Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is still in place. We have had some difficulties over the year with some specific issues, but for the details, I will go to the deputy for that.

I’m not prepared to commit to a standard today. We’d have to do some analysis and research to see what would be reasonable. I will say that throughout the Northwest Territories the wait times do vary. For instance, in Yellowknife it’s two to three months for counselling, two months for adult psychiatry and it could be two or three months for child and youth psychiatry, and these are for non-urgent issues. In the Sahtu, in Tulita it’s two months. In Deline it’s, surprisingly, turned out to be about two weeks; Colville Lake, one month. In the Deh Cho, Fort Providence is about three weeks, Fort...

The increased cost as a result of the Health Information Act is in this budget, the 2014-2015 budget, which means it’s also in the 2015-16 budget. For the detail, Ms. DeLancey.

I do acknowledge this is certainly more complex than it was before. This offers way more detail than the budget did in previous years. When we indicated to committee that we were going to be moving to a system that actually provided some consistency between the authorities and the department and was consistent with the CIHI definitions of different program areas, we did offer a briefing. We ran out of time. We’d be happy to come back and give committee a briefing on these new categories and how they relate. There is some certain crossover. Some of the money will fall into multiple areas for...

There’s already a number of community-based organizations that do provide different types or different levels of support. They may not be in every community. In Yellowknife, by way of example, there is the Tree of Peace that does provide some of those services.

We offer, throughout the Northwest Territories, two deliveries in every region. The Mental Health First Aid program, which is actually a wonderful program and I encourage… Actually, I’d like to challenge all the MLAs to actually take the Mental Health First Aid. I’d also like to challenge the MLAs to have their CAs take Mental Health...

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...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Member’s comments and suggestions and questions. The Member did talk about the shutdown of the long-term care facility in Aklavik. The facility in Aklavik was a supported living facility, and I understand that the Housing Corp has actually constructed an independent living unit to replace that facility. In working with the Housing Corp, we’ve actually ensured that these new facilities the Housing Corp is building to support our residents and needs throughout the Northwest Territories, including Aklavik, is actually program space where we can have our...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d be happy to, but are we going to follow the same protocol we have with other departments that we go through the Members, a couple of them and then come back? Or is there a preference on how we move forward?