Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we have done as a government with feedback from Indigenous and small communities is that we've created the Community Mental Health Awareness Fund, which is something that it incorporates for the Indigenous governments have an opportunity to apply on funding to run their own types of programs, wellness programs, recovery programs, anything that their community chooses to. Then once the initial period is open for regional Indigenous governments, after, I think it's January 31st, I can get the details and send it to the Members on this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I will do is I will have a conversation with NTHSSA as to what has happened and what has changed, and I can report back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, and I appreciate these questions because one of the things as, like the Member has said, I do support the work that the Office of Client Experience do and the patient advocates. I'm a champion for the work that they do. But we didn't have any actual data on the things that were being brought forward, especially when it came to Indigenous people. We've heard it multiple. We all can stand up in here and say we know that some of these issues. However, like, I'll use, for instance, medical travel. Medical travel, anybody -- I've travelled to most...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know from the information that I have that there are urgent slots at the Stanton Territorial Hospital lab site, and at the primary care lab site there are as well urgent designated times for the day. And when patients are, for instance, having surgery or something like that, they usually have a preop the day before. If they need to have blood work, they should be ensuring that they're utilizing their physician or whoever their preop was with to consult the lab to make sure that they have that appointment. And with waitlists, I know that they routinely try...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as most landlords, and we did the -- like, I think throughout the Northwest Territories already have it in their leases that there is no smoking in their units. Housing is changing their policy to create that now. What we'll do as health is we'll continue to, you know, monitor what is going on in those units that are multi-units. We'll work with housing. I think that is the biggest thing that we will be able to do is to see moving forward in the future if there's more work that will need to be done through legislation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my colleague and I, Minister of Housing NWT, have had ongoing conversations on the best way to move forward, and I believe on April 1st, there will be a blanket policy for no smoking in all housing units in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I do -- what I can say and for the amount of information that I can -- that I know of right now is that within the waitlist, like anybody who contacts or does the email call back, they will offer to be put onto waitlists and so anytime that there are openings, they will contact people from that waitlist to fill those openings to see if they can come in. The problem is, is that many times those are short notice and it's hard for people to get across the city to those appointments. This is something that was raised even when we were most recently at our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for this question, and I know that in our system, you know, I've recently had this conversation with my department, that there's a whole continuum of mental health and addictions and the supports that go along with that spectrum. And so what I've actually gone to my department is to work with NTHSSA and themselves to figure out where all of these gaps are and so and what can we do and a lot of it's going to probably take partnerships. But, however, I can -- you know, if I can work with the Member to get more detail on what actually happened...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Beaufort Delta was the first to be reviewed under the community counselling program, and so what they have done is they've done a collaboration where they pull the Indigenous governments and the community counselling program together to be able to serve people and hire people with lived experience to be able to provide those services. I know we are working with -- we are currently working in the Sahtu through that process as well, and we're hoping that we'll get through the rest of the territory, because it's designed on servicing the region, the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order for a resident of the Northwest Territories to attend a treatment facility, they have to be referred by a caseworker, a caseworker who works with them. That caseworker also creates an aftercare plan for when they return home and then before they're discharged, they are to communicate with the -- that is part of the work that happens and, you know, and so I encourage that if residents are returning back to their community, to speak with the caseworker that has referred them out because that is part of it. And if the Member has, you know, residents...