As the Member indicated, clinical practice guidelines are used to determine how we are treating diabetes. I don’t have the monitoring information here with me, but I do know that we get information on where the diabetes is across the Territories, the prevalence of diabetes from region to region.

Managing and preventing chronic diseases is a major issue for our health system. Diabetes is only one of our problems. What still needs to be done before a full Chronic Disease Management Model is ruled out and what are the obstacles to that rollout?

In 2011-2012 the department worked on the Home Care Enhancement and Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. We spent $77,500 on that initiative to develop a Chronic Disease Strategy, and diabetes is a part of the overall Chronic Disease Strategy which includes cardiovascular and cancer.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

That’s okay. Thank you.

The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The weather is getting colder outside and I think it’s only prudent that we take a look at all our emergency actions both in-house and community and as a territory. For that, today my questions will be for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs on the theme of emergency preparedness.

My first question is: Back in April of 2012 while we were doing the business plans and main estimates, the Minister of MACA reported that seven community governments had completed their fire assessments and that at March 31st of this year that

number increased to 24. Through a series of questions, we were given some direction that there would be a potential completion of all 33 communities. So my question to the Minister is: Where are we at with respect to the fire assessments?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As of September 21st we’ve had 28 of the

33 communities that have updated their fire assessment plans and we’re trying to work with the other five to have their assessment done as quickly as possible.

It’s pleasing to see that we’re getting to the completion of all 33 communities in what is very, very important here. Leading to my second question on the subject of hazard assessments, these are basically high-level scenarios in terms of where we have communities at risk. Can the Minister indicate as to if all hazard assessments have been performed in all 33 communities?

As part of working with the communities on their emergency preparedness plan, hazards would be identified and we’d work closely with those communities to try and see how we can work around those and have them best prepared to handle any emergencies that might come about. We’ve got about 12 communities that have fully updated their emergency plans. We have 18 that need a little bit of updating, we’re working with them. We still have three communities that are without emergency plans and we have to work very closely with them to ensure that they get plans put into place.

The Minister is kind of leading into my third question, which is the overarching complement of what’s called your Emergency Action Plans. The Minister did give the number, I believe, of 18.

Can the Minister indicate to me as to who is actually doing those Emergency Action Plan assessments? Is it the communities themselves or is it the fire marshals or a designate from the government who are doing those?

The fire assessments are done by our assistant fire marshals that are out in every region. They go into the communities and work with the communities to identify their needs and training opportunities. As far as emergency planning goes, we go in and work with communities

to assist them in putting together their emergency plans. As far as the emergency plan goes, the community usually is the lead on that and MACA is support.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It does appear that we’re actually moving in the right direction with respect to the safety of our communities and proper emergency action plans.

Can the Minister indicate in his crystal ball of items to be completed during the term of the 17th Assembly, when we would be able to see the completion of these so-called emergency action plans throughout the territory?

It is our goals, and I think we’re starting to see the effects of different types of emergency today that some communities may have not seen in the past. As I pointed out before, we have 12 communities that have updated plans and we have to work very closely with those 18 communities to update their plans. They do have plans, but we just need to update them. The three without, I mean, we’ll have to basically get on their case to make sure that they ask us to come in and help them work out their emergency plans.

It would be our desire by this time next year to have all 33 communities with a concrete plan.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I found it very timely that he chose to make his Minister’s statement today on the Minister’s Forum on Addictions. I have some questions in that regard.

I’ve been listening to the Minister over the last few weeks. He’s made some comments and he’s referenced a number of times consultations around mental health and addictions programs and the strategic plan. He’s spoken of a group that is out for consultations and it’s clear to me now, although it wasn’t before, that he meant the Minister’s Forum on Addictions.

The forum has been referenced in the Mental Health and Addictions Plan, but there’s little other info that’s out there relative to the Minister’s Forum on Addictions.

My first question to the Minister would be whether or not there are terms of reference for the forum, and if so, are they available to the public.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we have terms of reference and, yes, they are available to the public.

That will teach me to ask a yes or a no question. It would be very helpful if the Minister could advise the House and advise the general public how they could access these terms of reference which are available to them.

The other point I wanted to make is that over the years, certainly my few years here but in many years prior, the shelves of government offices are filled with reports, with consultations, results of talking to people, et cetera, et cetera. Certainly, I know that Health and Social Services, that department has done many studies and looked into, and they have many reports on mental health and addictions.

I’d like to know from the Minister why we now need a Minister’s Forum on Addictions. We have lots of studies out there. Why can we not use the information we’ve previously gathered? Have we not already asked and answered the questions this forum is going to ask?

I’m not sure that we’ve asked the right questions. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, I think we needed to go back out to the communities. At the very beginning of my position as Health and Social Services Minister, I travelled to, I think, 12 or 13 communities with an attempt to try to travel to all the communities in the North, and a common theme was developing in the communities, and the communities were indicating that they need to find a solution for their addiction issues in their communities. With that in mind, we’ve developed this forum to go back out to those people to see if they do have the solutions, and they’re going to provide that information to the forums.

I appreciate that maybe we haven’t asked the right questions, but I guess I have to go back to the information that we already have. Has the Minister done an analysis of all the reports which have been done over, say, the last 10 years, which would be full of answers to probably very similar questions? It makes me wonder what is so different about this particular forum, about the questions that we’re answering right now. Do we know that we have not asked these specific questions before?

I guess there are various ways that a department can go about collecting information and the most recent information in the field of addictions, things do change. There are up and down issues and trends on addictions and so on.

The main thing that we want to focus in on is alcohol. This is an alcohol forum. There is no indication to me from the Department of Health and Social Services that we had reports specific to the state of alcohol in the communities. We felt that right now is a good time to go out there and gather that information and see what the people have to say about how they wish to work in this area. There was no indication that the people were asked in the past on what they would do to combat the issue of alcohol in their communities.