Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Information for Return to Written Question 4919(2), Three Year Turnover Rates of Child and Youth Counselors by Region; and, Followup Letter for Oral Question 115919(2), Mental Health and Suicide. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, a better description of these positions is adult social workers, adult services social workers. So my understanding is that the operational situation for the two when they are hired is to have one available at the health centre and one who is doing outreach. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has been able to fund these positions with internal funds at this point but that they are looking for a longer term solution to continue funding the medical social workers. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have a highlevel service dashboard that is available online, but it doesn't drill into the level that the Member is asking for. And so I will follow up with her to give her specific times for Inuvik, Stanton, and Fort Smith. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not looking at making that change.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Followup Letter for Oral Questions 1210, 1232, and 125519(2): Addictions Treatment. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to answer this question.

In this House this week, I've been asked for nursing student bursaries, fertility treatments, suicide prevention money. I've also been asked for HIV PREP, which is a preventative medication, and free contraception. That's the problem, Madam Speaker. The expectations of the health system are not commensurate with the amount of money that is provided to it.

What I want to say about the deficit is that it is top of mind for NTHSSA and for me as the Minister. We created the NWT health and social services...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, the department has developed an RFP that will go out before the end of the year asking Indigenousfocused treatment centres to submit proposals for serving NWT residents. And our hope is that that contract will be in place for the new fiscal year, April 1st. And if the Member has any particular recommendations or contacts in Indigenous treatment circles that we should pursue, we would be happy to hear about them. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, when I say treatment centres don't work, I'm talking about attendance at the treatment centres. Since we established the contracts with the southern treatment centres, the number of people going to treatment has increased significantly. And this is information that the Member asked for last week, which was sent to her today. She will notice that there is a dropoff in the years that COVID has been active but since 2014, 2015, a total of 1,446 people have been to treatment. Thank you.

Having a little private laugh about a meeting this morning. Yes, what we need is we need to do several things. One is that we need an increase to the Canada health transfer, and that's something that the Premier is working on at the Council of the Federation table. And you may have seen the ads reinforcing those messages that have appeared recently.

We are also negotiating with the federal government to continue to fund and, in fact, augment the Territorial Health Innovation Fund which is it's a fund that acknowledges that costs in the NWT, and this fund is available in Nunavut and Yukon too...