Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the facility-based addiction program was created to be able to provide that out of territory initial treatment program; however, every person that has to leave the territory works with a caseworker, whether the caseworker is within -- some of them are embedded with Indigenous governments, some of them are embedded into Indigenous organizations, and some of them are our own GNWT staff. Those case managers work with the client on their treatment journey, and the journey on the return is part of that work that they do before they leave. And so a lot of times...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time what we are doing is we are taking -- anybody who needs those services, they'll go through the referral process. And I know that there are some wait times. I believe that I can share those wait times with the Members on the different areas. But like I mentioned, that right now what we are focused on is ensuring that the money that we have allocated in the budget where there's positions and they are not being filled, myself and the Minister Cleveland are working on a plan, you know, that is going to be able to fill that need. And I believe that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, Indigenous governments and Indigenous organizations determine their own priorities and programming. They engage with elders and other community knowledge holders as they see fit, and the fund allows for communities to compensate elders for their service. We, you know -- we've heard from Indigenous leaders that they want to be doing these types of programs themselves in the communities and that, you know -- so we're just providing the funding to them to allow them to do this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community health workers are also trained in first aid. They have been trained now in administering oxygen. They are trained in the use of the AED. Further emergency care, health care in cabins is -- required is coordinated with the community health nurse or the nurse practitioner that's either in the community or in another community at the time. The decisions for emergency care are made by the regional health centres and may include parent movement, so -- but this -- these virtual tools actually help a nurse that can visualize and then using those...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's ongoing conversations between my department and Indigenous Service Canada. You know, we need to have an agreement before March 31st as our agreement did expire last March 31st. So that's the work that we're working on right now. And the important piece to understand is that when the new government was -- when they prorogued and then the new government was elected, they didn't resume conversations on a lot of this until after the budget. So we've been in mad meetings with ISC trying to make sure that this agreement is what we need for the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that information. I can -- what I can provide is I can commit to finding out -- I believe it's the counsellor that goes in. But working with Indigenous governments over these last couple of years, there has been established positions within Indigenous governments so I would have to get back to the Member as to the actual communities and who to contact in those communities for case management. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the shortfall for 2023-2024 was $7 million, and the shortfall for 2024-2025 was $13 million. However, I'd just like to add that these two years, we were provided the first time ever a supplementary additional payment on top of what they normally give us, which was a total of $25 million for each year. And previous years before this, as long as we've been administering NIHB, they've never been -- they've never given us that money. So the years before, we could probably calculate $20 million, $25 million on average, that we've been overspending. And with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the first one opened here in Yellowknife and through their case workers as they come back, you know, if that is -- that is an option. It is a territorial initiative so it's not just for -- so if there's people coming back from treatment and they need to stabilize with a place to stay and some support, their caseworker could work with the transitional housing in Yellowknife that's currently open while they're trying to make arrangements to return back to their home community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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...