Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the principle of the bill. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Members’ comments. The Members are correct; our current Mental Health Act came into force in 1985 and there has been no significant amendment since. This bill will completely replace the old Mental Health Act.

Mr. Speaker, there are gaps in our current mental health system and residents are falling through the

cracks. It’s clear that change is urgently needed and the time is now. This legislation will fill those gaps and modernize the current mental health framework. The bill streamlines the current assessment and admissions process and also removes some of the paperwork and administration burdens posed by the current act which is going to be appreciated by members but also the staff.

To protect the rights of patients and those acting on their behalf, the bill includes modern and comprehensive rights for patients and their substitute decision-makers.

It will establish a review board and panels to hear concerns from patients, families and medical practitioners. The review board will also automatically review the certificates of long-term patients to ensure that appropriate treatment care is being provided.

Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of Bill 55 is the provision of the assisted community treatment. Assisted community treatment will allow involuntary patients to receive mental health treatment, care and supervision while living in a community and will be customized to meet the specific treatment needs of patients. This is recognized as best practice and helps ensure appropriate support is provided to mental health patients in the community.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the support from Regular Members who have pushed hard and long for the development of this bill and I look forward to hearing the committee’s recommendations to help us make this bill even stronger in the best interest of residents throughout the Northwest Territories. So I am looking forward to having continued discussion with committee, and let’s get this bill right. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. To the principle of the bill.

Question has been called. Bill 55 has had a second reading and is referred to a standing committee.

---Carried

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 248-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016; Bill 37, Financial Administration Act; Committee Report 15-17(5), Report on the Review of Bill 37: Financial Administration Act; Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act; Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act; and Committee Report 17-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of

Public Accounts, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the Chair.

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee today? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you Madam Chair. We would like to start with Tabled Document 248-17(5), the supplementary estimates document and then I think in this order: Bill 37, Committee Report 15-17(5), Bill 44, Committee Report 16-17(5), Bill 47 and Committee Report 17-17(5), time permitting. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?

Agreed. Thank you. We’ll commence with that after a brief break.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. When we adjourned yesterday we were working on Tabled Document 248-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016. At this time I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to return to the table with his witnesses.

Yes, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee agreed?

Thank you. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the Minister’s witnesses to the table.

For the record again today, would you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me Mike Aumond, deputy minister of Finance; and Mr. Sandy Kalgutkar, deputy secretary to the FMB. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. The page we left off on yesterday in your document is page 7, Executive, operations, directorate, not previously authorized, $575,000. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn’t get a chance to ask all my questions and just the dialogue gets you kind of wanting to ask a few more questions in terms of where we are going with these five positions that have been in more of the discussion from yesterday.

I would like to ask the Minister, if these five positions are approved, as I mentioned yesterday, under the key findings there were a lot of issues in terms of management. There were discussions around policy as well as some of the directives that fall under these two groups. I wonder, if these five positions are approved, will that open up more free time for the other communications staff to pick up the work and start working on these directives, those 15 key findings and address some of the issues surrounding those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. What will be happening is that, as the review pointed out, we will have an undersized communications staff for the amount of work that there is. We have taken over about $65 million worth of new programs and services in the land, water and resource development area, so there is going to be some restructuring, reorganizing done, better coordination they are going to have to pick up and do as we up our game in relation to all our post-devo activities. We also know we have to do the adjustments that were recommended. This is going to give us some more capacity, allow us to better coordinate and redo the structure so that they are, in fact, more effective. Thank you.

Just another quick question for clarity. These five positions we are looking at locating them, has there been any discussion or any work being done to look at putting these five positions out into the regional centres? We have TeleHealth. We have the fibre optic one coming down. There are better ways of communicating. If we are looking at making communication based on a lot of these new responsibilities that we have, why can’t we do that in the regions and get our regional residents more updated and educated and aware of what our responsibilities are, rather than having to do it through headquarters? Thank you, Madam Chair.

One of the biggest needs was assessed to be the need for better coordination and resources, some resources at the executive level, the headquarters level to help coordinate better and more effectively the current system as well as all the programs and services that we have taken on since post-devolution. There are folks in the regions as well. But the overall need is for government to do a better overall job of coordinating and managing the communication requirements, and we are in, fundamentally, the communicating business. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on the list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a motion. I would like to move that $516,000 be deleted from the activity “directorate” under the Department of Executive, operations expenditures, not previously authorized, on page 7, for the provision of funding for costs associated with the communications functional review. Thank you.