Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you for the question. The department doesn't restrict dentists from going into small communities. The issue at the moment is about infection control in some of the health centres where they are not adequate to meet the challenges of COVID-19. There hasn't been as much travel as there was previously. As an alternative, emergency cases are being flown to Yellowknife for service. Thank you.

We do now collaborate with other government departments in order to provide services to seniors, but we could be doing better. For example, I am very interested to see whether it's possible to have a common application for all seniors' services across all government departments, rather than having seniors having to apply to each government department for the service that they require. That is the kind of initiative that I'm looking at going forward. Of course, there is a lot of work related to seniors going on now around our priority to have seniors age in place with dignity. That involves...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. There will be an elders' strategy developed within this Assembly. Thank you.

There is, in fact, launching next month, an oral hygiene campaign which will include the distribution of toothbrushes, toothpastes, and dental floss to all NWT residents through the regional health centres. That is accompanied by a preschool book written by the author Richard Van Camp, and it has been translated into all 11 official languages. It's been available since March of this year. There are four dental therapists who work in the department, and they are in the regional centres, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, Fort Smith. There is usually one in Fort Simpson, but fortunately for her, she's now...

The barriers just have to do with the fact that the Department of Health and Social Services produces a lot of legislation. We do a queue of what needs to be advanced or a triage, and so this is a fairly new request. It would have to be evaluated against the other pieces of legislation that are in the queue now. I can't, unfortunately, be any more specific about when the legislation might come forward.

I don't know if the department or Indigenous Services Canada has collected that information, but I can certainly find out and make sure the Member gets it. Thank you.

The service here is primarily in NIHB service. What's happening is that senior leadership from Indigenous Services Canada and the department of health authorities are meeting this week to get an update on a resumption plan that they have all been working on for the last little while that deals with current air exchange requirements and infection control standards so that the services are delivered safely to the people in the communities. What I'm anticipating is that an announcement will be made next week on the timing and locations of phase 1 resumption of dental services and that that will...

Of course, the pandemic makes it more difficult. I have to say that I have attended three meetings of seniors' organizations via Zoom, and the seniors are up on Zoom. It's not a problem. They will connect and give their input. The department is hiring a person full-time for two years to lead the process of developing a seniors' strategy. It will be the job of this person to figure out how the consultation is going to work and to include the voices of everyone who needs to be heard. Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Member for Frame Lake. We are collaborating across all government departments to identify what the gaps are and what the resources are available to seniors to figure out how we can develop a strategy that meets their needs in a holistic way. I also want to say that we plan to collaborate with the NWT Seniors' Society and other seniors' organizations and seniors as individuals in order to develop this strategy. It will be a collaborative process from top to bottom.

I am a bossy person, but I am not the boss of the CPHO. I can't tell her what to do. I can make a suggestion, and she can weigh it and decide whether she wants to go along with it. She is a very compassionate person, and I am sure that she has looked at requests like this before. If the Member has specific constituents in mind who need this service, I would encourage them to contact ProtectNWT and seek that exemption.