Glen Abernethy

I’m not a great big fan of recreating the wheel if it’s already working well. But we would have to explore these programs. They may no longer be relevant; they might be relevant. We’re certainly willing to look at other programs, and I’d appreciate if the Member could maybe share some of his insight into these programs with us as well. In particular, which ones he thinks were really effective and which ones maybe weren’t so effective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is correct; the speciality clinics portion is mostly the speciality clinics located out of Stanton. Stanton does track that information but I just don’t have it at my fingertips, so I will commit to getting it to the Member in committee.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for the record, there is an additional $226,553 for community-based respite that goes to the NWT Disabilities Council. So the $183,000 is not the only money that they’re getting.

As I indicated previously, we are working with them and we’re hoping to see a revised disabilities action plan and that may come with some financial asks. We’re looking forward to seeing that document when it is concluded, at which point we’ll be having, I’m certain, some discussions with the committee on that.

With respect to handivans and other programs, we believe that the individual...

The responsibility of health and social services has been devolved down to the Government of the Northwest Territories. There are dollars coming through NIHB that are going to individual Aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories for different aspects of their care, but it is the Government of the Northwest Territories for the provision of health services in the Northwest Territories. There is the health money that comes from Canada, which we understand is stabilizing. It’s not going to be increasing here in the Northwest Territories, but unlike other jurisdictions it’s not going to be...

Just to be clear, we are talking about the ’15-16 budget, as the Member indicated, and the health transformation will not occur during this fiscal year. Much of the work is going to be done. The actual rollout of the transformed health system will begin April 1, 2016, and it may take a bit of time to realize some of the savings in some of the specific areas where those savings might occur. It would probably be a little premature to say whether or not we will see an increase in the budget in ’16 and ’17 or whether we’d see a decrease in the budget in ’16 and ’17. We are doing the work now that...

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.