Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled “Annual Report of the Director of Child and Family Services 2014-2015.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Within the legislation, going back to his first point before I go to the second point, it is going to require a significant amount of training and development of our staff to make sure that they understand their roles, and that’s going to be the community counsellors, the mental health and addictions counsellors, all the social services side, but also the health side is going to require a significant amount of development and training as we move forward with these new regulations, protocols and this new legislation that gives our people more options.

As far as culture, committee brought forward...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments and I would just like to speak to a couple of his thoughts and observations. I think we’ve all probably, as MLAs, had somebody approach us who had the same type of issue that Mr. Hawkins’ constituent had about trying to keep a family member on their meds, someone who has a mental health illness, and the assisted community treatment is designed to do just that. That is giving the tools to the psychologist and psychiatrist that they haven’t had before. When I talked to some psychologists and psychiatrists here in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to take this opportunity to thank the standing committee and their staff and all the residents across the Northwest Territories who contributed to the public hearings and contributed by different means to ensure we got this bill to be the best bill that we can. I do know that committee worked awfully hard and I appreciate their willingness to work with myself and the department in order to make amendments to the bill, that I believe, and I believe committee believes, to make this a stronger bill at the end of the day. I really appreciate the work and the time...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I requested the mental health case review under the Evidence Act and I have to comply with the terms and conditions of the Evidence Act. So I need to be careful as to what I say and what I don’t say, but upon my initial review, recognizing that I am not a lawyer, I don’t believe that any of those recommendations require legislative change, but I’m seeking advice from the legal counsel right now on how I can legally get this into the department so that they can begin drafting an action plan based on the recommendations and they may determine that maybe some legislative...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I get into some of the things that we’re doing, I just want to make sure that we understand that the expected 200 per year increase is still just a preliminary number. We’re actually working on a prevalence study right now that’s going to help us have better numbers and feel more confident in the numbers. It could be higher, it could be lower, but I just wanted to be clear that that’s still just a preliminary number.

We are doing a number of different things. With respect to prevention, we’re focusing on education in two streams. We’re trying to get information...

The Member has been around long enough to remember that the midwifery position that was at the Yellowknife Health and Social Services was a completely unfunded position. There were no dollars allocated to that midwifery position. The Member should also remember that the authority chose to put in a Midwifery Program with one NP, which is basically a recipe for failure. There’s no way that one incumbent can actually provide midwifery services given that it’s a 24/7 operation. As a result, the incumbent did choose to leave.

Moving forward, we have the money that will not be utilized in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my left is Cherie Jarock, who is legislative counsel, and on my right is Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister, Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the 2015-16 fiscal year, $1.97 million in core funding was allocated for midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Of that $1.97 million, it funds two midwifery positions in Fort Smith – both of which are now full – and the program costs. It also funds two midwifery positions in Hay River and also the program costs. Those positions are also full.

It also funds an NP position which is providing midwifery-type services for pre-birth throughout the region through community health nurses who is part of the MORE OB program up in the Beaufort-Delta. It was a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to be here to discuss Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, No. 2. Bill 68 proposes to remove the child and family services committees from the act. These amendments were initiated by a recommendation made by the Standing Committee on Social Programs in their Committee Report 18-17(5), Report on the Review of Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, where the Department of Health and Social Services was encouraged to act immediately and introduce a bill to remove all provisions pertaining to the child and family...