Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Member for his comments. I have to say I’m not exactly sure what the Member is talking about when he refers to a seniors charter. Maybe after sitting today we could get together and he can explain to me what specifically he is referring to. I remember a lot, but clearly I can’t remember everything so I’m not 100 percent sure what he’s talking about.

I do agree with the Member that there’s a lot of good work being done around elders and seniors and I do agree that more needs to be done, as well, which is why we are working on a number of those strategies that I articulated previously and we are going to continue to do that work.

We have a really good relationship right now with the NWT Seniors’ Society and the other NWT-based seniors’ societies. We are meeting with them on a regular basis, or as much as we can to make sure they are included and involved in any of the work we are doing and offering insight from their perspective, which I think is critical.

The Member talked about the frustration that individuals are having around long delays in getting them into residential care for addictions. I’m sure it’s true, but I do find that rather frustrating because we have gone to a 24-hour referral process and we can actually get individuals referred into treatment within 24 hours. So I would strongly encourage the Member if he knows people who are having some real problems there, we can refer them to the system navigator. They can go to you or a health practitioner. If they go to a health practitioner, that health care practitioner can make a referral to the territorial director and we can have a turnaround time in 24 hours. We have seen some fantastic success in this and I will acknowledge that not

everybody seems to be aware that we have made that change. We have tried to tell people and tried to get that information out there. I am going to continue to say it, and I strongly encourage all of you to say it to your constituents and residents, so that we can get rid of this delay that individuals are experiencing and get them where they need to be. Right now we have contracts with four residential treatment programs that have a huge range and variety of programs within each of them that are really giving quality results to our residents of the Northwest Territories. So, please, let’s all work together to make sure that our residents know about this referral process. If they are having difficulties, let’s get them referred to the system navigator who can help them work through the system.

The medevac program, CAMTS, it stands for Commission on Accreditation on Medical Transport Systems. Although there was a significant cost to the air ambulance services, we are confident that the CAMTS is actually in minor financial impact on the overall contract. CAMTS itself did not result in a significant cost increase.

I will say, and I met with the individuals in Edmonton who are running the facility at the Edmonton International Airport. I did have a conversation with them around CAMTS. They did indicate that they don’t use CAMTS, but they did say that for a jurisdiction like us that is smaller, it is a reasonable, accredited national program that would be appropriate for a government our size. In fact, Alberta was part of our screening and evaluation committee and they strongly recommended CAMTS. As part of the assessment team, we did have a lot of confidence in their history, in their knowledge and their ability to direct us, a small jurisdiction, to an accreditation program that ensured the safety of our residents who happen to be using air ambulance services. So, we’re comfortable with CAMTS. We believe that it’s given us some certainty around the services being provided, and the successful proponent was able to meet those conditions.

The Mental Health Act, I agree. I sure would have loved to have seen this act done in the life of this government, but it is a huge amount of work. I know the Member doesn’t want me to say it again, but it is a huge amount of work. It’s essentially a new act. The old act was so outdated and so no longer effective, it is not effective.

We had extensive feedback from the consultation process, and we also received a significant amount of input from the Standing Committee on Social Programs that clearly has a strong passion for this piece of legislation and also wants to see it. We have a team on this constantly, trying to ensure that every piece of input that was provided to us is analyzed and considered fully. But recognizing that

it is essentially a new act and that we do have a set number of days, we have to have the legislation done in time so it can go through a 120-day process. In order to do it right, to make sure that we get the legislation that truly will benefit the residents of the Northwest Territories, we don’t feel we’re going to be able to have it done in the May/June session, which is why I intend to table it in the fall session so that at least it’s out there – because it will be done long before then – so that residents of the Northwest Territories can begin looking at it and discussing it, which will only help enhance that piece of legislation moving into the life of the 18th Assembly. I’m optimistic that we’ll continue to get strong feedback. But I, like the Member, want to see this done and it needs to be done, and the sooner we can get it done, the better. But recognizing the realities of time and the amount of input that was provided, we’re not going to have it done for May/June.

I totally agree with the Member on stabilized psychiatric care. Absolutely, we struggle. We know that there are pressures and we’re constantly looking for ways to recruit and retain in that area and continue to enhance those services. But we continue to have relatively high turnover. We’re always looking for some thoughts and advice on how to improve this area, and we’re open to any opportunity within our fiscal reality.

On-the-land programs, the Member talked about evidence. A lot of the on-the-land programs are based on community wisdom. There’s a lot of Canadian literature that supports these types of on-the-land programs for improved mental health. For example, Australian literature supports improved physical as well as mental health through the use of on-the-land programs.

To answer the Member’s long-term question about are we getting benefit, we are actually developing evaluation programs for these on-the-land programs to make sure that we can monitor them and evaluate them and have long-term data that can come to this House to help us make informed decisions on how to continue to evolve and improve on-the-land programs in the future. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.