Julie Green

Thank you. I would like the deputy minister to try this question. Thank you.

I didn't provide a timeline because I don't have one.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to refer the question to the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not sure that there is a new action plan coming. I think that the department is taking a different approach, as they are with cultural safety, of embedding the work right into the department rather than segregating it into an action plan, but the deputy minister would have more information on this point. Thank you.

Thank you. I will just say that the hospital services budget is spread through several different categories in this budget, and this particular one is about in-patients. That is what the Minister is referring to in terms of Indigenous navigators. We do have people in navigator positions at this point. There is a question about whether it would be a good idea to have more people in this position, and that is something that we are interested in exploring further.

That may or may not be connected to medical travel. What I mean by that is that, in a separate review of medical travel, which is in a...

Thank you. I understood the deputy minister to say that the RFP is out or about to go out and that the results would be ready by the end of the year, but perhaps he could be more specific. I would like to refer the question to him.

Yes. Thank you. The reason that the long-term care is offered in regional centres is that we need some efficiencies in the number of beds and the number of staff for the 24/7 responsibility, so it's turned out that, in the smaller communities, we just can't get to that economy of scale to provide for full supportive living, which would include nursing care as well as care aides. In terms of whether there has been any discussion to create a business or training component to situate in small communities, I am not aware of that, but I will ask the deputy minister if he is. Thank you.

Yes, that is correct. After-care takes place in the NWT, and this is an out-of-territory segment.

Thank you. As the Member said, we have hired a number of additional staff in Child and Family Services to improve services to families who need additional support. That is reflected in the budget here. With respect to Indigenous governments creating their own regime for taking care of Child and Family Services, we are very supportive of that. We are prepared to collaborate with Indigenous government organizations and the federal government to make that happen. It's federal legislation that enables this to happen, and the federal government has announced funding available to Indigenous...

Yes. I would like to refer that to the deputy minister. Thanks.