Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. After you turned the page, I clearly forget everything I was discussing on the previous page… No. I’m just kidding. I totally remember the question. The government, as a result of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions, we actually came forward with funding to support ontheland programs. We provide that money to the different Aboriginal governments, regional governments here, in the Northwest Territories. We recognize that, although we have some clinical expertise, when it comes to ontheland programming, those programs should really be delivered by the people in the regions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. National Public Service Week is an opportunity to celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of the public service employees across Canada. Here in the Northwest Territories we have an engaged and highly motivated public service that provides quality programs and services for our residents. Our employees’ commitment to service and dedication to their communities are an important part of what makes the GNWT a great place to work and what makes the NWT a great place to live. It’s no secret that these are challenging economic times, Mr. Speaker. In the face of these...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we got permission from the last government to do a one-time transfer from the midwifery program in the Beaufort Delta to use those dollars to do our portion of the Organ and Tissue Donation Registry in Alberta, so it’s one time.

Thank you. Mr. Chair, with respect to some of our legal documents, such as our birth certificate, although we had an obligation under the Official Languages Act, our documents only recognize the Roman alphabet in the production of those documents. There was an official languages review done by the official languages commissioner that indicated that it would be appropriate, given that we have an Official Languages Act here, in the Northwest Territories, that our legal documents could include all of the official languages and utilize the appropriate fonts. I have asked the department to move...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if the Member can maybe help me understand the question a little bit. What does she mean by, you know, default or encouraged, by us or by their own providers or by their own government?

Yes, absolutely, and for that detail, I will go to the deputy minister, but just related to the last question, as I have indicated previously, there will be a bunch of functions coming out of the department, functions that are providing sort of core servicetype services. These are going to be in the authority rather than the department. The department is going to be a ministry. We are going to phase in some of those functions from out of the department into the authority. We anticipate that phasein is going to take about two years, but as far as monitoring evaluation, I will go to the deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, actually, a report was prepared late in the life of the, or halfway through the life of the last government. It was certainly, I believe we tabled it here, in the Legislature. Following up with the recommendations under that, we are still providing dollars for things like Mental Health First Aid, ASSIST, and other suicide prevention and support programs for youth across the Northwest Territories. To that end, we’re also taking what we learned through that report as well as the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addiction to develop a new framework for mental...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I indicated, the mains last year were $13,881,000. We are slightly down based on some of the other driving factors in this area, some actuals, but the reason you’ll see the revised main estimates up a little higher is every year at some we end up having to come forward with a supp based on the pension top up that is required by the Hay River Health and Social Services in order to keep their pension viable. We don’t know what that cost is going to be, so we don’t build it into our mains. We come back by way of supp. We’ve already brought one supp to this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we’re looking at coming forward with some amendments of the Vital Statistics Act that will allow us to include Aboriginal names and appropriate fonts within birth certificates and other documents within the Northwest Territories. We’ve done some early assessment, but we don’t have a full costing of that change at this point. When we have better information on the costing, we will certainly share that with committee and the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, similar to our relationship with Alberta, we have a relationship with Nunavut where a number of their residents do come to the Northwest Territories for different diagnostic and other services that are provided here in Yellowknife, particularly residents out of the Kitikmeot region do come down here for a number of diagnostic and other type of services. We have an arrangement, similar to the arrangement across Canada, so that services provided in the Northwest Territories are direct-billed back based on a formula that’s agreed upon across this country on what...