Glen Abernethy
Statements in Debates
There are a number of things that we are doing in the plan that tie together. The Member has had an opportunity to read it. Within the plan, we do talk about a seamless care pathway, which is from beginning to end and includes coming back to the communities. There is no question the Member is absolutely right. We do have some transition issues bringing some of these individuals who were homeless before they went for treatment back into homeless situations. We are not just studying, Mr. Speaker. As part of this plan, we have already reached out to the Housing Corporation and engaged in...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to congratulate my constituent Brenda Johnson who was indicated into the 2019 Education Hall of Fame yesterday morning. Brenda spent 31 years working at Mildred Hall School as a program support teacher, eventually moving into coaching roles at Range Lake North as well as NJ McPherson schools. She is currently the curriculum coordinator at the district level and continues to be a role model for others on how to work with diverse groups and students.
Her priority has always been building an inclusive environment for students. She develops and supports teaching...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table had following document entitled "NWT On the Land Collaborative 2019 Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The training I mentioned in my last response is currently being enhanced, and we are in the process of developing a more stringent training framework. We are expanding the length of the training from two months to three months, and we are designing new training processes that include a combination of in-class study, structured self-study, and supervision, ensuring that our staff are appropriately trained and that they are competent in the knowledge and the skills that they need prior to employment as child protection workers, so we are trying to do a lot of this work up front, before we...
Mr. Speaker, yes, there are some standards in place to guide staff in the event of a child or youth who goes missing. One of the standards that we have is based on serious incidents. This standard provides direction to staff to ensure that they take required actions to address a serious incident, that they contact the RCMP where required, that they seek medical attention for a child or youth where required, and provide verbal and written notification to the director.
Serious incidents do have a range that are identified within the standards from 1 to 4, and, as a note, if a child under five...
As a health system and as a government, we have introduced many ways to ensure that our clients and patients are able to receive care in the most appropriate way, which obviously includes in their own language. Our preferred approach would be to have staff interpreters who speak the language of the population that we serve, so different languages in different regions. However, unfortunately, this isn't always possible.
The NWT Health and Social Services Authority has an Indigenous wellness unit that focuses on or ability to deliver care in many languages throughout the Northwest Territories...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've been talking about quality assurance and quality control within the Territorial Health Authority for a number of years now. This is something that needs to be done. We need to have mechanisms whereby we can hear what the residents are telling us, both good experiences and bad experiences. When they have a bad experience, we need to be able to look into that experience and actually come up with recommendations, how to improve and change.
I did listen very closely to the Member's statement earlier today when he was talking about some of the frustration that his...
Fortunately, in the Northwest Territories there are a lot of passionate individuals who are working outside of government to find solutions in these areas, and we are certainly willing and interested in working with them to provide transitional housing options. Recently, the Social Envelope Committee-of-Cabinet had some in-depth conversations about how we can work together as partner departments to support different initiatives that exist not just in Yellowknife but in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. We have more to learn on what these different organizations are proposing...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled "What We Heard Report: Potential Mandatory Entry Level Training for Class 1 & Class 2 Drivers." I also wish to table the following document entitled "Northern Housing Summit, Northern Solutions for Northern Housing: Summary Report, Inuvik, NWT April 23-24, 2019." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, one of this government's top priorities is the safety and well-being of children and youth receiving Child and Family Services. This includes making sure that we maintain a child's connectedness to family, community, and culture.
We have learned from our experiences, through internal and external audits, through engagement with Indigenous governments, and through feedback from stakeholders, that we need to better manage, resource, structure, and sustain changes implemented under Building Stronger Families.
We know that the improvements we were making under Building Stronger...