Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, individuals who access the healthcare system cannot opt out of utilizing the record systems that we have in place. Our priority, and following up on the recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner about concerns raised by others including individuals of this House, is the ability for a resident to block the ability of their information to be shared with others. We didn't think we initially could do that, but we believe now that we can, so we're working on finding a mechanism whereby a resident, should they choose to, could require us to block...

Mr. Chair, I am pretty good at growing carrots and potatoes. I have a hard time with fruit, even raspberries; the wild ones do not work so well, so we will take any advice the Member may have.

The $900,000 is as a result of work that we have already done. We have brought all of the medical professionals under a single authority, and we have been able to get some economies of scale as far as recruitment. We have actually, I think, done better than we have in the past under recruitment. We have more stability in Hay River and Inuvik than we have had in many, many years, and as a result we have...

As much as I'd like to be able to control the weather, we can't. When there are flights cancelled as a result of weather, we work with our residents to make sure that those appointments are rescheduled and the flights rescheduled appropriately. The Member has brought that concern from his region to me. I share his frustration on the number of cancellations that occurred.

Following up on our discussions, the department did follow up with one of our main contractors from Medical Travel, who does the majority of the flights in the Nahendeh region. They indicated to us that it has been a...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll certainly share that information with the Minister of Finance. As a note, we are looking at exactly the same document. We just have the information that there has been a slight change, and that has been brought to your attention. I take the Member's point and we'll endeavour to make sure that happens. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the work we anticipate is going to take a bit of time. It's going to be done by a private contractor. We really have to dig in right at the base community level. At this point, it's not expected that work will be done in time for business planning, but it will be available for future decision-making in the Assembly. I will say that we do appreciate that, in the last budget round, we did have some additional money put into this area and we were able to hire and create some homecare and home support positions throughout the Northwest Territories in the areas...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the action plan isn't completed, so we didn't bring it through the business planning process. We do have money in the budget for existing services, and should the action plan direct us to make modifications or improvements, and work to get best value for money, we are prepared to move how the money is spent which I think is the appropriate thing to do of all things. We need to review and make sure we are getting back value for money. If we are not, we need to modify it. At this point, there is no new money in this initiative for that action plan, which has not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right. A true diagnosis of FASD does require the mother to acknowledge that she has been drinking. Sometime, that is not forthcoming, but we will work with pregnant mothers to educate them on the harms and the risks of drinking while intoxicated. We're certainly going to be expanding this conversation to include the risks of smoking cannabis while pregnant, because both alcohol and cannabis do have detrimental impact on the developing brain.

Our nurses and our doctors who are providing pre-natal care are aware of the information. They have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, through the deputy, I have asked the deputy to have our chief health information officer reach out to the Information and Privacy Commissioner to get some ideas from her on what areas we might be able to amend or tweak in order to provide some of that clarity. I am not 100 per cent convinced that it requires legislative change. We might be able to do the same things through a plain-language-type document or other means. We are exploring those right now to see what is the most expeditious and simple for our residents to make sure that they have an understanding...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have moved forward with a number of programs. The program that I mentioned earlier today in questions from the Member from the Deh Cho, one that was just released recently. During business planning, I did make a commitment to have the department look at the older program Don't Be a Butthead to see what opportunities exist. It retired a number of years ago. At that time, we heard that many of the students were not connecting with it the same as they did when it initially came out. It might have been a timing thing. It might have been it just grew a little...

Yes, Mr. Chair. In future printings, it will reflect the numbers the Member has identified.