Lesa Semmler

Thank you. What I've directed the NTHSSA to do is to do the mapping, and I think currently right now, that's what they're doing, is looking at what they're going to be monitoring and bringing all of the concerns and the complaints that have come through my offices, BFs, the things that have come through the Office of Client Experience, and then working within the staff to try and navigate. This is the same thing as they did with the Deh Cho journey. They heard from the residents. They heard from the staff. And then they -- part of that was following through different areas with the patient...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the health and social services, because of the chronic shortages, what's happening is that there -- just like in an emergency room, every referral that comes in is triaged and those that have -- like, within the speech, you know, if there's swallowing issues, if there's -- you know, type of issues that are higher triage then those ones will be seen sooner. But I would like to say that this is something that the Minister of ECE and myself are working on because it's been raised, and we -- we're currently working on a solution how to utilize, you know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the supportive living review, I am going to be waiting for the health sustainability unit. There will be recommendations coming from that and when I do have that, I will, you know, bring those to my colleagues, and we will also be working with the Regular Members on some of those recommendations that come back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I became the Minister, there was no -- what was able to be implemented which was -- could be funded from within. There was no new money that came with the recommendations, the recommendations, the report that came forward. So that's -- a lot of times, you know, within many of our departments, they come back with all the things that we need to fix, but it comes with huge amounts of money. We only have through our business processes small amounts of money, and as you see in this budget, we were able to allocate new things or improve things to certain areas that are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the supportive living review, the ones that were -- the actions that have been implemented currently within the funds that the health authority and the department has; however, a large portion of the recommendations are tied to significant costs. And so what we're doing at the department right now with NTHSSA is working through that with our partners. We're also establishing -- there's a review going on currently with the amount of residents that are living out of the territory and what the needs would be in bringing them back into the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate, you know, the advocacy that -- not just this MLA but there are other MLAs that have come, and it makes the work that we're doing move. And I think that's the thing, is under the health sustainability unit once we have those recommendations, those will be able to -- that working -- their unit is working in partnership with the health authority, the department, so that we have proper -- we'll know what it's going to cost us and those recommendations to be able to bring forward to, you know, provide that level of -- like, the care to the...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Plain Language Summary for Bill 40, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act; and, the Statement of Consistency for Bill 40, An Act to Amend the Vital Statistics Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, at this time, as I mentioned, the facility-based addiction treatment, that policy, that funding pot, is under current review, and recommendations will be back soon from the health sustainability unit. When they get those back, we will work with my colleagues and, you know, we'll have conversations with Members on the other side of the House with what those recommendations are. However, we do have aftercare, mental health counselling. There's virtual aspects when people are coming back into the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, that we do have those providers. They are triaged. They are in the territory. They are still providing services to families. The school also has services that they do provide to school-aged children and continue to do so. I know that -- and as I said that we are looking at ways to improve that through the work that we're doing together. But if there are families out there that -- you know, that need services, they just -- you know, they need to go through their practitioner. They can be referred, they can self-referral, and they can be triaged...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the mental wellness and recovery fund, we have many groups. I believe the Deh Cho also are in a multi-year funding Access This funding and have a multi-year agreement. Many of our Indigenous groups do have multi-year agreements as that fund is eligible for multi-year agreements. The suicide prevention fund, however, is a smaller amount, and so, you know, communities, based on their need, they may come forward if they've had different scenarios. So that one is an annual application. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.