Glen Abernethy

With Building Stronger Families, which is our new approach on Child and Family Services, our first priority is really to try and keep families together and not result in apprehension situations. We have already started to see a decrease in the number of apprehensions, more voluntary agreements, more mediation, and fewer families being taken apart. However, yes, from time to time, we will still need to bring children into care.

Our work is directed by the Child and Family Services Act and all of the relevant standards within. Our focus is obviously in the best interest of the child and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're getting a proposal from the NWTHSSA right now on what they think it's going to cost to upgrade some of the equipment. I will certainly pass along through the deputy and the CEO the support that the Member has given for our staff. I agree. We have amazing staff doing amazing things, and I don't think anybody should think that the problem we have or the improvements we're trying to make are based on the quality of the staff. It's policies. It's procedures. It's guidelines. We need to make sure that we are always offering our employees the training that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what audited financial statement is the Member looking at? Is it an NWT or NTHSSA audited financial statement, or is it the other books, and what date is it? What date, March 31?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today on my left is Bruce Cooper, who is the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, and on my right, Jeannie Mathison, who is the director of Finance.

Mr. Chair, they don't. Really, the only link between the supp-health benefits, extended health benefits, indigent health benefits, Metis health benefits, and NIHB, is that we mirror the program. Our programs mirror NIHB. NIHB, we administer on behalf of the federal government. It is a federal government program. We administer it on their behalf for our First Nations residents. Extended health benefits, indigent health benefits, Metis health benefits mirror that, but it is a program that we fund as the Government of the Northwest Territories.

We have estimated some costs for enforcement-related activities that Health and Social Services are responsible for, complaints-based reviews of cannabis use in communities and whatnot. We believe we have enough money in our existing budget to do that work. If the demand proves higher than we expect as far as complaints, we will certainly have to explore new options.

When it comes to advertising, we do have the application out to the federal government for $2 million. The federal government announced in their budget that they do have some money available for this type of thing. We are hoping to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to start off, I just want to be very, very clear. Not all residents of the Northwest Territories who require chemo have received care or chemo in the Northwest Territories. Many of our residents have always gone south for chemo, depending on the nature of the cancer, the type of treatment they receive. We did provide chemo services in the Northwest Territories, in Stanton in particular, for certain types of cancer and certain types of treatment.

Since we have come to a single authority, we have been reviewing operations and delivery of services in different...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The territorial health authority has a deficit about $67.3 million. That deficit is the territorial health authority deficit, but the territorial authority falls under the Financial Administration Act, so it ultimately is a GNWT debt. The Finance Minister has told me I have to pay it back. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We have a standing agreement with an airline to be the first airline that we go to in cases of medical travel. That airline has provided good services. We have a really good relationship with them where we get discounted rates and, if flights are cancelled at the last minute, we don't hit a financial penalty on that.

Recognizing that, we know that it doesn't always work, and we have the freedom to go to other airlines, but our priority is to go to the airline of our standing offer agreement. We do use other airlines from time to time if we see these cancellations occurring, because our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, honestly, I can't say. That would be presuming a solution. I don't think we have reached that conclusion. I think we need to do the work. Conceivably, yes, but let's do the work and figure out what we can do to address our challenges and develop a plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.