Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a policy in place. I do acknowledge that the policy is quite old, and we have heard significant feedback from residents from across the Northwest Territories that it does need to be reviewed. We have committed to doing that review. I did meet with Members in January to talk about the review, the timeline for the review. We will have a policy, a redrafted policy shortly, and from there we will have an opportunity to discuss and go out for consultation on the individual components which do include escorts. We will have an opportunity to amend that portion of the Medical Travel Policy, and we will be seeking input from Members and from the public as we do so.

I’d also like to ask the Minister, why are medical escorts denied when approved by the doctor?

There is a policy in place and recommendations do have to come for an escort and sometimes they don’t meet the policy as it stands, which is another indication that there seems to be a glitch in the matrix, if you will, and we need to work on this policy and we need to fix this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I also mentioned in my statement a need for support more along the lines of counselling when dealing with life-threatening illnesses.

I would like to ask the Minister, will the Minister develop these support programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There are a variety of conditions that our residents may be facing with respect to health. I know that we are doing a significant number of things around cancer and have cancer support groups and other groups and mechanisms that are available to individuals that are suffering from particular conditions. If the Member has some other conditions or some

specific conditions that he would like to talk about, I would certainly be open to that discussion and encourage him to come down the hall and we can have that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would just like to ask the Minister, are those supports available to the people in the small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I know that we do have individuals in each of the regions who are providing services out to the smaller communities and there are opportunities through telehealth where some of those groups can connect.

As far as the communities the Member represents, I would be happy to provide the Member with a little bit of breakdown of some of these supports we are providing with respect to these cancer support groups. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement and see if I can get some clarity as to the department’s policies.

I would like to first ask the Minister, what is the policy of Education, Culture and Employment, the department and/or the Minister around communicating public information to MLAs, either the MLA themselves or their staff? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is a mutual agreement with the MLAs on guiding principles and process convention that we want to have a coordinated approach with our departments, not only my departments but other departments. Once it is funnelled through my department, we are fully aware of what is out there. But an independent agency or organization or MLA’s office go directly to the department and we need to keep track of those activities, those transactions. Those are just mere transactions that we need to be fully aware of. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister, I think. I really am struggling to understand why public information must be routed through the Minister’s office. Were I a general citizen and not an elected official, I could phone the name on the

press release and ask for the confirmation of the information directly.

So, I need to ask the Minister why he feels that information that is publically available must be requested through his office and why my office cannot go directly to his department and ask for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, again, with a coordinated effort and approach, we need to keep track of all the transactions that are happening within my department. I need to be on top of any request that comes in through an MLA so we are on top of answering their questions. We give immediate answer back, within five days. If it is a day-based operation, then we can definitely give it in a day. It is just a reporting mechanism, keeping track of all the transactions that are flowing through our department within the GNWT government-wide. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I guess I need to say to the Minister that if I had asked for this information through his office, it probably wouldn’t have arrived in time for me to communicate that information to my constituents in advance of that meeting, so I have a real difficulty with everything having to go through his office.

I would like to ask the Minister, if he needs to track every request that comes from a Minister’s office, why cannot requests for public information asked of one of his staff of the department, why can that staff person, or a communications person, why can they not track that information or that request? Thank you.

That is happening at the same time as well. As you know, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is the second biggest department along with Health and Social Services. We go through so many transactions throughout the day and we just want to be mindful of the requests that come in, so we can be prepared for the session and prepared for any briefings that may come up. So, we’re on top of the activities that are happening or transactions that may come across our table.

At the end of the day, we just want to keep track of all the transactions that are going through. We may have missed out on some areas, but we try to be on top of it every step of the way. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s desire to be on top of things, but if he really thinks that I’m going to be asking him questions about public information about a meeting that’s upcoming, I have a hard time understanding that.

I would like to know if there is any hope that the Minister might change this policy. I’m talking about public information, something that’s already in the public domain. It’s been released through a press release or a media advisory.

Is there any hope that he will change his policy and allow his staff to talk to my staff to confirm public information? Thank you.

There is always hope.

---Laughter

Honestly, I can work with the Member and have that brought to my department to discuss further. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Psychiatric services in the Northwest Territories have been enhanced through a partnership between Stanton Territorial Health Authority as well as Dalhousie Global Psychiatry and Yellowknife Health and Social Services. As the Member knows, there are two resident psychiatrists in the Northwest Territories, and mental health services, as I’ve just said, have been expanded to include the Dalhousie Global Psychiatry department of Dalhousie University. Both the on-site psychiatrist and those helping us through Dalhousie provide both direct and distance treatment consultation and assessment. This can be done

over telehealth. So, we are enhancing our services that are available to our residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad the Minister brought up the Dalhousie program and gave us a little detail into how that’s working so far.

In terms of doing the assessments and if there are any residents of the NWT or clients that are going through this program that need some treatment for their psychiatric services, how many beds do we have in the Northwest Territories that would be able to house some of these individuals who might need around-the-clock services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.