Tom Beaulieu

I don’t have any indication here that the Foster Parents Coalition travels; however, they do work with the various authorities at the regional levels to provide support, proper ways to retain foster children, and they provide some training. They also advocate for the foster parents. This is a group that does support foster parents right across the entire territory.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has a program called PRIDE. It’s the Parent Resources for Information Development and Education. That is a program that the foster parents are under in order to be trained as foster parents.

Decisions made by medical practitioners, I suppose they would have that discretion.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The policy is essentially the safety of the individual that’s being transported as a first priority. So usually when there is room on a medevac, an individual, depending on the nature of the injury or the sickness of the patient, generally if there’s an opportunity or a vacancy within the plane, it’s usually filled by a health practitioner. That’s generally the policy, that if there’s an escort required or someone that needs to be with the patient, that person gets flown in on the next available flight. Thank you.

I can assure the Member that, yes, there will be training. Right now the facility in Behchoko is under construction, and we need to train staff there, as well, as we’ll be expanding from an eight bed facility to an 18 bed facility also in Behchoko. So the nursing and the home care, and all of the workers that are needed to operate the facility in both places will be trained, and I can assure the Member that the staff will be up and ready to go by the time the facility opens. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term facility in Norman Wells, as the Members know, is well underway. All of the planning is complete. It’s a matter of doing the construction phase. I think the land has also been decided upon. That was a little bit of an issue. Also, the plan is to have, at the time the health centre/long-term care facility is open, everyone that is going to be working there trained. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if the planning study is on schedule, is completed by March 31st, I will provide the planning study to the Member. I can also have the people responsible for the planning study engage the Member. Yes, after March 31st and we’ve had an opportunity to review the planning study, I will accompany the Member to his riding. Thank you.

Within the planning study, the department has allocated somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 to complete a planning study. The planning study is scheduled to be finished by March 31st, this year.

The top recruiters for foster parents are other foster parents. Through this coalition and just the foster parents within the communities, some of the communities have groups that are head of the various foster parent organizations in the larger communities. They are helping the social workers and the child protection workers in the communities to recruit. Generally our recruiting is through foster parents and through child protection staff.

The Department of Health and Social Services provides funding to the NWT Foster Families Coalition. The Foster Families Coalition supports the foster children or foster parents across the Northwest Territories. They are sort of like a network organization that provides the foster care assistance to everyone that is a foster parent across the Northwest Territories. I think that is really the key way that we assist foster parents as the support is necessary for them to continue to be foster parents.