The LHOs in the communities are the ones that work directly with a lot of the clients, and for the most part a lot of the LHOs have someone in the office that’s from the community that’s able to speak the local language. If they don’t, I’m sure they would do what they can to ensure that clients coming in that don’t have a good understanding of English are able to hear some of the instructions in their language. We’ve always tried to make a commitment that we will work as closely as possible with some of the communities in providing Aboriginal translation services as we did with the NWT Housing Corporation. For the most part the LHOs are local people that know the folks in the community and they speak and understand the language. I can assure the Member that we’ll do our best to ensure

that all people understand this process as it’s being laid out.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about emergency protection orders and some concerns highlighted in them. The Minister is well aware of some of the concerns as of late that have had an emergency protection order being issued incorrectly under false information. I’d like to ask the Department of Justice if they are going to review these particular circumstances to see if amendments are required to the emergency protection order process.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not able to speak to specific cases or matters that are before the courts, but I can say that the Protection Against Family Violence Act and emergency protection orders are an effective and necessary response to the high rate of family violence in the Northwest Territories. NGOs working with the victims of family violence tell us that one of the most helpful tools are the emergency protection orders.

To the Member’s questions, an evaluation of the legislation and associated program was conducted in 2011. It indicates that the legislation is meeting its goals of awareness and protection of victims of family violence.

The Minister failed to recognize the fact this issue isn’t before the courts at all in any manner. The Minister further failed to recognize that this was a particular issue that he thought was fraught with problems. All I’m asking the House here today is: Would the Minister be willing to take a look at this particular issue, ask someone within the department to take a look at this particular situation to see if changes and adjustments need to be made if an EPO was issued in error due to false information? The burden of the removal of the EPO falls on the person it’s issued against. It does turn out to be quite costly.

There are penalties under the act and under the Criminal Code for knowingly making a false statement in an application or a hearing. Under Section 18(b) of the act, any person who “knowingly makes a false statement in an application or hearing under this act…is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction…not exceeding $5,000,” or some time in

jail. So there are punishments already in the act for those individuals who choose to bear false witness against another.

Clearly, the point is being missed or, rather, it’s being avoided. The issue is about the person who the EPO is issued against. That person has been accused falsely in this circumstance. The Minister knows very well of this example. The issue is it’s not about the person who lied. The person who lied, the process is correct, as he’s highlighted. How does the person who has been accused, who has now become the victim of the circumstance, get the EPO removed? They have to take it to court and it costs $5,000 in this particular example. There is no relief mechanism built into the process when it’s recognized it’s been issued in error. That is the problem. Would the Minister be willing to ask the department to have a look to see what to do or what can be done to provide relief to those who have been falsely accused and issued an EPO against?

As I indicated earlier, there has been a review of this legislation done. It has made some recommendations with respect to EPOs. The department is currently reviewing those recommendations and will be following up on those recommendations.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister said they had reviewed. Now he says they’re reviewing. I’d like to be clear on the record. Are they reviewing it at this particular time and are they taking the example I provided to the House as consideration for this review?

A review of the legislation has been completed and some recommendations have gone forth to the Department of Justice which are being considered right now.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Health is working with the Department of Human Resources to get a health human resource specialist involved in developing some sort of recruitment strategy for physicians that need to come to the Northwest Territories outside of Yellowknife to try to fill the vacancies. We have almost 100 percent vacancy across the territory, with the exception of Stanton and Tlicho.

Does the territorial government currently have any money in the budget to do this, or is this a future process?

Yes, the Department of Health has a process of recruiting. We have budgets that we work with the Department of Human Resources to recruit physicians across the North. As is the standard for recruiting anyone in the NWT, we have that money to recruit doctors.

Is the territorial government working with the federal government to get any additional dollars to alleviate this problem? I know it’s not just a territorial problem, that they’re having the same difficulties in the provinces.

The Member is right that this is an issue across a lot of jurisdictions who are unable to get physicians to go to a lot of their rural areas. However, our whole system in dealing with the federal government is not specific to recruiting doctors. We do have discussions with the federal government on the Health Accord and the federal government provides money through the Health Accord to the government, which portions of it can be used for recruiting. Thank you.

Is the government committed to spending additional dollars in this situation for many communities in the Northwest Territories that don’t have doctors in their communities? Thank you.

We are hoping that it doesn’t require a lot of additional dollars to recruit doctors, but the intention is to try to recruit doctors in all the authorities across the North, but we’re doing what we can. The difficulty has not been the money; the difficulty has actually been getting doctors to those locations. Many doctors that want to come to the Northwest Territories have a desire to work in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is also for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Coming from Inuvik, over the past couple of years I’ve seen a backlog of surgeries, specifically joint replacement surgeries and the

backlog has led to inactivity, sedentary lifestyles, which lead to people becoming overweight and can lead to obesity, which also leads to chronic conditions. With our ever growing senior populations, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health what is the reason for this backlog, specifically joint replacement surgeries.