Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can certainly have that conversation with the Minister of Health I mean, the Minister of Housing. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. There isn't anything in this mandate that deals specifically with that issue. But I know from my own use of the extended health benefits that that's how it works that I pay and then I get reimbursed. It takes about three weeks. I can appreciate that for some people who have a short have a limited amount of income that that is that that can represent a hardship but at this point, I'm not aware that there are any plans to change that. Thank you.

Thank you. The transitional housing program pilot project which I just mentioned may, in fact, fill that role otherwise there is only one sobering centre in the NWT. It's in Yellowknife where the majority of the vulnerable population who require the service are located. So at this time, that is the major service for immediate sobering. The transitional housing program is for people who are maybe a step or two further down that road. Thank you.

Extended health increase.

Mr. Speaker, the Healthy Family Program is a voluntary, homevisiting and knowledgesharing program for pregnant parents, caregivers, and families with young children under six.

Over the last five years, the Department of Health and Social Services has worked closely with communities to renew this valuable program. Elders and other community members have shared their vision for this renewed program, where children thrive, caregivers are supported, and communities care for families so that future generations are stronger and stronger.

The robust renewal process included an evaluation of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that apprehension is always the last resort. And so at this point, we do have these service agreements available that family preservation workers, social workers can sign with families to ensure that their basic needs are being met. I don't know if it would be useful for these workers to have a another way of accessing money, whether that would improve the service delivery, the timing of it, and so on. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what the process is of getting money now and how onerous that is to meet a specific deadline. So I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I recognize that that the Member is duly concerned about children being removed from their homes where poverty rather than parental neglect is the primary issue. That is something that we're aware of. And we do have voluntary service agreements and brief service agreements which will assist families with their with their needs for shelter, food, and so on so that the children are not removed because of poverty.

This is obviously a systemic issue. It's a question of an inequity within the system. Some children have much more than others and that shouldn't...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the child and family services system has been through a complete overhaul since the second of the OAG reports was tabled in 2018. And we created the quality improvement plan that the Member referenced which is now in its in its last days. We are going to create a bridge plan which will move over both the completed and incomplete actions that came out of the quality improvement plan.

We also as as the Member knows, we are going to revise the Child and Family Services Act to align our legislation with the federal legislation that came into effect in...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wasn't the health minister at that time, and I did not make this commitment. It is my understanding there was a jurisdictional scan done and it has been it has been completed, that it is primarily about information sharing, which is a huge issue with respect to our path forward with child and family services and Indigenous governments. So it doesn't speak about the power or the role or the responsibility and so on of a child and youth advocate. That's not what it's about. It's about information sharing.

The focus that we have now is to work with...

Yes, thank you. Yes, I believe, Mr. Chair, that that is a safe assumption. One of one of the purposes of the senior strategy is to do a gap analysis and to come up with solutions to those gaps. So many of the priorities that are listed in this section of enabling seniors to age in place with dignity do represent gaps. So I would expect to see some version of them in the senior strategy when it's complete. Thank you.