Thank you. I have to remind Members that question period is for questions, not for statements. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I talked in my statement about mental health and addictions programs and services in the NWT and about the needs that we have and that we don’t have the resources to meet those needs.

I mentioned the mental health review that the Minister mentioned to us in the last couple of days. My first question to the Minister is if she could advise what the focus of this particular mental health and addictions review is.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The focus is to review how we are delivering our mental health services. Over the many months now, Members are talking about the need for more focus on communities. There are those who feel that we could do better with the $6 million that we’re spending through our mental health programming. More recently we’ve had lots of issues being raised about the more acute mental health services being delivered out of Stanton. We are looking with the experts and people involved to see how we can do better what we already do.

I’d like to thank the Minister for the response. I have to say that I noted in there that there was no reference to an increase in funding, which is very unfortunate. I talked in my Member’s statement about the needs of the mentally ill when they are released from hospital particularly, or some other area. To me it’s an area where our residents and patients are particularly vulnerable. I’d like to know if the review will look at the after-care needs of the patients once they are released and will it also look at the after-care needs in light of the service providers who try to assist patients at this time.

That issue was raised and I spoke about that when MLA Bromley asked. I think we need to be... I understand what the Member is saying, but we should be aware of some of the clinical decisions that clinicians make. There is some legislation in place that has a bearing on when the people are being discharged. There are

limitations on how long we can keep some of these people in treatment places. There are Charter issues and Freedom of Rights issues as well. So it’s not always just about money that our clinicians make their decisions based on their clinical expertise as well as their legislative obligations.

The purpose of this review is to come up with an action plan to ensure -- and I think that should please the Member -- that we are reviewing to see how current and how accessible and how well we are meeting the needs of people that we serve within the Mental Health Program as they are currently structured. I look forward to having some action plan out of that to improve the services we deliver.

I thank the Minister for, I guess, being very... She answered my next question before I asked it, but I didn’t get an answer to the first one. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not this review will look at the after-care needs of patients and look at the service providers who try to provide that after-care. I would also like to know relative to patients being released early, which is where the Minister went, is can we look at legislation and change our legislation to assist in that particular area of difficulty.

I believe those two issues that the Member raises are part of the review and I hope to have the results by April-May and we can have further discussion on that. After-care is obviously a part of the needs of our community and when we are talking to the people that are delivering it, I’m sure that’s being raised, as well as some of the legislation that might need to be changed.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to hear about the legislation being looked at, because to me that is the crux of the issue of why we release patients way too early. They’re not ready to be released but they can’t be held. Can the Minister advise if there are recommendations to change the legislation and when that might come forward?

I think we’re being a little ahead. I don’t know what the action plan will say and what recommendations from the review will speak about. I am thinking, and I think that recommendations would include after-care and seamless transition of the people in mental health services and how we can fill some of the gaps. I’m hoping they’ll identify the gaps and how we could fill some of the gaps. I’m hoping they’ll identify the gaps and how our providers that are providing services already can do things differently. I expect those options to be available. I don’t know if they’re going to recommend legislative change, so I think

we should wait until the review comes out. I will be going to standing committee and we can work through them together.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. I understand the Power Corporation was scheduled to meet with the Town of Norman Wells on February the 1

st

to discuss the

situation the community is facing. I want to ask the Minister if he can comment on the outcome of the meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue of the natural gas situation in Norman Wells has been one we’ve been working on as the Government of the Northwest Territories in a number of fashions. The Power Corporation itself has recently had a meeting with the mayor and council of Norman Wells to discuss some of the work that’s ongoing and concerns with outages and so on and the distribution of power. They’ve also engaged in the work that’s going on for the conversion to either diesel or another form of energy in the community. Thank you.

I spoke to the mayor this morning and he was quite pleased with the meeting they had with NTPC. Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the Minister if there has been any cost estimated on converting Norman Wells to diesel power.

The specific area there would be one that is more directed between the community itself and Esso, as Esso right now is the generator and the Power Corporation is the distributor of that energy. We are directly involved in that work going towards conversion and we’d have to look at alternatives, depending on what the community would decide. I would have to get more up to speed on that. I know that the Power Corporation, the CEO and the staff who were at the meeting are aware of the concerns and I’ll look to them to see the work they’re engaged in. Thank you.

Has the government, within its other departments, within the Energy Coordinating Committee, looked at the whole issue of Norman Wells going through this conversion once the natural gas has been cut off to the town, in terms of the commercial and the residential units? Do they know or have an estimate as to what kind of dollars that possibly the Town of Norman Wells will be

seeking to help the community, both the commercial and residential users?

Again, I know from the Power Corporation side on the energy distribution and working with Imperial Oil, that that work is ongoing. From an overall Government of the Northwest Territories perspective, when this issue first came to our attention, a number of departments were pulled together to look at what needed to be done and the alternatives that could be looked at, and some of the initial work was to convert some of our larger buildings to diesel so that there would be less of a draw on the natural gas supply that was remaining, to allow a longer transition period. There hasn’t been a commitment for dollars at this point. We’ve been, through the Department of Public Works and Services, for example, supplying technical support to the community to help go through the work that it’s looking at doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Your final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the Power Corporation or the other departments that are working on this issue here, I know there could be some solutions. Have they been working with the Arctic Energy Alliance to look at different types of renewable energy sources in Norman Wells, or have they been looking at other sources, for example, maybe a natural gas line from Colville Lake to Norman Wells, in terms of alleviating some of the situations in Norman Wells?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m informed that the Town of Hay River, the council, has a working group between the Town, Imperial and, I believe, another firm, Global Technical Services, looking at their operations. We’d have to go to them to see what alternatives they may be looking at. Thank you.

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