Julie Green

The medical travel policies were revised last year, at the end of the 18th Assembly, and one of the new features is an appeal mechanism so that, if someone is denied an escort, then it is possible for that person to fill in an appeal form and file that with medical travel and have it considered. The only hitch to these, though, and I get lots of these crossing my desk, is that people need to plan ahead. Medical-travel people work a regular day. There is an on-call function, but I find they get a lot of last-minute requests. If the person who requires an escort is denied, there is an appeal...

The answer to the question is that the on-the-land healing fund was increased by $700,000 for this fiscal year, and so the total now is $1.8 million. Thank you.

It's worth remembering always that a decision to go into treatment is a voluntary decision. People may feel that they are ready at one point and then later feel that they, in fact, are not ready. I know that, with respect to COVID, I have heard from medical patients. They are somewhat reluctant to go South to the Alberta hospitals, for example, because there have been hospital-based outbreaks, and there is a perception of increased risk. I would not be at all surprised if that is the case with people who are looking at treatment programs. I would also say, and the Member has heard me say this...

Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Poverty reduction is an urgent challenge that everyone needs to be aware of. Poverty levels have further increased with COVID-19, which could push more residents into poverty due to an uncertain economy, food insecurity, and the high cost of living. To support residents during the pandemic, the Government of Northwest Territories took a whole-of-government approach on several fronts. During the month of March, income assistance recipients received a one-time emergency allowance. The GNWT is also taking action to provide supports and protection for...

Yes. I'm well aware that the Member is a nurse and very knowledgeable as a result about how infectious COVID is. People are given advice about isolating at home, about having separate bathrooms, separate bedrooms, about good cleaning practices, good hand hygiene, wearing masks, and so on. There is nobody there checking up on them to make sure that all of that is being done. This is something that happens in the privacy of a person's home. We do recognize that there has been some household spread in this particular case. I am really interested to see what the CPHO comes up with in her revised...

Yes, thank you. I just start by saying that the CPHO is an independent office within Health and Social Services, so I don't have any information that hasn't already been made public about what happened this week. There was a communications breakdown that led to the announcement of a positive test when it wasn't positive. It was presumptive and has since been confirmed as positive. My understanding is that the first case news release talked about contacts for the travel case, and the second case news release was a household contact of that original travel case. Thank you.

It's my understanding that the new territorial midwifery manager is working on all of these things. There is a standard job description for all registered midwives that is part of the regulatory framework that has already been established, and further, the NTHSSA bylaws have a process for reviewing performance of professional staff. This is the same process that would be used for midwives, as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That strategy will be complete in the spring of 2021. Thank you.

I need to do some work to understand where the gap is here. I know that the medical practitioner is the starting point for requesting an escort and that goes to medical travel and the staff there make a determination. It's not up to me to create exceptions. The policy has the exceptions in it, and as I mentioned, there is an appeal mechanism for people who feel it has been applied incorrectly.

I want to add one more thing. There is confusion that I've seen between the need for a medical escort and the need for compassionate travel. I have seen medical escort requests where what the request is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The medical travel escorts are determined by need, by the medical practitioner, not by the age of the person who is travelling, so I don't see that we need to change the policy right now, that an elder, by default, needs a medical escort. That's really up to the elder to decide. Thank you.