Julie Green

I did give the Minister credit for speeding up the assessment process, but we are talking now about another year-long delay before this 150-person caseload is going to be addressed by more staff. That is entirely unacceptable. This office needs to be re-staffed now. I would like to see this staffing adjustment made in a supplementary appropriation during this sitting. Can the Minister make that commitment?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this was an initiative announced in the budget address by the Finance Minister, that a country food strategy would be created. It didn't sound like a public education campaign as much as it was about accessing country foods. It doesn't say in the budget address which department this is attached to, so it's not Health.

Moving on to my next question, I would like to commend the Minister for finding a permanent home for the sobering centre, and I look forward to the day that that opens. I would like to pursue a point I made in my reply to the budget address, and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, during the business plan review, we talked quite a bit about the need to have an adult day program in Yellowknife, and I see that there is now a request for proposals out. Can the Minister please tell us what kind of a day program he is asking potential bidders to bid on? That is to say, does it include people with both cognitive disabilities as well as frailty? How many people will be served? How long a contract is this, and so on? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about capacity issues in the Office of the Public Guardian, specifically about the size of the caseload the guardian herself is expected to manage. The Public Guardian takes care of people who can't take care of themselves. Young adults who have been diagnosed with FAS, people with severe mental illness or intellectual disabilities, and older adults with dementia are all potential candidates for public or private guardianship depending on their circumstances. These, of course, are some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

When I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister confirm, then, that this mental health action plan will be ready in time for the business planning cycle that begins in the fall? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I see the payment to out-of-territories hospitals has increased by $9,000,000, or will increase by $9,000,000 in the next fiscal year. Can the Minister confirm that this is a proactive step on the part of the department to line up actual spending with the budget? Thank you.

I love answers like that, so I am rushing onwards with the next thing in my list. Thank you to the Minister for that. The Minister in answering my colleague for Nunakput's question the other day on caregivers indicated that homecare or people who work in association with homecare were providing vision and hearing tests in the communities of the NWT. Could the Minister tell me when and where these tests are taking place? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just finally on this point: could the Minister commit to proactively informing the committee once he has had the briefing about the status of this issue so that we are also in the loop?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What does $74,000 represent, then, in this context? I'm not clear about that. I realize it is a grant in kind. I am familiar with the arrangement with the "Y" but I'm not sure what the 74 represents. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I understand that one of the remedies to offer people who don't want to be part of the electronic medical records is, in fact, to offer them masking where information is concealed. I'm not exactly sure what the right word is, but it's protected, I guess, from certain users in the system; and that the current system is called a legacy system, so it is not that easy to find this fix of masking information on it. Can the Minister elaborate on that point, please?