Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services today. I want to follow up on my statement and ask the Minister some questions about the Housing First program.

I would like to, first of all, say that the City of Yellowknife has taken the lead on this project, but they certainly need to have other people involved in the project. The money is federal money. It’s not GNWT money. I’d like to know from the Minister how our territorial health and social services authorities and department, particularly, the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, how is the department and local authority involved with the City of Yellowknife in the Housing First program?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The mayor of Yellowknife actually got in

touch with the Cabinet. He actually had a meeting with the Minister of Housing and the Minister of Justice, and I also had a private meeting with the mayor, as well, to discuss this important initiative that the city is pursuing. We are supportive. We are looking for ways to be their partners and they are looking for ways for us to be their partners. It’s early days. The discussions are early on, but we will continue to engage with the mayor and explore opportunities to be meaningful partners.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I’m really glad to hear that there’s a commitment on the part of the GNWT and I’m also glad to hear that it’s more than one department that is involved, because in order for this project to be successful, it will involve more than just the Health department. Housing and Justice for sure have to be in there.

To make this program successful, there needs to be services for the homeless. Once they are housed, there needs to be services in order to assist them with the other things that have created their homelessness.

I’d like to know from the Minister, will the department and, I guess, will the GNWT in general be able to provide those wraparound services that are necessary to treat the homeless person once they’re housed?

We’ve talked a lot about mental health and addictions services here in the Northwest Territories and we do provide a continuum of care. There are a number of programs and services that are available to all of our residents whether they’re homeless or they’re not homeless. We’re always looking for ways to expand and enhance our programs so that it’s more effective. It’s forums like this where we’re hearing from the Members and we’re getting good ideas, so we appreciate that. But those programs and services are available to all residents whether they have a house or not.

Just for clarity, I can confirm that in partnership with the city, the GNWT Housing Corp is contributing $150,000 to the initiative that is being led by the city.

Thanks to the Minister and thanks to the Minister of Housing. Always want to get a plug in, I’m sure.

The wraparound services are currently being used in the court system, I believe, and in my view, in order for the Housing First program to work, the wraparound services need to be targeted to those homeless people that are in the Housing First program. The Minister states that services are available and basically that they’re available to anybody in the territory, but I’d like to ask the Minister, as this project progresses, will he consider providing targeted wraparound services to

homeless people in the Housing First system? Thank you.

It’s certainly an intriguing idea and I get the Member’s point here. If it’s the wish of committee, we’re certainly willing to have those discussions. I will note that this may be an opportunity as we continue to expand the Integrated Case Management Program that we’re applying to the Wellness Court. So this might be an opportunity or a next logical fit. So, if it’s the wish of committee, we’re certainly willing to explore that. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s great to hear the commitment from the Minister because the responsibility for homelessness is not at a municipal level, it is at a territorial level. So I’m glad to hear the commitment and willingness is there to consider providing services.

To the Minister, Yellowknife is taking on this challenge. Yellowknife has a fairly large number of homeless people, but there are homeless people probably in every one of our communities.

What exists in communities outside of Yellowknife to treat homeless people who have a mental illness? Thank you.

I’ll state what I’ve already said. There is a continuum of care services and opportunities for individuals who are suffering from either mental health or addictions issues from community-based counselling to residential treatment facilities. We’re still pursuing the on-the-land programming. There’s the Matrix program, which is actually an outpatient, community-based treatment program. There’s a number of these programs and they’re available throughout the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, Matrix isn’t available in every community, but we’d obviously like to find ways to expand that out. But there are programs available to people throughout the Northwest Territories.

We do have an expedited referral process where if an individual is ready to go to treatment, if they decided they’d hit the point in their lives where they’re ready, they can talk to a health practitioner, a counsellor, they can talk to an MLA who can direct them to the appropriate people so that they can get that referral, and we could do a 24-hour referral time and get those people into the treatment that they’re ready to take. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we are fully aware, we are in a full operation budget season and it’s important that we reflect on some of the high-level questions as to a department’s performance in responding to the needs of the people it serves. With that in mind, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services on our stewardship of the Supplementary Health Program.

If one looks at the budget and health service programs under Supplementary Health Programs, and knowing full well that the cost of drugs and medical devices are on the rise, the budget has remained virtually flat at around $27 million. Can the Minister explain why? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We actually provide the supplemental health benefits as per the program and the dollars have remained fairly consistent. I will say that we’re actually doing a bit of an analysis right now because it does appear to be creeping up and the primary result is the aging population. So we will likely be coming to committee for further discussion on the increased costs to the supplemental health benefits. Thank you.

Thank you. Speaking about committee discussion, last year the Standing Committee on Social Programs recommended a comprehensive policy review of the Supplementary Health Benefits program, along with a proper appeals process.

Can the Minister indicate to the House why this has not been completed? Thank you.

It is certainly something that we’re looking at doing, but at the same time we’re engaged in a significant number of initiatives and every time we’re pulled off by committee or another group to do another analysis, another research project, it has to be done by the staff that we have and there’s a number of major priorities that were set by the 17th Legislative

Assembly’s Caucus that we’re working on. We’re progressing and it’s in the queue and the work will be done. Thank you.

Again, last year the committee recommended a move towards means testing for supplementary health benefits similar to what was found in other provinces with the expressed caveat that seniors be excluded from means testing.

Can the Minister indicate to the House why this was not done as well? Thank you.

The Member may remember that during the initial Caucus meetings of the 17th Assembly, the supplemental health benefits

were actually not one of the priorities that were identified. A number of priorities were identified by Caucus. We are working on those priorities right now. We are making significant progress on all of them. This is not something that’s gone away. This is something that I think is incredibly important and I’d like to see as part of the transition documents into the 18th Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I guess the question is, and the answer is, we’re still going to be waiting here.

Can the Minister indicate, what is the department’s plan to deal with those residents who failed to qualify for supplementary health benefits, who cannot afford their prescriptions for medical devices, who are left high and dry with Health Canada, especially for patients like Patrick Kuptana in Tuktoyaktuk? Thank you.

It would be inappropriate to talk about individual cases. But I can say that we do work with our residents of the Northwest Territories, and when they do have challenges with the NIHB benefits that they’re entitled to receive, we do participate with them. We do work with them by providing the doctors’ notes and everything they need, and those issues do get resolved. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made the statement on Allisdair Leishman and the circumstances that we find him in at the Stanton Hospital currently. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I’d like to know why the department has never formerly apologized about the breach of security that lead to this tragic incident. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister Abernethy.