Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Madam Chair. These discussions are actually underway with the Child Welfare League of Canada to determine whether the league would be in a position to initiate this assessment and help us in the fall of this year, so we agree this information is necessary and important.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since I’ve become the Minister of Health and Social Services, I’ve actually had a number of constituents and other residents raise this particular issue with me, and I’ve already directed the department to begin the analysis. First, what are other jurisdictions doing, how many have moved from the 183 days to 153 days. But more importantly than just the number, how many of those are for out of province and how many of those for out of country. I’ve also asked the department to do a cost analysis on what this could bring or limit the Northwest Territories.

Given that we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Two things. I’m a little confused. I think this is recommendation 15 from your report, not recommendation 14. The recommendation 15 goes right in, and for the record, we agree with recommendation 15 as it relates to recommendation 13. We were talking about modifying what’s provided in recommendation 13 and included in recommendation 15 so the information the Members are looking for is there. It’s just much more practical to do one report as opposed to multiple reports.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With respect to recommendation number 12, I’d be happy to discuss with the Standing Committee on Social Programs the appropriate format and time in providing updates on a regular basis. I will say that it may not always be appropriate to forward some of these internal work plans, depending on the level of detail about staff and clients. Some of the work plans may include client-specific information, so it may not be appropriate to provide those as we may need releases and other pieces of information. But I’m happy to have further discussion with the Standing Committee...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This recommendation will be addressed in the amendments to the act. Drafting is underway and is expected to take about 12 months, with introduction of the amending bill in the spring of 2015. As outlined in the legislative proposal, the amendment will include enhancing services offered to youth, including youth protection orders, housing supports under support service agreements and defining youth under the act. It will also include extending support services to youth who are in permanent care until they reach the age of 23 and requiring the development of a written...

Mr. Speaker, I was making reference to an extended care unit that currently exists within Stanton and that will have to be located outside of the building, but it does provide services to people living with disabilities who require extended levels of care.

As far as the funding model around the Stanton renovations, we’re looking at a P3 model and a request for qualifications has gone out to that effect.

If the Member is talking about a completely separate building designed for particular individuals to provide either short-term or long-term rehabilitation, that is a different building and we...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department is considering adopting a series of tools called structured decision-making. These are standardized forms which child protection workers can complete in order to assess both the immediate safety risk and longer-term risk and future harm.

Several Canadian jurisdictions recently adopted these tools, and the director of territorial services is in touch with his counterparts to receive guidance on lessons learned in other jurisdictions. One of the first lessons that was learned is that it will take several years to adapt the tools to our particular...

Mr. Speaker, within the action plan, a number of the activities actually require departments to work together: Health and Social Services; Education, Culture and Employment; but not just the government departments but organizations that are providing services to residents, like the NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities and organizations like the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. Within the action plan, it identifies clearly who’s working on what initiatives, and I’d be happy to provide Members an update of where we are on that action plan today, a status report. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We do want to move to a more sort of coordinated caseload count, but it’s difficult to arrive at a caseload standard when each case is unique and may require a different amount of time, different expertise and varying resources. There are also regional differences, such as distance between communities, that must be factored into resource decisions.

I’ve already indicated we will be working with the Child Welfare League of Canada to ensure that we are applying best practices in determining caseloads, but moving to one single integrated system, obviously moving to one...

Mr. Speaker, across this country, communities are responsible for the provision of ambulance service as well as mobility services. This is something that is consistent in Canada, it’s something that has been consistent in the Northwest Territories. All of the communities in the Northwest Territories that want to provide those services step up and meet those needs of the residents of the communities. It isn’t being downloaded because it isn’t in the mandate of the Department of Health and Social Services. As I’ve indicated, I’ve had conversations with MACA. There is money being flowed to...