This is page numbers 3851 – 3904 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was communities.

Topics

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

The community that I represent, Kakisa, I think the recent effort in 2012 was participating with ENR to develop at least a baseline to prepare for the eventuality that a fireguard will be established.

How often are community wildfire protection plans reviewed and updated? Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

We work at this on an ongoing basis, so most communities are at different levels of activity when it comes to those particular plans. Once they’re in, then the issue becomes maintenance, which tends to be problematic in some cases, especially given the rate of regrowth. In others, we are just struggling to find resources and use existing resources and fire crews, if they’re not busy, to work with

communities. I don’t have the set schedule before me, but we do tend to get this done and maintain it. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Is the Minister aware of any actions taken by the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nations in response to recommendations made in the Community Protection Plan? Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

No, Mr. Speaker. I’d have to ask the Member to refresh my memory. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand, in 2012 the community had identified a need for a fireguard around the community.

Will the department commit to work with Kakisa to update the Wildfire Protection Plan prior to 2014? Mahsi.

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

I am as happy to say yes to this fourth question as I would be happy to say yes to the first question. Yes.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask him a few questions about whether or not we can do something about providing will and estate planning for our residents. I know it will take some time to establish a program, but in the meantime there are certainly some tools that are available to our residents, or could be available to help our residents.

I refer the Minister to the GNWT public trustee web page. It’s under the Department of Justice and it states: “The public trustee is independent from the Department of Justice. The Department makes this web section available on behalf of the public trustee. A separate website will be established in the near future.” This is a huge opportunity for Justice and the public trustee to provide information to residents on wills and on estate planning. I would like to know from the Minister when the public trustee will have its own website. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can get that level of detail for the Member. In regard to will and estate planning in the communities, we did hire a new lawyer in August of 2010. We do have a Community Outreach Program at the Department of Justice. We’ve been to all communities in the Northwest Territories with the

exception of, I believe, three. In January we were again in Wrigley, Fort Simpson, Gameti and Fort Smith. When this Outreach Program is in the communities, anything that community members want to raise through that program is available to them. That includes will and estate planning for folks who need that type of assistance. So we do have that available to residents around the Northwest Territories.

On the website issue regarding the public trustee, I will get that information for the Member. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that and I appreciate his commitment to get the information. I do appreciate the fact that the government has a community outreach lawyer, but when a community outreach lawyer goes to a community, they aren’t just dealing with wills and estates. They are dealing with any legal service that a resident in a community needs and I think we need to specifically target will and estate planning. In the end, we will be saving money because the office of the public trustee will not be dealing with people who die intestate.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he would consider, he and the department, looking into a different kind of program to provide lawyers to residents. We need education and we also need access to lawyers. I think via an NGO, it’s possible we could do some of that work.

Would the Minister consider dealing with NGOs or negotiating with NGOs to provide will and estate planning assistance to our communities? Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

That is a good suggestion. Another opportunity may exist through on-line information and services provided to residents across the Northwest Territories on will and estate planning. I will certainly check with my officials at the Department of Justice to see what information is out there for folks. If we can look at providing more opportunities to have questions answered with regard to will and estate planning around the territory, that is in our interest to do that. I would certainly look forward to any further discussion I could have with the member and the Standing Committee on Social Programs as we move forward to try to address her concerns. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

It’s nice to know that the Minister and I are on the same page. My next question was going to suggest that the Minister look at our neighbour to the west, the Yukon, who have some excellent information on-line. They have plain language information for residents. They have a fact sheet on estate planning, which is one of the resources that they have there and I think that’s something that we certainly could do. So I appreciate that the Minister has indicated that this is something we can do.

Is the Minister making a commitment to do some of that work and to provide some of these resources? Can he give me any indication of when we might be able to see something concrete? Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

This government has made a commitment to improve services to residents around the Northwest Territories and a lot of that has to do with getting the good services available to folks on-line. I know we’ve just recently done some with legal registries; I know there’s registration now on-line at the Department of Transportation. We are making an effort in that regard, and certainly if there are examples out there and if the Yukon has an example of how that information can be put on-line and utilized by people in that territory, that’s something that we could certainly look at.

As far as a timeline, I wouldn’t want to make a promise I couldn’t keep. That’s something I’ll take back to the department and hopefully be able to provide the Member with some kind of a response in the very near future. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Yes, I figured that you really weren’t going to give me an answer right now, but I appreciate that you will come back to me at some point in time and advise when I might be able to expect this kind of a program.

I imagine the Minister doesn’t have this information with him, but I’ll ask the question anyway and he can hopefully get back to me. Do we have any idea of what the average cost is to the government when somebody dies intestate? Thank you.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you. I don’t have that detail with me, but again, I’ll make a commitment to get that information to the Member and to the House. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The recently tabled Department of Health 2012-2013 Annual Report mentions Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus at 46.6 cases per 10,000 patients. However, on the same department website there’s an epidemiology newsletter, called Epi North 2012, Volume 22, Issue 1, which states during a similar reporting period of 16 months, field epidemiologist Katie Rutledge for the department reported laboratory results of 267 cases with 345 MRSA

infections. Factoring and removing the extra four months and when you compare apples to apples and case management reporting, this leaves a disparity of these lab results reported to what is being underreported in the annual report. Can the Minister account for this difference? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s an incredibly detailed question, but I will certainly get back to the department to see if we can figure out what that discrepancy has resulted from. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you. Detail is my middle name.

Going back to the alarming statistic that, on average, one in 12 Canadian hospital patients are being infected with a superbug, if we looked at that recent table of 46.6 MRSA incidents per 10,000 cases, if my math is correct that works out to 0.06 in 12 NWT hospital patients being infected.

Can the Minister account as to why the NWT is reporting such a low number to this national Canadian statistical average? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

We obviously take these types of situations very seriously and we are doing a number of things within the department and our authorities to control infections but also report on infections. One of the things that we have done is we have defined minimum competencies and skill sets for all practitioners within our system, and we review and modernize existing infection and control standards and standards for sterilization on a regular basis. We’ve also implemented a surveillance system of reportable infections and we’re working to develop, or we have developed and implemented reporting and compliance mechanisms.

So with respect to the detailed specifics that the Member is asking, I don’t have those in front of me, but I’d be happy to go to the department and get that detail for the Member. Thank you.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

That was a great paid political announcement, but it didn’t answer my question. I believe the reason why we don’t see the same numbers statistically is that we don’t reflect that in our accounting, we don’t count these superbugs. In fact, we do not report any other superbug other than Methicillin-resistant Staph aureus and there are a lot more bugs out there that make these alarming statistics.

Can the Minister indicate why his department consistently does not data collect, analyze, monitor and report these other deadly superbugs in our NWT health facilities? Thank you.