I was under the assumption you never asked a question you didn’t know the answer to. I’m trying to fill the Member in on issues that I know she’s asked questions about, she’s very conversant on.

In regard to the idea of a secretariat and the issue of homelessness, that will be, I believe, contained in the broader transition document within the seven days left that we have as sitting days and to the 4

when we are dissolved. There are no plans to move on any kind of setting up of any kind of secretariat. Thank you.

One of the other recommendations in the report was to establish a task force to look into the use of drugs and alcohol and the use of it

by our citizens, particularly our homeless. I see that task force as looking into far more than just homeless people, but I would imagine both the housed and the homeless would be looked at in terms of alcohol abuse.

I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not he is willing to discuss this recommendation with his staff. I appreciate no decisions will be made between now and the election, but I’d like to know whether or not he can do some preliminary analysis of the value of such a task force. Thank you.

I meet regularly with the Health and Social Services staff, the deputy and senior officials, so I will commit to have that item placed on the agenda so we can, in fact, have that discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I appreciate that it will be at least considered.

One of the other recommendations was that shelter standards should be established. The family violence shelters have them, and I’d like to know from the Minister why should emergency shelters not have standards and what plans are there within the government to look at developing standards for our emergency shelters similar to our family violence shelters. Thank you.

As we continue to evolve as a government on the program delivery side and mature as a jurisdiction, clearly, standards become more and more pressing in a number of program areas, including the ones mentioned by the Member. That will be pursued as you move forward. There’s a new strategic plan coming out of Health and Social Services, and as the 17

Assembly is set up, elected, and picks their

government, those items I’m sure will be on their list of to do things. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and are a follow-up to my Member’s statement from earlier today.

In July, I believe, the Minister made an announcement that August 12

was the date that

Stanton was targeting to resume elective surgeries once they were able to confirm that the sterilization equipment was in fact working to standard. I was very optimistic that would happen and I actually

hope that that did happen, but I heard a rumour that, in fact, the elective surgeries have not been recommenced as a result or due to the fact that sterilization equipment is still experiencing problems. I’d like some information from the Minister as to the status of the sterilization equipment and the status of the elective surgeries at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My information is that we targeted the 12

. As of August 15

, elective surgeries are being

performed at Stanton. Thank you.

I didn’t quite hear the answer. I know the surgeries have been ongoing at Stanton during this entire process. I know that surgeries were never ceased. Emergency surgeries continued to go, it was elective surgeries. I didn’t hear whether the Minister said elective surgeries. So just for clarification, did the Minister say that elective surgeries are once again occurring to full capacity at Stanton? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

That’s fantastic news. I’m very happy to hear that.

The second part of this issue is the fact that there were well over 200 elective surgeries cancelled over the last couple of months, basically since January when all of these issues started to come up. I’m curious what type of communication plan or what kind of implementation plan Stanton is putting in place to get this backlog of elective surgeries through the system as quickly as possible.

The reason this is important, Mr. Speaker, is there are costs to people, their health, their livelihood, all of these things are affected by these potential surgeries that these individuals need to have. I think we owe it to our constituents and our residents to get them through these surgeries as quickly as possible, to help them get back to activities of daily living and normal living. So what is the process that they are going to follow to get these people through these elective surgeries in a timely manner?

Earlier in the winter there was over 360 surgeries of backlog, and since July we’ve whittled that number down to 102. I agree with the Member, we want to do this as quickly and expeditiously as possible, to let people get their lives back as quickly as possible. So now that we are back up to doing full surgeries, elective surgeries, I’m confident that list will be whittled down with even more alacrity and expediency. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very happy that the Minister agrees; that’s good. My question was more along the lines of what is the communications plan. What is the action plan to make this happen? There are 102 surgeries on top of all the surgeries that are already booked. How are we going to fit those 102 in? What are we going to do? What’s the plan?

We have professionals, capable individuals that manage the scheduling of the operating rooms, that look at the schedules, the wait lists, what is elective and what’s emergency, and they are doing all the things necessary. They’ve done a very good job, I would suggest, given the fact that we were struggling with some of the sterilization issues up until recently, and that that rate will increase as we pick away at that backlog now that the operating rooms are functional. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The YCJA, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is federal legislation. So it is across the board and throughout Canada. We follow the same legislation through the venue of the RCMP in our jurisdiction and other jurisdictions, as well, with law enforcement. So we follow the same procedures. Mahsi.

Specific to the previous question was whether or not the YCJA was being applied the same here in the Northwest Territories as in other Canadian provinces or territories. Does the Minister have any evidence or anything related to statistics on length of sentences, what young offenders are getting for comparable crimes in Alberta, Saskatchewan that they are getting in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The legislation applies, like I said, across Canada. YCJA is focussed on the youth criminals. We’ve had a few roundtable discussions at the FTP, federal/territorial/provincial, Ministers meeting. Across Canada, each jurisdiction is different with their stats. I don’t have the stats with me right now, but I can provide that to the Member. Mahsi.

Since the YCJA was brought in to replace the Young Offenders Act in 2003, I’m just wondering if the Minister also has any statistical information on whether or not repeat young offenders is becoming an issue, and on an annual basis whether or not we’re seeing an increased level of repeat young offenders in our territory. I’d like, maybe, the Minister to commit to getting that information for the House too.