Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ve heard my colleagues and I’ve heard the Minister and I appreciate all that I’m hearing. Mental health and this legislation and the policies associated really are of deeply personal concerns to many people across the Northwest Territories, and I’ve heard, through the committee, that they were able to put their finger on that pulse of their community hearings. I know that we’ve heard from many individuals and families, organizations, institutions, First Nations. I think this is a very strong cross-section of our society and it’s a common issue that I think there’s a high degree of interest in doing a better job of addressing. In particular I would like to single out a family, some individuals, Connie and James Boraski and Ian Henderson, who delved into their personal experience, which involved some pain, but they had considerable perseverance and commitment and dedication to drawing the best results for everybody that they could from that experience and were very willing to share it. So I learned a lot through communications with those families.
I just want to back up the calls for the recognition of the need and the intentions to act and, in fact, there’s some work going on already on a youth adolescent strategy towards mental health. I see there’s a preventative element, which I always like to see, as well as progressive early intervention. This is very important. I see the intent to develop assisted community treatment for outpatients where sufficient resources exist, and we’ve heard some comments on the need for resources.
I’d also like to recognize, really, the hard work and the excellent work by committee and staff and the response to that work and interaction with the committee from the Minister and his staff and legal professionals, and that includes, of course, Glen Rutland, who was legal counsel for the Standing Committee on Social Programs. I was able to see them in action a number of times.
One specific thing I would like to mention is clause 9.(1) and I’ll just mention it here, Mr. Chair, rather than interrupt our review later, which is a response to some specific situations and in particular, for me, allows a patient who feels unsafe being on his or her own but is being released from hospital care and who wishes to remain admitted in the hospital may now, with this new legislation, seek a thorough review of his or her situation through a second opinion before being released from hospital care.
I think we’ve had some specific incidences and situations where that option was not available to a patient, with perhaps dire consequences. So, I really appreciate the committee going after that and the Minister and staff stepping in to address it in the most effective way. I would note that other clauses were developed or amended to support this clause, including, I highlight, the requirement to ensure that the patient understands their right to seek a second opinion before leaving hospital care. I think that’s obviously a requirement that if we have good legislation, it needs to be known about and understood and transparent. So there’s a commitment in the legislation to make that happen. Of course, the Minister did mention in his comments a recent report on the specific case study that he commissioned. He mentioned the five major recommendations and 11 supported recommendations. He also mentioned that some were very substantive requiring more time to deal with. So I guess if I had a question at this moment in time it would be should we anticipate any of those recommendations require a legislative response.
Is the Minister prepared at this time? Has the analysis been advanced to that degree that he can respond to that question? Thank you.