Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, the government is committed to addressing health inequities experienced by our residents. In October of last year I provided information on the Department of Health and Social Services' plans to move forward with our cultural safety and relationship-based care approach, and today I am pleased to advise that the 2018-2020 Caring for Our People: Cultural Safety Action Plan will be tabled later today.

Research shows that Indigenous peoples experience a disproportionate amount of negative health and social outcomes in comparison to non-Indigenous people. It is our responsibility as a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of it is what we just talked about, but, for the most part at this point in time, we are planning to use existing and our own resources to fund some of the activities that we want to undertake in this particular area. From there, we will be able to determine what additional asks and what additional business cases are going to be necessary to seek additional funding, if appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of increases in this area. It's not all midwifery services. Some of it is some additional positions in intensive care, long-term care, and medical-surgical nursing to help implement Stanton and a few other things. There is $373,000 in here for midwifery program expansion, to help us move forward with the territorial midwifery program. It's a couple of different midwifery positions in Yellowknife and Hay River. Maybe I will go to the deputy minister, who can go through in greater detail exactly where those investments are to help us move forward with the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, that would be in diagnostic and therapeutic services, not in ambulatory care. Before we go on, though, I'd just like to point out that, throughout this budget, I think it's important to recognize that there are multiple areas within this budget where you'll see increases that are directly related to Stanton, the growth at Stanton and opening the new facility. For instance, on this page, it's under "Emergency Services." We have four new RN's in the Stanton emergency. I just want to make it clear that, although we talked about in the previous section, it will be through...

Absolutely, Mr. Chair. I am hoping to come to committee with Avens, hopefully during this sitting. I think we have a request to meet with the committee during this sitting. We just need to make sure that, when we come in, we have some of those policy questions figured out. That is what we are working on right now with Avens. My intention is to do it in this sitting, probably towards the end of this sitting, and do it in cooperation with Avens.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At some point during the 2019-2020 fiscal year, but as I indicated, we are not fully done. We are making some last-minute adjustments to make sure that we have it right, and that includes figuring out exactly the timeline to roll it out in a reasonable way without causing too much shock and awe from some of those individuals who may, may, be impacted.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With respect to on-the-land healing increases and changes that we have made, we have heard from individuals that they would like to see more focus on some of the on-the-land programming, focus on after-care treatment and mental health and addictions. We have sought through the budgeting process an additional $400,000 that we have included in this line to take it from $1.1 million to $1.5 million, but we also took some of the money out of this particular area, out of the $450,000, $200,000 to support more on-the-land training programs focused on mental health and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What has become clear over the last little while and I think it's something we may not have recognized had we not moved to a single authority is there really isn't a solid definition of how people determine wait lists across the Northwest Territories. Now, in moving forward, the department is working closely with the authority to come up with some solid definition on how to define wait times. That work is underway. Once that work is concluded, we'll be in a better position to figure out how to report in a consistent manner wait times for all of the different services that...

That's my understanding, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We haven't put money in here to address the operational review because we only just got the operational review to us. We are working with Avens right now to analyze that report and make sure that everybody understands it. I think that there is work that we have to do, and there is work that Avens has to do. That work is under way. I am interested in, obviously, meeting with committee with Avens, together at the same time, to go through that report and help them understand some of the challenges that we both face.

In 2017-2018, we covered the shortfall to Avens from within...