Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department does keep up on most of the publications that are out there with respect to health and social services and mental health. I haven’t personally seen it myself, but I will confirm, I will check with the department to confirm they have it.

We haven’t had any tri-territorial meetings with the Ministers of Health and Social Services since January 29th, so the answer to his second part is no.

I agree with the Member. There is a significant cost to no-show rates both in productivity as well as frustration for those individuals who are on waiting lists. To talk about some of the detailed work that is being done, I will go to the deputy.

I actually forget the title, but it’s infrastructure funding for community governments. We will get that information confirmed from MACA and provide it to committee. I forget the name of the fund. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I answer the question, I just want to take this opportunity to thank the Members for undertaking this theme day. One of the key actions within the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, one of the key priority areas is to actually promote the understanding, awareness and acceptance of mental health in the Northwest Territories. It’s forums like this and Members asking questions that it starts to increase the awareness of mental health in the Northwest Territories. So I applaud them for taking it upon themselves to do the theme day on mental health and...

It could be here. A lot of those costs will be in the directorate.

On Page 197, under community mental health and addictions there’s a budget line of $15.24 million. That’s where those dollars are.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve had an opportunity to travel to many communities in the Northwest Territories, and we will continually hear communities talking about working towards developing interagency committees. I think there’s significant value in interagency committees. I have had an opportunity to talk to CEOs, public administrators and board chairs, and there’s support for participating in interagency communities throughout the Northwest Territories where they currently exist. We would certainly be willing to participate in…[Microphone turned off]…as they begin or start up. Thank...

Thank you. We are pursuing a mobile treatment option available to all residents of the Northwest Territories, some of who might actually be survivors of residential schools. I would also like to just remind the Member that based on discussions that we’ve already had, I’ve had the Executive and the Department of Health and Social Services get in touch with the federal government to find out what, if any, transition planning can be put into place as they exit the field around the residential school survivors. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We do see this as a challenge and it is something that we want to fix. I agree with what the Member is saying. We actually have begun negotiations some time ago with the Government of Alberta in order to increase the amount of coverage that is being provided by these northern support nurses that happen to be in Alberta. Unfortunately, those negotiations have temporarily ceased as Alberta is going full forward into their budget process as well. We anticipate those discussions will continue once their budget is concluded.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s $113,000 for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, $183,000 for the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities and $39,000 for the Hay River Community for Persons with Disabilities for a total of $335,000 in the Disabilities Fund.