Tom Beaulieu

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Along with the other communities that currently don’t have resident nurses, we are looking at Wrigley. All communities that have a population of under 250 people are essentially not scheduled to have residential nurses in their community in relation to the Integrated Service Delivery Model that we use to provide medical services to the various communities. But recognizing that all of these communities that don’t have residential nurses do require some nursing, we’re trying to find models that will work in communities such as Wrigley. Thank you.

Thank you. Certainly some of the discussions that we had early on in the development of on-the-land has been that people have called for an AA-based type of program, then starting that on the land and then using AA as an aftercare program. However, I’m not sure if that’s going to be something that will be encompassed out on the land at this point.

At this point, I think the majority of the on-the-land program will be based around the connection the First Nations people have with being out on the land, and using that, I think, as the basis for developing the program. I’m not sure we would have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly that was one of the earlier objectives when this facility, Nats’ejee K’eh, closed, that we attempt to streamline the process for any individuals who are wishing to go for treatment.

As I indicated earlier, we believe that once an individual presents themselves as needing treatment, we are trying to get into the very next facility of their choice on the very next intake. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, it is certainly possible that that facility could remain with the department and be used for some form of residential treatment or support treatment overall across the territory. We are going to be having those discussions with the K’atlodeeche First Nations. It is on the reserve there, and that facility, at one point, was something that they had lobbied for, brought onto the reserve and initially was mostly a cultural treatment facility before it became a medical treatment facility. So there’s a possibility that we may run mobile treatments out of there. It’s also possible to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money will remain in the treatment of individuals within the Northwest Territories and some of it will be used to develop a youth program which is starting this week. This week we are meeting with the first opportunity to do a youth pilot program in the Deh Cho, so some of our staff are going to go over there. Some of that money is being used to treat individuals that are going out for southern treatment. We are looking at developing on-the-land programs. Again, some of that money is going to developing some on-the-land programs – in fact, we are piloting three of...

We will work on the policy. As I indicated, Tsiigehtchic is one of at least six communities across the North that don’t have nursing units, therefore don’t have nurses living in the community. We are trying to work on the model that will allow that to happen. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, whether I make a Minister’s statement on this vaccination or not would be determined within Cabinet. We do have a certain amount of Ministers’ statements that we would like to present in the House for providing information. If I’m not able to do the Minister’s statement, I would be pleased to provide it in writing to the Member or to the House. Thank you.

In Tsiigehtchic and other communities where nurses do not stay, do not overnight, I know that during freeze-up and breakup in Tsiigehtchic we do place a registered nurse in the community on a full-time basis at that point. But to have somebody stay overnight in all these communities, we have not been able to do that just because of the situation.

The model is actually asking for a minimum of two nurses, if we are going to place nurses into a community, and also that there be RCMP officers in the community when we place nurses in the community. Therefore, that model kicks in at a certain...

Mr. Speaker, I’m prepared to have the department check with the physicians that make a decision on which individual groups should be getting a certain type of shot for certain types of viruses. If young men or young boys are not getting the shot for the virus due to an oversight on the part of the department, then we will give them shots too. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will ask that the Minister of Public Works and Services provide that response to the Member. We are having discussions with that department. I think there is going to be a bit more time before we are able to do that type of evaluation on the building, as the building is still being used as a hospital at this time. Soon, I think, prior to us moving into the new hospital, that evaluation on future use of that building will be completed. Thank you.