Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I’ve indicated, I’m hoping to bring forward legislation for first and second reading during this sitting, at which point it will be in committee’s hands for 120 days, which means the earliest it will be able to be in front of the legislature for third reading would be the fall sitting. If passed, and I stress if passed, then we will have to identify an appropriate implementation date that gives us time to actually change our system so that we can utilize the different fonts that exist within our Official Languages Act, the 11 official languages, so that we...

The Hay River employees are actually outside of the public service. They have their own human resource manual, they have their own collective agreement, they have their own pension plan. They aren’t part of Superann because they are outside of the public service. Every year the employees pay into their pension, but the pension also pays out people who have retired. In order to ensure that they are fluid, that they are a viable pension plan, they end up having to come back and ask for additional money every year, and this has gone on for a long time. I remember back in 2005 when I was working...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, it falls under this area. You’d find some of it under community mental health and addictions, health promotion and community wellness. It’s certainly within this area.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are based on utilization over time. We did have a bit of a spike a couple years ago, especially in 2015-16. Based on our sort of average utilization, where we’ve put forward the $8 million, which is fairly consistent with previous years, there has been some change in utilization.

Yes, absolutely, Mr. Chair. August 1st is still the golive date, but I want to be very clear that this is a date in a process, in a timeline. As we move forward, we go live. There is still going to be some changes, some evolution that’s happening at the regional and community level as we’re formulizing and making this new relationship a reality. I anticipate there will be some growing pains. I anticipate that it will take a couple years to really roll things all the way out to make sure that we’re getting all the benefits of a single unified collaborative system, but the boards, the wellness...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a direct result of the Tlicho Agreement, their land claims agreement, land claims and self-government agreement. It’s articulated in the legislation. This is us meeting our obligation under that legislation. They’re the only group in the Northwest Territories that has finalized selfgovernment negotiations. This could be something that exists in the future, if negotiated, with different Aboriginal governments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, our main estimates are only slightly down from last year. We had some revised mainstream in the last fiscal year as a result of some cost pressures. Much of this is a result of the pension top up that we have to provide to Hay River. We imagine that there will likely be a supp again during this fiscal year once they’re able to quantify what they’re pension top up might need to be to keep Hay River’s pension viable.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m assuming the Member is talking about the independent living unit that’s being developed for or put into Fort Liard. The facility is an independent living unit. It will have some program space dedicated for some day programs and whatnot that can be delivered by home support workers or other staff that exist within the community.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sense the Member’s frustration. I have indicated that we have already raised this at a federal/provincial level. We are certainly on record at the federal/provincial level during our last FPT. We are waiting to see what some of the other provinces and territories want to do, because a united front on this is certainly going to carry more weight than individual fronts. Having said that, I do know that the Minister of Finance is going to be in Vancouver to meet with the other Ministers of Finance I think it’s this weekend coming. I have assurances that the Minster intends...

No, Mr. Chair. I mean, at the end of the day, we’re redescribing existing positions, some reprofiling some positions out of the department that are going to now be territorial health Authority positions. This isn’t about growth. This isn’t about creating a whole bunch of new positions. This is about utilizing what we have in a better way in a more collaborative way to meet the needs of the residents in the Northwest Territories. In the future, what you will see is a smaller department, more as a ministry function, and an authority that actually has some of the functions and roles that are in...