Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hear the Member's concerns, and I hear those concerns from his constituents. I have heard them across the Northwest Territories. It's been asked several times. The answer is still the same. When it comes to long-term care, we are looking at level 3, 4, 5 acuity, individuals who actually have some high, complex needs, and, when we build long-term care facilities, we need to build them in close proximity where a greater range of services are available, things like doctors and other professionals who can provide support to those high-need patients. When it comes to...

We do have homecare workers throughout the Northwest Territories. In his riding, I believe we have three or four, I will confirm the numbers, who are providing supports to individuals who are staying in their communities and who want to age in place. Those home-support workers can go into those independent living units, where they exist, and I know there is one in Aklavik. I know that, hopefully soon, we will have one done in Fort McPherson, as well. We already are working with the Housing Corporation and, more importantly, we are working with the residents who are referred to these services...

In my previous answer, I actually talked about some of the work that we are doing in this exact area to increase the number of referrals. In addition to that, in this current fiscal year, the one that we are in and is about to end, we did create some new rehab therapy-type positions in the Beaufort-Delta. Those services used to be provided by Yellowknife with the existing teams. That meant that there were about five or so clinical travel days up in the Beaufort-Delta. Those travel days are now going to be reallocated to the southern portion of this territory, which means that the number of...

Absolutely. The Member is absolutely correct. We can do this. It can be available, but if people don't know about it, they are not going to register. We are planning a significant public launch where we will have an opportunity to explain process, get information out. I will certainly be working with MLAs, hoping that they can help share the information with their constituents. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive communications plan to get this information out. I look forward to working with the Members to get that information out.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Residents of the Northwest Territories, they can donate their organs and tissues as long as they are in a hospital with access to transplant services at the time of death. Due to clinical capacity, that doesn't exist in the Northwest Territories, so all organs and tissues that want to be donated by NWT residents has to be done in a different location. Often for us, that is Alberta. We did pass legislation in 2014, which still hasn't gone live yet.

Regardless of that legislation passing, NWT residents still can donate. Usually, it is a long process. It requires an NWT or...

Unless somebody chose to pursue a vaccination afterwards, the answer is yes, you weren't vaccinated prior to 1970, because the vaccine wasn't really there. One of the challenges we had is measles is highly contagious; like, crazy, crazy, super contagious. It spreads very easily. The other challenge is, prior to the vaccine being available, the fatality rate of measles was about one in a thousand individuals who contracted the disease. When you say one in a thousand, it doesn't sound that high, but statistically that is a huge number of individuals dying as a result of measles. Since the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An individual's health records will identify when they were vaccinated and whether they actually received the two doses of vaccination. We strongly encourage anybody who doesn't know to get in touch with their healthcare system or the public health team, who will be able to verify your current status with respect to immunizations; for any immunizations, not just for the measles vaccine. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have timelines on when we will complete the portions that we are working on at this point, but to roll out on the bigger level, to make sure that people can get passports and other things using their traditional names with the traditional fonts, I can't dictate that timeline. We will have the transliteration guide drafted with our partners and Education, Culture and Employment in 2019; we are thinking mid-year. From there, we will be able to present it to the federal government. That could take some time, to actually bring that to reality and make it reality. In the meantime, we will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. November 4, 2016, this Legislative Assembly passed Bill 5, which was a bill to amend sections of the Vital Statistics Act that would allow us to use traditional fonts on legal documents such as birth certificates and other vital statistics documents. This is a commitment we made. This is a commitment we intend to and will live up to. Our ultimate goal is to be able to have traditional names on our birth certificates, on our vital statistics documents, using the traditional font, which is truly the only way to recognize a traditional name. At that time, I said it's going...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes that Bill 40, Smoking Control and Reduction Act, be read for the second time.

This bill repeals the Cannabis Smoking Control Act and replaces it with a new act. It also replaces provisions of the Tobacco Control Act. This bill creates prohibitions and offences, including in respect of smoking in a public place and in a motor vehicle while another person who is a minor is present in the motor vehicle; imposes requirements in respect of the display of signs, including signs respecting the health risks associated with...