Glen Abernethy

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...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is the service payment for the new hospital, the new Stanton Hospital. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm pretty sure the Member asked this question in oral questions and the other day I said it was seven positions filled, four not filled. I think two of the ones that aren't filled yet are in the Deh Cho, but recruitment is taking place.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've have some conversations between the Minister and me about whether or not there are houses available, and other things, but we haven't really fleshed anything out, and we don't really know what's available. I'm prepared to have more conversations with the Minister as well as committee, but when it comes to this particular area, my first priority is to get a formula developed for the shelters to make sure that we are getting the money that we need to the shelters and getting that stabilized first. That doesn't mean that I don't hear the Member. It doesn't mean that I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Recognizing that there are so many different program areas within the Department of Health and Social Services, with respect to new programs or amendments to programs in the future, program designs will often occur in the department where standards will be set that must be evaluated and monitored over time as part of the evaluation framework which we hope and intend to put into place with respect to programs we are putting forward. The authorities will be the authority, and our two partner authorities will still be required to collect the data and make sure that the data...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there was a bit of a summary and a report done on a review of the day program that was offered at Avens, which is no longer available. We're trying to build upon that report to meet the needs of different individuals here in Yellowknife. We don't see it necessarily the same as some of the day programs in some of the other communities, which are mostly drop-in and anybody can come. We are trying to provide a support to residents of Yellowknife who have family members who are high-needs, or their family is working and they need to make sure that they're not alone...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as mentioned earlier, we have increased a number of home support and homecare positions by 11, last budget cycle. There's $740,000, I believe, in this budget from the federal government that we're using to do the pilots and the design of the pilots for community and family caregivers, and we're also doing the review of homecare. As I said to Member Green from Yellowknife Centre, we don't anticipate getting that work done in time for the next planning cycle, but we do plan on getting it in the life of this government, so that the next government can make...