Glen Abernethy

That is certainly one of the issues. I mean, pension is where the significant cost is going to come from. There is no denying that, but the Hay River collective agreement is different than the UNW collective agreement. We have had some early discussions with union as we are talking about bringing Hay River in, and there are certain things that they wanted to flag and things like seniority are one of them. We have to figure those out. We can’t have two collective agreements if we roll into one authority, so we have toit’s going to take some negotiations. It’s not just a cost thing. It’s a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Health and Social Services and its authority are responsible for home care in the Northwest Territories. We do know that the Housing Corporation has gone out and, recognizing the need for seniors’ housing, has moved forward with independent living units, including those independent living units in Fort McPherson. They have also, you know, incorporated space within those independent living units where some day program and other services can be provided, whether it’s by home care nurses or home care support workers. Much of that’s going to depend on the size of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the new Mental Health Act is new legislation. It changes the way in several ways that we will be provided mental health services here in the Northwest Territories. We’re also working on the mental health and addictions framework that’s been raised several times in this House.

All these have to work together. The legislation gives new capacities, new responsibilities, new ways of doing business, and this new assisted community treatment service that we can provide, but it is, yes, working closely with practitioners that already exist, and given the new...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These dollars all flow to the authorities for the provision of French language services during the provision of health care. This is a direct result of a court case against the Government of the Northwest Territories which the GNWT lost, and it was negotiated how we would meet that ruling in that court case which resulted in significant dollars following into not just Health and Social Services, but all the departments; Education, Culture and Employment, to ensure that we can provide services to our residents in French.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we were out discussing this with the different Aboriginal governments we heard that they didn’t want a cookie cutter approach. They wanted to be able to do things their way based on the realities in the different regions. However, we recognize that, you know, there are great things happening in different regions, so we’ve been pulling together the best practices and highlighting, and demonstrating, and showing the different regions what’s happening in the other regions so that they could steal good ideas and things that work. We were also making clinical staff...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today is, on my right, Debbie DeLancey who is the deputy minister, Health and Social Services, and on my left, Jeannie Mathison who is the director of finance, Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can’t recall the exact number that it would have cost to bring Hay River into the public service in 2005. Anecdotally, I have heard numbers of $2 million, $3 million, $4 million, $5 million to bring them into the Superann as a pension. Now we believe that number to be significantly higher. We are working with Superann. We are working with our partners to try to quantify what the exact cost to bring them into the GNWT’s pension would be. We are still doing work that is going to be necessary once negotiations begin with the UNW and the Hay River Authority to bring their...

That is correct, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I indicated, we have two positions that have been sunsetted, one in Norman Wells, one in Yellowknife. We’ve got three new positions that have been created, two fulltime, one parttime for the Mental Health Act, and to help us with the implementation of that. Those three positions are in Yellowknife. We have some internal re-allocations. As I indicated, the Beaufort Delta midwifery positions, one parttime, one fulltime, and those are to help with the planning and design of the territorial midwifery program. Those are not in Beaufort Delta. We’ve brought them to...

Thank you, Chair. Mr. Chair, in the new model there are no public administrators with the exception of Hay River until such a time as Hay River comes into the single authority. There are board chairs and there are regional advisory committee members. Those individuals are intended to help us, you know, make sure we’re hearing from the people of the ridings, of the communities, bringing their information forward, helping us tailor programs to fit communities and regions. The chairs of the regional wellness councils are the board of the new authority. I’m answering the Member’s question. I’m not...