Glen Abernethy

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.

We’re actually currently going through the Stanton renewal which is going to result in a major construction and improvements and modifications to the Stanton facility. Part of that includes the development of a long-term care facility here in Yellowknife, which will actually be outside the building because they would have different defection control and other procedures that they’d have to adhere to. So there will be an enhanced long-term care facility here in Yellowknife and it will be similar to the high quality long-term care facility in Inuvik and the one that’s being built in Norman Wells...

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to the first question on the health care cards, the Member did mention an audit that was done, and the audit that was done by the Audit Bureau here in the Northwest Territories, or the review, was actually 2008, and that’s what we thought she was talking about. But there was some discussion between myself and committee about some of the concerns out there with respect to security of health care cards more recently. As a result of those concerns and the recent incident where health care cards were inadvertently mailed to the wrong addresses, we have put in a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, just to be clear, these are grants and contributions. There are dollars that are flowing out to other organizations such as the authorities but as well as other organizations for specific programming. This is in no way, shape or form indicative of the entire budget being spent on mental health and addictions by the Department of Health and Social Services. I believe that number is closer to $15.7 million. For some specifics I will go to the deputy minister.

We do provide a continuum of care and supports for individuals who are suffering from addictions here in the Northwest Territories, from community counsellors, we’re trying to extend the Matrix program, which is an outpatient treatment program that can be delivered in different communities throughout the Northwest Territories which these individuals would have access to.

Our difficulty has been that a number of the facilities out there that provide residential treatment have policy and procedures about not allowing individuals with certain criminal records into co-ed facilities. So, I will work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan that came out from the Department of Health and Social Services moves a long way to supporting the recommendations that are in the Minister’s Forum.

We do have community counsellors in most of the communities in the Northwest Territories who can provide direct counselling, whether its addictions related or whether its mental health related. There’s also NWT Helpline that we strongly encourage people to call if they’re unable to talk to anybody else. In the communities they’d have nurses. The nurses are also there to provide...