Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to confirm that the Member is talking about the mental health and addictions line that’s $450,000, just because there are multiple lines here where it falls under.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that commitment was made prior to my term as the Minister of Health and Social Services and we have had debates in this House before. At this point in time we’re not planning to put an LPN in the community but we have been working with the community to come up with an alternative, a community-based solution. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, we have attempted to get into the community a number of times to work out that pilot with the community where we think there’s a significant opportunity to train somebody local to provide some of the emergency response as...

Mr. Speaker, the challenge of that is if we put one nurse in the community we could actually create some liability issues. I know we do it during freeze-up or break-up but we don’t have one-nurse stations here in the Northwest Territories; we’re trying to ensure that there’s proper and adequate backup so that the individuals who are on call during the evening don’t have to be on call every day 24/7. It can be quite extensive. I’m happy to have that discussion. If the Member can have that person share their information with us and let them express their desire, we’ll certainly have that...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to continue implementing the Building Stronger Families Action Plan to transform Child and Family Services, including work around the Child and Family Services Act. The main purpose of the Child and Family Services Act is to protect children in situations where they may have been harmed or where there is a risk of harm. The Act serves the best interest of the children by protecting them from exposure to abuse and neglect. The performance audit of child and family services, conducted by the Auditor...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to present the 2016-2017 main estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services. The total proposed budget for the department is $414,234,000. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of $7.3 million or 1.8 per cent over the 2015-2016 main estimates. These estimates continue to support the objective of limiting expenditure growth in order to sustain the long-term sustainability of the fiscal framework.

Highlights of the proposed budget include:

forced growth of $12.9 million;

subsets of $9 million;

funding for initiatives totalling $5.3...

Mr. Speaker, I feel that although we did have some delays, now that we have our positions in place, finally we are able to get some qualified applicants to do the work. They are going at this as quickly as they can. This isn't their only job. They're also working on the evaluation frameworks that are being put in place in Hay River. If we're going to continue to roll out these programs, we must be evaluating the work that's being done; they're doing that important work. They're also working with physicians and the practitioners in Fort Smith, Hay River, and Inuvik, learning from what they're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, all costs will be factored into our analysis. One thing that the Member does need to remember is that bringing in midwifery services does not actually help us or result in a reduced number of physicians that are available in the Northwest Territories. There are no cost savings with respect to midwifery services replacing physicians' services. Physicians are still a key component of birthing in the Northwest Territories even with our existing midwifery services that we are providing in different communities. It doesn't mean that births that are difficult...

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Health and Social Services is not the only department working on this and we are not going to be able to solve the problem, but we can be part of the solution, working with communities, working with other departments. In Yellowknife, there are a couple of things that were identified at the housing forum, the homelessness forum, that was held a couple weeks ago. Some areas for critical work that we're working on is addressing the shelter hour gap here in Yellowknife; that's one of the issues that was identified. We anticipate this might require some additional...

Mr. Speaker, that's going to really involve what the RFP ends up coming back looking like that the city has currently issued. From there, we'll be able to have the conversation on how we're going to continue or enhance the services that we're providing, and as I said, some of this might involve some on-site outreach, which we're absolutely open to doing once we've quantified what it's going to look like. Until we know that, we don't really know what it's going to look like. We're looking forward to having those conversations with the city so that we can build a model here in cooperation with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, midwives provide both pre- and post-natal. Much of the birthing that's happening in Nunavut is still happening in other centres. For instance, many of the births that are coming out of Kitikmeot are actually happening here in Yellowknife. We need to look at the whole picture. We can't just look at little pieces and components of it. The pre- and post-natal portion of the services that the midwives are providing is amazing services and provides better results when we're actually looking at building stronger families and having healthier families and kids. I...