Of course, I take the safety of our community very seriously. I will continue to work with the RCMP to ensure that communities across the Northwest Territories are as safe as they possibly can be.

I appreciate the Minister’s quick reply of saying nothing. It hasn’t said anything to the fact of what is the Minister going to do. That is the issue.

What is the Minister going to do to update the policy to ensure the public’s safety matters enough that we’re going to protect them with the right information so they know and can be vigilant knowing a predator is out there stalking them? I want to hear what the Minister is going to do, not pass it on to somebody else.

Whether the Member likes it or not, it is the responsibility of the RCMP. We will continue to work with the RCMP to ensure our communities are safe.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Mr. Speaker, what’s the point of having a Minister if the Minister just says we’ll leave it up to the RCMP? Maybe the Minister can describe his accountability line with the RCMP when we work to ensure that our public safety is put first.

We have a contract with the RCMP. That is their job. That is their role. We respect the role that the RCMP plays for us.

Again, I will reiterate, we will continue to work with them to ensure that the best practices are in place to ensure that our communities are safe.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was actually recently invited to a meeting of the NWT Network to Prevent Abuse of Older Adults held here in Yellowknife on February 10, 2015, where the NWT Seniors’ Society was providing that workshop. At that time I was again asked about possible legislation, and I have already directed the department to do some research into the duty to report but also other opportunities that may exist that will make it necessary for individuals to report abuse.

I will say that, I mean, all of us as citizens have an obligation, in my mind, to report violence when we see it, whether it’s family violence or whether it’s abuse against adults. So if you do see abuse of our seniors or elders, please report it to the RCMP so that they can get involved and help protect our citizens and our senior citizens all throughout the Northwest Territories.

I’m talking specifically about professionals. I’m glad the Minister also agrees that all residents of the North should speak up, but under a duty to report it would protect professionals who interact with the elderly and dependent adults, and with this duty to report it would have clear guidelines for action, intervention and protection, along with adding a professional capacity to investigate such reports.

In my research, I’ve noticed that both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland have an Adult Protection Act. Nova Scotia’s came into effect June 2014.

Can I ask the Minister when he directed his department to look into this? Are they reviewing these two jurisdictions who are leading right now in Canada?

The department will be looking at a number of different jurisdictions. I can’t say off the top of my head whether they’re going to look at that one, but given that they are one of the leading jurisdictions, I can say for sure that certainly after today they will be.

Part of the process here is to make sure that people are aware of elder abuse, and I think our amazing partners like the NWT Seniors’ Society is doing amazing work to create awareness. But I do have to acknowledge that there is no consistent policy currently directing staff regarding the prevention, detection and response to elder abuse here in the Northwest Territories.

In 2012-2013 the department worked really closely with the NWT Seniors’ Society to conduct a significant amount of research into national best practices, guidelines and policies for front-line workers in response to this exact topic, adult or senior abuse. As a part of the work to support this implementation of a new continuing care standard, which is going to go a long way to addressing some of this, the department and the NWT Seniors’ Society are looking to develop territorial policies and guidelines for health and social services providers and employees to respond when they suspect or witness elder abuse. Work is happening in this and we are continuing to look at other jurisdictions for additional best practices to make sure that what we put in place is effective here in the Northwest Territories. But at the same time, if you see it, report it.

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons, also known as CARP, has a comprehensive strategy to eradicate elder abuse, and one of the recommendations that they do give – and this one I thought was quite interesting – is to create an elder abuse hotline. Because we don’t have all the services and resources in the small communities especially, and I always like to refer that we have eight communities that don’t even have nurses, who are they going to speak to report this elder abuse? If we had a 1-800 hotline that could be widely known across the North with the capacity to redirect to local service agencies and sensitive to cultural and linguistic needs of some of our elders in the communities, would the Minister look at creating something along those lines, or in the current hotline that we do have, have some type of portion of it dedicated to a senior support system where they can get the help that they need?

Resolving this particular challenge here in the Northwest Territories is going to take partnership and awareness, and one of the main organizations that do incredible work in this area is the NWT Seniors’ Society. We do currently provide funding to the NWT Seniors’ Society to offer a toll-free line to seniors with a significant amount of information, including who they might be able to call if they are witnessing things like senior or elder abuse. We can certainly have a conversation with them to see if and how that can be expanded. But at the same time, if you see or happen to witness abuse of seniors, I would still strongly encourage you and all residents of the Northwest Territories to call the RCMP. We will continue to do this work. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we do have a lot of individuals and professionals who do work with the senior population.

Has the Minister put any new financial resources or personnel resources in terms of providing support for our professionals to continue to work with our seniors’ society, with training or any kind of other clinical support, which was also a recommendation in the strategic plan put out by the Canadian Association of Retired Persons? Has the Minister put any further support into the senior division within his department? Thank you.

We had the same conversation during Committee of the Whole. There are no new dollars or additional dollars at this time. But as we can finish the continuing care standards and other documents that we’re working on, we will likely be in a position where we will have to identify areas that need funding. For ’15-16 there are no new or additional funds targeted to this particular topic. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I had questions to the Minister of Transportation. I’d like to continue my questions. Bassett Petroleum will be doing 120 loads of delivering fuel to the community of Deline. In the assessment by Bassett Petroleum, operators of those vehicles, they’re asking to see if the department is going to put kilometre markers along the road to Deline, even to have a few pullouts on that road to Deline.

Does the Minister think that’s something that can be done this year in regard to these two items?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe those can be done. The Member and I talked about that when we were on the winter road and the department also noted that the kilometre markers were non-existent and they felt that it was important that those be put in. We have the two guys up there now working on the winter road, plus the supervisor. So, I’ll have the department look into placing them, maybe not one at every kilometre, but in strategic locations throughout the winter road.

In the Department of Transportation, one of their objectives is safety on our highways. Certainly that applies more so with the winter roads in our communities.

As part of the Safety Program in the Department of Transportation, are there any requests or consideration for additional maintenance on our winter roads? We have about a month and six days left if the weather holds out to have our winter roads still in operation.

I think that when the department proceeded with bringing the extra monitors in, monitoring traffic and monitoring other traffic on the winter road in the Sahtu, we were doing that for safety reasons. Recognizing that on our trip into the Sahtu on the winter road, the road being rough is also a safety issue. I will go back to the department, and the department seemed very responsive when I first discussed it with them. So I will go back to the department to see if there can be money freed up somewhere within our O and M budget to maybe do some more work on that winter road in the Sahtu. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. I’ve noticed how much the people in the Sahtu appreciate the Minister coming in and driving a section of that winter road and seeing firsthand the conditions that people have to drive day in and day out.

Given the limited amount of time that we have on our winter roads, given that Fort Good Hope is going to experience a lot of traffic this weekend because of the hand games, a lot of people are coming in for the hand games and a written e-mail from one of my constituents who is in the department is working that section, so people can call that Transportation person and make comments or complaints to Transportation about the winter roads. There’s going to be a lot of traffic and people are concerned about the driving conditions.