Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the appeal process is fairly strict and I mean fairly thorough as the Member's indicating and it is based on procedure. I think the Member's talking about something else and I don’t believe at this time we're putting any mechanisms to have that discussion. However, having said that, I'm a strong advocate and I'm encouraging the Members to have their constituents who approach them who have concerns about, you know, their inability to get a job with the Government of Northwest Territories to get in touch with some of the individual client service managers that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member is correct. We provide benefits for Metis people as a last resort, we're the last funder. We do encourage Metis people to pursue other insurance, if they have employer's insurance and whatnot. On average, it costs us about $2 million, as the Member has indicated, and we are ready to have discussions with the federal government. We know what we've paid over the past years. We mirror NIHB exactly for our Metis residents. We know what our numbers are. We're prepared to have that discussion once the time is right. In the meantime, given the ruling, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Cancer Strategy actually does come with a number of items that are falling from the strategy itself. The strategy includes specific supports to help communities, help individuals, make healthy choices by focusing on healthy eating through gardening and education, continuing to hold sharing circles, which we have seen has been quite effective in helping people deal with the issues. We do have funding that we have provided to different communities to support tobacco prevention for youth. The strategy commits us to find ways to increase education awareness so people...

Mr. Speaker, within the community specifically, there are a number of things that are happening. The Department of Health and Social Services is funding the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority to provide things like the elders’ afternoon tea program for elders so that they have the opportunity to get out of their homes and access resources and avoid social isolation, which many seniors across the North can face. The authority is offering a variety of services in the community of Ulukhaktok to support elders, including assisting elders to complete forms and applications, some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I talked about the work of the Stanton Territorial Hospital Elders’ Council. I wanted to take this opportunity to once again thank the members for their contributions and their dedication to ensuring that our health and social services are culturally appropriate and that service providers are culturally competent for the people that we serve. I would like to recognize a couple of the members of that council that are in the audience today. Gabriel Hardisty, Ernest Pokiak, Mary Teya, as well as Florence Barnaby are with us today. Mr. Speaker, I...

Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to having a public service that represents the population we serve, which means we'd like to have a public service which is about 50 per cent Aboriginal. We do have the Affirmative Action Policy, which is a passive policy used during the hiring process. A number of departments have taken on some specific initiatives, like the Department of Justice with a corrections entry-level training program to train local people, targeting affirmative action candidates for jobs. As far as a broader tool that's available, other than things like the Regional...

Mr. Speaker, there's very strict criteria that are utilized that would determine whether a department will submit a direct appointment. We can share those criteria with the committee and let them know why we would be supporting or utilizing the direct appointment process, as some of them are for things like interns or where there's been an unsuccessful competition many different times, or when we know that a competition will likely prove unsuccessful. I will share those criteria. As far as the numbers, Mr. Speaker, I do know that there have been a couple direct appointments during the life of...

Mr. Speaker, we intend to have an action plan moving forward to outline how we're going to address the need over the next 10 years early in the life of this government, hopefully within this fiscal year, barring any unforeseen circumstances. In the meantime, we're also going to be taking some short-term, medium-term and long-term actions to start addressing these issues. We do know that one of the largest needs is actually here in Yellowknife. There's very little capacity, we're very stretched in Yellowknife. We also know there's significant need in the Beaufort Delta. We have people actually...

Mr. Speaker, the Member's exactly right. I mean, this building doesn't address our future need; it simply keeps us at status quo in Hay River. We do know from the long-term care review that by 2026 we need 30 more beds on top of the ones we already have and will have with this new building in the community with respect to long-term care. More needs to be done; we're currently doing our review, our report, coming up with an action plan, how we can facilitate beds across the Northwest Territories by 2026.As it currently stands, there isn't significant room on the current Woodland Manor site...

Mr. Speaker, I do believe the community and the department already work together through the Aboriginal health and community wellness division on their wellness plan. We do have a significant amount of people working on the Cancer Strategy. What I will do, Mr. Speaker, is I will ask the Member through you to maybe work with the community to get in touch with us and have a conversation. I couldn't tell you the timeline because we have never been contacted to this degree in this nature. I think there is an opportunity here. I would say let's work together. If the Member can put us in touch, we...