Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I got my first briefing on the Auditor General’s report the day before the Auditor General tabled it and I got that report and that briefing from the Auditor General himself. I did not see the report until yesterday when it was tabled. In fact, I read it while sitting here in Committee of the Whole and that was the first time that I saw the document.

But I’m not a moron; I was involved in the review of the Child and Family Services Act in the 16th Assembly and I participated with Mr. Bromley and Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Krutko and Mr. Beaulieu while we travelled throughout the...

Mr. Chair, in the areas we see the asks here with respect to children in southern placement and adults in southern placement, we have asked for money in the ‘14-15 budget which has been moved forward, added to the base so that we don’t have to come back for as large of supps in the future, but the Member does raise a good point. Having said that, the individuals that are in these southern placements are usually high needs individuals with a range of conditions. I have asked the department to do a file review of all the individuals, recognizing that many of them are very complex and we don’t...

Thank you. Of course it’s a possibility, absolutely. We’ve got only a finite number of employees within the GNWT with the technical expertise in their different areas, but it’s absolutely irrelevant. The Member’s statement or the Minister’s statement was mine, I directed the department on what I wanted to say, I wanted to follow up on the types of things that are going on in the department and regardless of who writes it, it’s still my statement.

Thank you. My statement made on February 25th is actually incredibly consistent with the exact conversations that I’ve had in committee on other occasions. This is not new information; this is not some brand new thing that we’re doing. I believe the former Minister has actually made similar statements. As the Minister, I have the ability to select what statements I’m going to make and the child and family service file was an important one to me. It has been an important one since I was elected for my first term and it will continue to be important to me and I’ll continue to make statements...

It’s something that I’ve actually thought of at different times. I’ve had an opportunity to talk to professionals who were around in the day when the two departments were brought together or the many departments were brought together and services were shipped out to Education, Culture and Employment in other areas as well.

I’ve also had an opportunity to talk to a significant number of professionals in the system. At the end of the day, it’s my opinion what we want is an integrated system. We want social workers and social service providers able to work collaboratively with our health providers...

I think the Auditor General kind of hit it on the head when they referred to the lack of accountability in the system. I think it was Mr. Moses who outlined the structure where the Minister is responsible and then the director is responsible for the provisions of the act and they delegated responsibilities down to staff who actually report it in authority and move up, so there’s limited accountability in the authority which means it may not have been a priority to the degree we needed it to be, certainly not to the degree the Standing Committee on Social Programs in the 16th Assembly believed...

Thank you. It’s awfully cynical and it seems to be attributing motive, which is not really the case. I was involved in the file. I am the Minister of Health and Social Services and I have taken an active interest in this file. I have had many discussions with the department, and the department, yes, is involved in preparing responses to the audit, which I don’t get to see until the audit is actually out there, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we need to do a lot more on this file, and I’m taking action and I have been taking action and I didn’t wait for...

During the last fiscal year, the Department of Health and Social Services took over the health human resources unit from the Department of Human Resources. That unit is now in the department and they’re developing a comprehensive human resources plan for the department and working with the authorities, as well, so we’re hoping to come up with some useful and beneficial programs that will help recruit and retain Northerners throughout the Northwest Territories, whether that’s training people or bringing people in, it should include both of them. We are going to be coming forward with that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We invest about $6 million annually in community counselling positions across the Northwest Territories and community counselling services.

With respect to the exact position in Fort Liard, I’m not actually aware of the position in Fort Liard or whether or not it’s vacant, so I will have to have a conversation with the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority to get a status update, which I will share with the Member and I’ll work with the authority to figure out how to get an incumbent into that position.

We’re looking for ways to recruit and retain health and allied health professionals throughout the Northwest Territories that may involve a variety of programs. We haven’t really determined all the details at this point. But the Regional Recruitment Program is available to all departments, boards and agencies, so if we have positions that don’t have a statutory requirement, we could certainly engage the Department of Human Resources to utilize the Regional Recruitment Program as it stands now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.