Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do hear the Member and I do know that, in some communities, we have longer wait times than in other communities. We're certainly trying to find ways to deal with that, whether it's through processes or other means. We are moving forward with the creation of more youth mental health counsellors for kids, to get children when they're young, so that hopefully we'll have been able to address problems before they reach adulthood, which we hope will give us exactly what the Member is talking about, about people being able to function normally.

There are also other...

We actually have hired a midwifery consultant and we are working with the different midwives in the Northwest Territories to help strengthen the existing services, but our territorial consultants are also working with us to update our procedures and our guidelines to make sure that they're current and they make sense. Those are building upon the recommendations.

I'm happy to have a meeting with committee if committee so desires to walk through where we are and where we're going and where we hope to be by the end of this Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure I understand the question. We need to determine the amount of money we're going to need to bring the authority, which means working with their pension, but also working with the union is the number of things that have to happen. It's not just pension costs. There are going to be some other costs. We need to know what those are before we can have an informed discussion in this room or in this Assembly.

On top of that, historically we've been spending about $1 million a year. Until such a time as it is properly resolved, I anticipate that those costs will...

No, Mr. Chair. No, I'm just kidding. Yes, this is the section, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, and we're looking forward to rolling this out. I mean, we know there are going to be a few challenges along the way, but we heard from the kids. We heard from the kids, and they indicated this is an important tool and resource they need. I'm happy to see the support we have from committee, and I'm happy to continue to push this forward over the next four years, this year starting in the Deh Cho. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in the department, we have a number of different functions, including our policy division. We've got nursing consultants. We've got the chief public health officer. We have a number of responsibilities that are responsible for developing policy related to particular activities, such as nursing or midwifery and those types of things. When operationalized, those are operationalized through the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority and our two other partner boards. The quality assurance that I have been referencing is quality assurance at the authority...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the RFP is just recently out; I shared it with the Member. We're trying to provide a day program for those, basically, in most need in the Yellowknife area. It's certainly not a broad-ranging program or a program for all residents of the Yellowknife area. It will be for certain individuals and, honestly, I can't remember what we put out as a term on that. So I will have to get back with that information. I'm blanking completely. So I apologize.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the Member is talking about the community mental health and addictions, there has actually been an increase from 2016-2017 into 2017-2018 and again into 2018-2019 for this area. What I think I am hearing from the Member, I think we are working to make improvements in that area through the next section of this budget where we are including the community youth counsellor positions throughout the Northwest Territories. I apologize. We have to make decisions, and we are focusing on Tlicho and Deh Cho as a starting point. We will be rolling through the Territories over the...

The Member did bring this to my attention, and I directed the department to do the work. They did the work. We are rewriting the policies and procedures manuals, fixing the unit itself so that it can get best value for money and so that the staff are adequately resourced to provide the services that they want. There are 79 public guardianships. There are 85 private guardianships. There is a caseload of new applications.

We are working on these, trying to reduce those numbers to provide the support we need to the residents. I am confident that we are building the case we need to seek additional...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, anything I say at this point will likely prove to not be true, so I'm not going to go out on a limb and say what it will. I can tell you what the ranges have been. In 2015, there was a significant amount of work done on this. At that time, I think it was around $500 million to bring it into the public service. At that time, the government of the day chose not to. Since we have begun moving to a single authority early, mid-way through the last Assembly, we did some initial work. It looked like it could be around $20 million.

I couldn't tell you what that number...