just got back from the FTP meeting earlier today. The meeting went well on many fronts. We talked about many of the areas where the federal and provincial and territorial governments are working together, like pharmaceutical prices across this country. Working together we've brought the price of pharmaceuticals down by over $700 million annually and with the new partnership with the federal government, we look like we might be able to bring it down by $1.2 billion annually. So a lot of good work on that front. When it came to the health accord, we...

Mr. Speaker, at a larger level, the Premier has been talking with individuals like Minister Bennett and the Prime Minister about funding for Aboriginal people in many different ways. Wellness happens to be one of the ways. The Wellness Fund is specific for Aboriginal people. There have been other communities who have tried to work and have been successful in working with the Aboriginal organizations and governments that happen to be in their communities to be partners on the delivery of the wellness funding initiatives.

In Yellowknife, the money was allocated to the Yellowknife Dene in hopes...