Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, June 24, 2016, I will move that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m not going to commit at this time to covering fathers during birth, but I will certainly look at exploring the possibility of how we can be, you know, provide better support and other mechanisms. But at the end of the day, our medical travel is incredibly expensive. We have escorts for certain criteria. Criteria like a patient who is under 19 years of age who needs an escort. A patient who is breastfeeding an infant and requires an escort. A patient who has a medical or physical disability of a nature that they require an escort. There’s a lot of criteria that we have to apply and in the...

Mr. Speaker, unless there’s a clinical need, medical travel isn’t available or escorts aren’t available for birthing mothers who have to come to one of the centres, and it is up to the family, the father, to find their own way to the central location where the birthing is going to take place.

Mr. Speaker, we work in cooperation between the departments, and addressing family violence is a priority for the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Social Services. Education, Culture and Employment clearly has a role in helping break down some of this with younger people and youth, and the Status of Women certainly as a partnership. We work together trying to come up with mechanisms and programs that will help us break down the stigma and reduce family violence. I hear the Member. I’m not familiar with the program that she is describing. I’d certainly love to sit down with the...

Mr. Speaker, in 2015, the Department of Health and Social Services worked with the Program Review Office to develop a comprehensive evaluation of framework for the What Will It Take? campaign. Based on this framework, the new participation feedback forms are being developed, and they will be completed in time to provide to participants during the 201617 delivery of What Will It Take?, and that will help us get the information and evaluate the effectiveness of the program longterm.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple of individuals in the gallery today. My parents, Dick and Loretta Abernethy, are with us, as well as, all the way from Oxford, Nova Scotia, my aunt Diane Harrot is with us. This is the first time she’s been to the Northwest Territories. Welcome to the gallery; welcome to the Northwest Territories. It’s great to see you.

Mr. Speaker, anything’s possible, but we can’t really do anything until we actually have the program designed which is what we’ve hired these individuals to do. Given that they have the appropriate background, it may be appropriate to do so, but it would also depend on whether or not the incumbents were interested in doing that. There’s a lot of ifs here, Mr. Speaker, but we’re open to creativity.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We tried to the last fiscal year to hire some positions and we weren’t able to get anybody until February 2015 is actually when I believe we were able to get those individuals into that position. I’ll have to confirm. I don’t believe they’re term positions, but I will confirm whether or not they are term, and if they are term what is the end date. I do believe they’re indeterminate at this point, but I will confirm. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.

The document I’m tabling today isn’t a Government of the Northwest Territories document. It is actually a document of the Seniors’ Society, but we have participated with them, and we will certainly continue to work with them to support any initiatives to limit or reduce the amount of abuse of seniors. The individual actions are the actions identified within that report, which is not a government document. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, during my Minister’s statement today, I did provide a couple of numbers that individuals could call. But if an individual sees or witnesses abuse, I think one of the important things that a person can do is start developing a relationship with that elder and learning about the elder, to help him identify the abuse that might be taking place. They can go to the elder’s home and invite them to engage with other local seniors who may be participants in the society that is visiting us here today. I would encourage communication using the 1-800 numbers, getting in touch with other...