Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the previous Assembly, the Minister responsible for the PUB and Cabinet of the day provided some direction to the PUB to develop some principles when assessing net metering here in the Northwest Territories. Part of that direction included a capacity of 15 kilowatts, as the Member has identified. Those instructions are available online at the PUB's website. In this Assembly, with respect to Mandate 1.4.6, this Assembly agreed that we will support net metering through clear policy direction to the PUB to provide clarity to allow customers to recover their...

As I indicated, any restrictions are sort of a last resort, and they try to work with the clients to resolve issues that may exist. We do know that 317 people have accessed the sobering centre, and that about 33 per cent of those clients use the centre on a regular basis, on a reoccurring basis. To date, there have been 30 people who have had restrictions applied to them. Restrictions, as I have indicated previously, are usually about three hours to a maximum of a week. They can go longer if situations don't improve.

As a note, Mr. Speaker, there have been 73 referrals to Stanton Hospital ER by...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the sobering centre aims to ensure that those experiencing effects of alcohol or drugs have access to a safe place to sleep it off. By safe place, that means safe for both the clients as well as the staff of those facilities. While the staff of the centre are trained in first aid, CPR, non-violent crisis intervention, and trauma informed care, I understand that there are circumstances where good training alone cannot eliminate credible risk of real violence to clients, themselves, as well as staff.

Through the duty as an employer, and consistent with the...

The sobering centre's goal is to provide a safe place for non-violent intoxicated individuals to sleep off the effects of the drugs or alcohol. It is also to provide better care to persons with addiction through clinical assessment and intervention to improve health outcomes. It is also to assist clients with system navigation by linking them with appropriate social service agencies. It is also intended to decrease the inappropriate ambulance trips to emergency department for homeless alcohol-dependent individuals, and to decrease the number of inappropriate emergency room visits from homeless...

We want to have a sobering centre that is safe. We want to make sure that the clients in there are safe and aren't at risk at other clients. We also need to make sure the staff are safe. There are some guidelines that do restrict individuals on a short-term basis. Some individuals could be restricted for half a day, one evening. Some, depending on the nature of the incidents that have occurred, might be restricted for a longer period of time.

I do take the Member's point. If a client is under restricted access due to violence or aggressive behaviour, the NWT Disabilities Council works...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Ernie Bernhardt, who is also a constituent of the Great Slave riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "2017-2018 Annual Report on Implementation of the Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In the new hospital, as in the current hospital and Hay River, we don't dedicate beds for detox, but we have beds available for detox. If somebody needs detox services, medical detox, we have the ability to facilitate that in our facilities. With Stanton, we are going to have additional beds, so that will become easier, not more difficult.

Having said that, there are also no plans to put any detox beds in the old Stanton building. The old Stanton building is completely spoken for when it comes to things like extended care, long-term care, TO/PT, other outpatient services, as well as the Frame...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I haven't reviewed Hansard, but I am pretty sure, if we go back, I indicated at that time that I don't think we are necessarily doing everything we can or even enough for aftercare. I travelled with members of the Social Envelope Committee to different treatment facilities around the Northwest Territories. We heard loud and clear that we need to do more.

To that end, we are currently working on an addictions recovery action plan. The committee has made a number of solid recommendations. I am going to be responding to those recommendations on June 1st. In short, we are...

I will say it again: we are doing exactly that. We can make $68 a day, which works out to over $2,000 a month, which is a lot of money, for someone to rent out private accommodations and purchase food. We are looking at providing more options in Hay River. Hay River has indicated that we would like to explore other ways to provide dialysis, whether that is through some dialysis in Yellowknife and some dialysis in Hay River so people can be closer to home, offset by the peritoneal dialysis where appropriate.

Mr. Speaker, I hear the Member. I get what the Member is saying. We are working on this...