Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can get back to the Member on what -- like, what the budget is for that part -- the burial program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, I have not seen NTHSSA's budget. I have not seen -- they have not presented it yet. It usually comes within -- in this month. I will be having a conversation next week with them. What I can say is that this is what goes on every year, within our -- and so once I do have it -- like, I can't say whether there's going to be cuts. The PA started in December. You know, we went into mandatory leave. We're here sitting, it's the 7th of February, so they're working on, you know, how -- like, the contract for the PA is over the next two years, so trying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister, that's pretty in the weeds for me but I can tell you right now whatever services that we are trying to provide in the Northwest Territories, we only want to improve and enhance. That is why we're also looking at modernizing our medical travel. That doesn't mean that we're going to expand medical travel services so everybody's flying more. It's modernizing it so that way we're looking at it so that when people need to travel, they're travelling, but how can we make sure that they're not needing to travel as much. And so that does not mean to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the role of the public administrator is to -- as the Member has said, is to do both. Not necessarily to come in now and then -- but to make the work plan so that way all of the things that I highlighted yesterday in this House on recruitment and retention, you know, the historic deficit of the NTHSSA has been hanging over the NTHSSA and being able to be strategic in how -- because they've been focusing on just how to manage within that system. So this is support to that to be able to look at how we're providing care in the Northwest Territories, looking...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I can do is I can commit to looking into the delivery of the service to better understand how it's -- you know, how it's operating within our communities just so that there's more clear understanding for myself -- not just for myself, but for residents in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public administrator has met with the health sustainability unit leadership. Part of his role is to ensure that NTHSSA collaborates with this unit to support the government's goal of improving health services while maintaining fiscal sustainability. So I think they've met a couple of times now. The sustainability, as we all know, works with the entire health and social services system, including all three health authorities, whereas the PA's focus is solely on NTHSSA's operations. This unit, established last year, has a project charter and is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, the short answer is NorthwesTel and TSC are working together to trial a new system right now currently. Software and equipment have been procured. Staff are in training. And this will be tested within the next couple weeks, and then the trial -- live trial is expected sometime this month for that system to be ready. So I'm hoping that this will work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd have to get more specifics from the Member, and I'm willing to have that conversation with him to figure out what the issue is and what's being -- the breach is, if there is a breach. I mean, we have stringent, like rules around sharing of private information, of health information. So I would further like to discuss this with the Member, and we can deal with it in the appropriate channels. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, right now we have started to transition, and during the last year, we actually have increased some communities with the funding that we're getting through the home -- Inuit home and community and funding that we have within to start to provide after hours and weekend support to those home care clients by home support workers that are hired locally in the community. I have asked the department to do a review of actually the Member's riding to see when was the last time home care assessments were done in her riding. I know that across the territory we've had this conversation -- I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently, the health and social system is not planning on establishing any type of supervised consumption sites for drugs. We are focused on public health messaging, treatment options. There has been funding provided to use towards distributing and training of community members, naloxone kits. Fentanyl testing strips are also distributed. We also have an existing territorial opioid recovery provided that provides oversight for residents receiving opioid maintenance therapy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.