Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are for a number of reasons, and I think the Member has actually identified a couple of them already. A number of the positions that you see in Hay River are as a result of the new Health and Social Services regional centre that just opened there in order to provide services in a larger building with a different delivery method. It did require additional positions, things like emergency room nurses that they didn’t have previously.

It also needed some additional positions just as a result of the footprint, how it’s laid out and how they’re going to provide...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have an Official Languages Act here in the Northwest Territories that recognizes 11 official languages, and we attempt to provide services as much as we can in those official languages. If you go to Stanton, by way of example, if you move around that facility you’ll notice that there’s signage for all the official languages in that facility. We try to ensure that official languages are posted in facilities across the Northwest Territories, health facilities. We attempt to have interpreters available to provide language services to individuals who request...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was some money transferred to the authorities for $81,000. There was the sunset on the regional early intervention coordinator’s position, $18,000 that was for some O and M costs, but there was also an increase as the result of some northern allowance for its growth.. Basically an internal transfer and some sunset.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, some of that will actually be followed up with by the DAAIR and Department of Finance. We have indicated that we’re prepared to have a conversation with the Minister of Health, but ultimately it will be discussions between Finance, DAAIR, and the federal government. I do meet the federal Minister of Health and Social Services with all the other health ministers across the country. I believe our meeting is going to be later this summer. I’m confident that this will be a topic of discussion during that meeting as well.

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.