Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, in the last sitting I talked about the schedule for the review of the Medical Travel Policy, and we were hoping to have the base Cabinet policy ready for discussion on March 31st of this year. I did have an opportunity to get briefed by the department and go through that Cabinet policy and I didn’t feel that it was quite right and it needed some additional work, so I’ve actually sent it back to the department.

Between that and some other competing priorities, we are a little behind. I’m hoping to have that Cabinet policy to Cabinet and then to Standing Committee on Social Programs...

I will commit to having a conversation with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, but it would be impossible for me to commit to finding a solution within a seven-day session. So we will have the conversation, we will explore any opportunities that exist and I will keep the Member informed. Thank you.

On the Medical Travel Policy now, there is a per diem that is provided. It may not be sufficient enough to cover some of the costs that the Member is talking about, but I know that communities throughout the Northwest Territories have stood up and have been supporting members of their communities when they are away for extended periods of time.

During my discussions with residents across the Northwest Territories and with Members, we’ve heard a lot of suggestions on escorts and what we need to be doing. I’ve heard individuals say we need to actually create or employ some dedicated escorts in...

Mr. Speaker, I’m not prepared to talk about an individual case, but I’d be happy to sit down with the Member and we can look at the file and see what we can do to resolve this particular situation.

In the end, the Minister doesn’t make decisions on medical travel. There is a policy and a process. It’s just a matter of finding the appropriate way through the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not comfortable talking about specific individuals, but with respect to the Medical Travel Policy, a recommendation can come from the practitioner. But when it comes to non-medical escorts, there are some guidelines and not all non-medical escorts are approved.

This is clearly an area that needs improvement. We have heard from residents all across the Northwest Territories, that when you’re dealing with chronic conditions like cancer or other issues, you need emotional, compassionate support, and non-medical escorts needs to be reviewed. This is going to be included in the...

Mr. Speaker, further to my Return to Written Questions 11-17(5), 12-17(5) and 14-17(5) I wish to table the following three documents, entitled “Prevalence of “Superbug” Bacterial Infections,” “Housekeeping in NWT Health Facilities,” and “Mental Health and Addictions Financial Summary.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am aware of the rates and there are a number of things we’re trying to do. We’re obviously trying to encourage healthier living. We have the Healthy Choices framework where we’re trying to encourage people to eat healthy, live healthy, be healthy, quit smoking and lose weight. All of these things obviously contribute to cancer rates in the Northwest Territories, so we’re trying to help people make healthy choices. We do have system navigators in place to help individuals when they’re through, and we do have health professionals in most of the communities where we’re encouraging individuals...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of things that we’re doing across the Northwest Territories, and each of the authorities is responsible for providing the health professionals in their communities, and nurses are out there trying to encourage people to come into the health centres when they’re not feeling well, to get pre-screening and to get regular well man and well woman clinics done.

Prevention is one thing that we need to be doing, and we’re doing that. The other thing that we need to be doing is making sure that people are getting a timely assessment. I would encourage the...

We’re definitely breaking new ground in this area and we are working with our partners in the communities as well as across the Northwest Territories and they are working with clinical professionals who have provided more standard, typical type programming in other jurisdictions, as well, in the North. We are going to put a solid evaluation framework around this particular program to make sure that we can assess the on-the-land programs that are being delivered to make sure that as we move forward that any on-the-land program that we are supporting here in the Northwest Territories is...

In the Northwest Territories we want to make sure that our residents have options and choices, which is why we’ve gone with contracts in some southern facilities that provide some high quality programing. We are looking at on-the-land programming for, as I said, things like after-care or for prevention, support of families, and we are looking at a mobile option.

The Member is right; there was a pilot in Nunavut that didn’t work out around mobile treatment, but we are working with some of the southern institutions as well as there are institutions here in the Northwest Territories who have...