Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of those numbers that the Member is pulling together aren’t exactly right, but the Member is correct in the fact that there was a $2 million budget for Nats’ejee K’eh. We’re using that budget to cover the individuals that are going in our contracts with the four southern facilities. We figure it’ll take about a year to figure out what that price should balance out to. We figure the price for delivery in the southern facilities is about $1.2 million, which leaves about $800,000. We were planning to utilize those dollars for the mobile treatment program and we’ve been...

That claim has never been made to me. I’d certainly be interested in where it came from and we could certainly look into the details, but that is not something that has been articulated to me in the past.

I can’t honestly remember which communities are actually currently filled and which communities are not filled. We do have turnover in these communities, but I will commit to getting that information for the Member.

I’d also like to ask the Member if he could share that document with us that articulates the individuals he feels are being failed and we can have further discussion on that as well. Thank you.

I don’t have the specific details. I will commit to getting that information for the Member, but it’s my understanding that it’s about $300,000, but I’ll get the exact number for our Member and committee.

Recognizing the support this committee has for Healthy Family programs, I imagine that we will see an increase in the budget once the supp passes. Thank you.

Our long-term care facilities here in the Northwest Territories are staffed by competent professionals, including nurses and doctors, who actually can provide a wide range of services to individuals.

I would encourage any resident of the Northwest Territories who has concerns about their individual care to talk with their physicians to make sure that they are getting the services that they are entitled to in the Northwest Territories, and if they have any concerns about the quality within the facility, I would strongly encourage them to contact the quality assurance staff within the department...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s my understanding that that review by the auditors here in the Northwest Territories was done in 2008, and they made a number of recommendations. Most of them, I believe, we actually did incorporate into the health care cards here in the Northwest Territories.

We share the Member’s concerns. We want to make sure that our residents’ information is secure. We’ve had lots of conversations about some of the recent incidents around health care cards with the Information and Privacy Commissioner. She’s made a number of recommendations and we’re certainly looking at...

The Member has recently brought that to my attention and we’re working with the Beaufort-Delta to figure out what’s going on with the details of the situation and we will be able to respond back to the Member shortly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did have some initial conversations with the Minister of Health and Social Services for Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. They have since stopped being the Ministers of Health and Social Services, so I will follow up with the new Ministers to see if there’s any interest in a pan-territorial approach. Thank you.

There’s a program that we’re supporting called Talking About Mental Illness, which is actually a program that we’re intending to get into the schools, which will encourage people, youth, to talk about mental health issues and we’re anticipating seeing some of the delivery of that this fiscal year. Thank you.