Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Member's question seemed to be more focused on things that aren't in the mandate, so I'd like to talk about a few of the things that may not appear as direct lines in the mandate but are part of core business, or part of some of the things that we're doing. Ultimately, many of the things that we're doing in Health and Social Services are tied directly to the mandate in some capacity. There's no question that it is a challenge to ensure that residents in our small communities have equitable access to programs and services that are available to residents in the larger centres. During my time as Minister, I've made it a priority to get into as many communities, all communities, from the Northwest Territories to meet with residents, to hear from them, to hear about the issues that are important to them, but also to hear from them on recommendations on how to make improvements, because I truly believe that communities are the experts who can provide us real solutions, real local solutions. In that light, we've done a couple of things differently in the Department of Health and Social Services. We're trying new things. We've been working with the community of Tsiigehtchic to put in a pilot program where we could train local people to do local work and provide emergency response when there are crisis in the communities. When there have been some suicide and other challenges in communities, we have gone to communities. We have sent them the extra capacity into the communities to help the communities go through those crises, but we haven't directed or led those particular initiatives because the communities have some of the best ideas. We want to work with the communities. In two different communities in the Northwest Territories, Fort Good Hope and Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope provided us with a plan on how they wanted to move forward, and how we can be partners in addressing those issues. We're still waiting for a plan from Simpson, but they're working hard on a plan to help them address things like suicide and other things, and we want to work closely with them when they roll out that plan. Mr. Speaker, it's about working with the communities, hearing from the communities, taking their ideas. Thank you.
Glen Abernethy on Mr. Thompson's Question
On October 5th, 2017. See this statement in context.
Mr. Thompson's Question
Members' Questions for Ministers
October 4th, 2017
See context to find out what was said next.