Julie Green

Thank you to the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh for that question. The total budget for on-the-land funding is $1.095 million and the mobile treatment after-care funding, and these are often pooled together, is $729,000, so the total is $1.8 million. Of that, $482,631 has been spent, and the two IGOs with agreements in place are the Dehcho First Nations and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. Each IGO is allocated the same amount. The on-the-land funding available to each IGO is $125,000, and the mobile treatment after-care funding is $66,350. I can make a copy of this page, and I can make it...

The department right now is working on adapting the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons physician standards, and those standards include a telehealth standard. What the department is doing is adapting those to NWT circumstances, step one. Step two, engage the key stakeholders with the content such as the NWT Medical Association and the Health and Social Services Authority so that they can provide their input into that. Finally, there may be a need for a legislative change in the Medical Profession Act, and if that's the case, we would certainly expedite work on that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The particular focus of the virtual care work is between in-territory providers, health providers, and in-territory patients. There has been some work done, although COVID-19 reorganized priorities, and that work has slowed down. We already have a head start because the secure messaging will be through the territorial EMR system, which is available in every health centre and cabin that we have, so there is widespread availability once the secure messaging is developed for application across the NWT. The only other loose end is that we need to continue work with...

Thank you for the question. Yes, the CPHO is fully aware that outdoor funerals, if not already over, will be over in a matter of weeks because of the temperature outside. It's my understanding that the protocol that's in place now will remain in place but she is actively reviewing the funeral protocol, and that there is a possibility of revised public health orders next month, and that this would be the time we hear what she's decided about funerals.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. This is before my time over here, but my understanding is that, yes, Cabinet did have a chance to review the plan before it was made public. Thank you.

Thank you for the question, Member for Monfwi. The situation with facility-based treatment is to provide a range of options. Poundmaker’s is one of the six. Aventa, which is for women, is another; Edgewood in B.C.; Fresh Start, which is for men in Calgary; and an Indigenous Healing Centre called Renascent in Toronto and another called the Thorpe Healing Centre in Lloydminster. There are a lot of different choices there for people to make. This is a matter of public policy that affects all residents of the NWT. Also, more particularly for Indigenous organizations, there is on-the-land healing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for Monfwi for that question. I'm unaware of a promise by the Department of Health and Social Services to revisit the question of southern-based in-facility addictions treatment. In fact, recently, in response to a call for proposals, six facilities in total, two new, were approved for southern-based addictions treatment. The reason it's in the South is because people can get in right away. They can choose the place they want to go. They can be in a co-ed or a gender-specific facility depending on their preference. They have access to a range...

Thank you to the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. There is no current plan to establish a facility-based treatment option in the Northwest Territories. The last one was Nats'ejee K'eh. It cost as much to run Nats'ejee K'eh as it does to contract the six other places in the South, and so we feel that it's better value for money to have the facility-based treatment in the South, notwithstanding the fact that that money is not being spent in the North. Thank you.

Thank you for that question. I am very interested in that follow-up, as well, and it's my understanding that the department will start surveying people who go out to facility-based treatment and check in with them, whether they stay for the full time or they leave early, and to check in with them more than once when they come back, to find out whether they've been able to retain their sobriety.

The answer is that the service now is not entirely seamless, but if residents normally receive service in an Indigenous language in the health clinic in their community, they will continue to receive those services. New patients, it then falls to interpreters who are available in the health clinic or the health centre to interpret for that individual who is the patient. There is every effort to accommodate people to speak their first language and to receive services that are culturally safe and appropriate. Having said that, the technological end of this about connectivity in every community...