Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first phase actually we completed last year. That had to do with covering drug costs, and the next phase is scheduled for work this year, but ongoing. There will be a very heavy public consultation component to this review so that we can hear from residents of the Northwest Territories about their expectations for coverage, and we can provide answers to them. For more detail, I will ask the deputy minister to continue. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to welcome back Ms. Jeannie Mathison, the director of finance. Thank you.

The vaccine is not an off-on proposition. When it enters the body, it creates antibodies to fight off the COVID-19 infection. It continues to create antibodies from the 28th day, from the 42nd day. The second dose is really a booster. Having said that, as the Member is well-aware, this is a very new vaccine, and there is not a lot of information about the maximum interval between doses. What we do know for now is that there is no problem extending up to day 42.

There are jurisdictions that are experimenting with a greater interval than that, but we are staying with the National Advisory...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask the assistant deputy minister to answer that question.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Cultural Safety Action Plan in effect at this time, and there have been a number of pilot projects that have determined what the best method is of providing this information to Health and Social Services staff. Now that there have been 13 of these pilots that have taken place, there is a model that has been settled on. It will be compiled into a framework, and the framework will be available to us this summer, the summer of 2021. I just want to say that, before it is rolled out to us, this framework will go to the NWT Health and Social Services Authority...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These four positions are funded under the First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care funding. The first is a senior nursing consultant. The second is a project manager. There are two health planners in continuing care. All of these positions are located at headquarters where the rest of our policy functions are located. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm not going to get to the right page in time, but I am going to say that it is within health and social programs, and I see the deputy minister is nodding.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we have expressions of interest from two Indigenous government organizations, and the lead on that is the territorial director of Child and Family Services. It's my understanding that, at this point, there isn't a need for additional staff, but we certainly don't want to hold up the process. The legislation provides timing for coming up with agreements once the negotiations officially start. If it turns out that we are not adequately staffed, we would certainly address that with a supplementary, if necessary. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. Once again to the deputy minister.

Yes. Thank you. We recently completed a long-term care bed study, and for that, we used 10 years of data that tracked what age people were when they went into long-term care and what level of acuity they were at in terms of service need. We have a pretty good idea of when people need to move out of their independent living. We also, of course, provide homecare throughout the NWT, so there are metrics about how many people require homecare and what kinds of services they need. For more detail, though, I'll ask, Mr. Chair, if I can refer this question onto the deputy minister.