Glen Abernethy

I think our actions on this file since it has come to our attention show that we do take this seriously, that we want to make changes. It is not particularly fair to suggest that this office has been ignored. If it was being ignored, we would not be having this discussion today. We are making the changes that are necessary to make the improvements. As far as the legislative changes, let us finish the work around the operationalization, which may address the issues that are out there. We are not a hundred per cent sure that they will not. Let's do the work. If legislative changes are required...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is more of an encouragement than a negotiation when it comes to the actual formulary. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to chronic diseases, which obviously includes heart disease, we're trying to take a prevention approach, which means we are really focusing on trying to encourage healthy lifestyles for residents of the Northwest Territories, but also put in place mechanisms to help educate people on how to prevent some of these things from occurring. We also need to make sure that we're enhancing screening. We are providing quality screening so that individuals can get screened early so that, if treatment is required, we can provide it.

There are a number of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I was a Regular Member when the Privacy Commissioner came to the Assembly and encouraged us strongly to put in a Health Information Act. We have put in that Health Information Act. I believe it was in 2014 or 2015. We have done a significant amount of work. We have significant obligations to report. We have hired designated and dedicated people to this file.

A significant amount of work still needs to be done. We have a lot of training to do. There has been some suggestion that we need to simplify the act. That may require a rewrite. It also could be done...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not certain of the mechanism by which the authority chose to fill it, whether they chose to fill it on the term or an indeterminate. I do know it's a half-time position and it is currently filled. I will endeavour to get more information for the Minister on whether they've been hired as terms or indeterminate. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I haven't been around for 20 years. I have been around for a little while. I guess I have been around for longer than 20 years, but I haven't been around in this building for 20 years. I made a commitment to the different family violence organizations early in the life of this Assembly that, a year after we went live with the territorial authority, we would be in a better position to sit down and have a discussion, work together to develop a formula. That work has actually be initiated after August of last year, when we met our one-year deadline. I think we have come a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That already exists according to the legislation for the authorities. the Ministry of Health and Social Services is responsible and accountable for provision of services through the Territorial Health Authority, and they do that through a board which the Minister appoints. I certainly take recommendations from others on the membership. Ultimately, this budget before you does have a significant amount of money that is flowing to the authority, so I would suggest that, if you have questions that are specific to the authority throughout the document, there are areas that are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Member's point, and I accept what she's saying. When the assessment was done, it was felt that the highest need was for frailty, and we wanted to make sure that we nailed the highest need. I take the Member's point and we'll certainly continue to have those discussions with the deputy and the department to make sure that they're considering that. Like I said, we haven't seen any proposals yet, and if we find that we have missed something in the future, we're certainly willing to explore it again. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to the Member's comments from the last question, there's a large number of things we're also trying to do as far as supporting some prevention work around suicide, and I think that's where we're going with some of the money that we got from the federal government to do some of that work, so that we can help some of our residents earlier on, before they get, maybe, in a very dangerous situation. When it comes to recruitment and retention of qualified mental health and addictions counsellors, it's hard, Mr. Chair. I mean, we've got a national challenge in...

As I've already indicated, there was a report done. There were 16 recommendations. We've supported all 16 recommendations and we're moving forward.

The expanded program will allow for a continuity of maternity care and enable greater clinical support for residents of the Northwest Territories. One of the things that's being done right now is the NWT Midwifery Framework. It has been revised and we're entering the final stages of that approval. That includes the work that we're doing on guidelines to make sure that the guidelines are current and that they stay current. Many of these things will...