I just want to reiterate my phrase out-of-sight, out-of-mind. I don’t know what support there is for families, either, for seeing these folks’ family members who get referred to southern institutions.

Previously, in another Assembly when I was on the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we actually went and did a tour and visited many of the facilities. That was way back in the day when Michener Centre was still operating and we went to the Alberta Hospital. I believe Minister Miltenberger was the Minister of Health and Social Services, and off we went to see where our people were living.

It still seems like a lot of money to me, $30 million a year every year, year in, year out. I know they’re specialized needs, but I’m a little bit, I don’t want to say suspect, but I’m a little bit curious that if we

don’t have any capacity here in the Northwest Territories that every referral that is made is for these specialized reasons and for this very specialized care.

I’d like to ask the Minister, could we use another group home in the Northwest Territories for adults and children? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we actually have contracts with accredited agencies located in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to provide these incredibly specialized skills. It’s not just specialized skills but it’s different skills. I mean, we have our residents who have really unique conditions who require significant supports, and we don’t actually have programs or the specialists to provide those skills here in the Northwest Territories for one person. Whereas, they have institutions in the South that provide it for similar causes or conditions where they’ve got a large number of people in there, so they’ve got economies of scale that they can administer these.

I, like the Member, am very concerned about these numbers, and this is something that I’ve asked the department to look into. Following on the recommendation of committee, the department did a thorough analysis. Honestly, we are hoping that we would find some like conditions where we could bring them together and utilize a northern facility with northern professionals to provide these supports for our residents. Quite honestly, we want our people home. We want our people in the Northwest Territories. But given a unique file-by-file review, there weren’t enough conditions that were similar that we could justify creating a unit or a function or a service in the Northwest Territories to provide those high-level services.

But it may change. As we continue to evolve here in the Northwest Territories, as patients are coming forward with new conditions we may find that there are conditions similar enough that we can house them, which is why we do the biannual review to make sure that we’re on top of these. Every once in a while we’re lucky where we do have an opportunity to repatriate individuals and we work with the southern institutions to develop great repatriation plans for the individuals who we can bring back, so we’re always looking for ways to bring these people home. We hate spending the money in the South; we’d rather spend the money in the North; but sometimes requirements are so different, so unique, we don’t have a choice but to work with one of our southern partners. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The planes fly both ways. Maybe we should be looking at building some facilities here in the Northwest Territories, and if we didn’t have enough people with specialized need that required that care, we could

actually probably take some of the pressure off some of the provinces and have the people come this way.

I would like to ask the Minister if he ever gets any pushback or any concern raised by families. I mean, we’re raising this here in the House and we’re talking about it from the point of view of economics and economy and work. But from that personal human interest side of the folks that are referred to these southern institutions, does the department ever hear from the families about whether they would like to see their loved ones closer to home? Thank you.

The department hears from time to time, but we also hear it the other way as well. We have individuals who would prefer to be in southern facilities because they don’t feel that they’re getting the supports they need here, and at the end of the day, we make referrals to the South that sometimes are declined. So it goes both ways, and we do hear from residents on both sides of this issue. As I said, we really would prefer to have those people back here. I hear the Member talking about opportunities for maybe bringing people from the South up, but we would still need incredibly specialized professionals to come with those positions, and many of them are working in large facilities where they have a huge clientele and maybe wouldn’t be that interested in small facilities that have maybe 10 or 12 patients.

We’re always looking for opportunities to bring our people home and we will continue. We’ll do the biannual reviews, and we’ll continue to keep committee up to date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the residents that are in southern placements, are there particular social workers or people assigned to monitor their cases specifically, and when are we up for the biannual review? What date are we looking at on that? Thank you.

We’ve just finished the most recent one as a result of recommendations from committee, so I’m assuming biannual would be two years from now. We did just finish one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to go back to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize and welcome to the Chamber the chief negotiator who’s helped us negotiate the agreement with Alberta on transboundary water that we’re going to soon conclude, with a similar one in Saskatchewan and hopefully, as well, with British Columbia. She’s also the chief negotiator on the Thaidene Nene file. I would like to welcome Ms. Merrell Ann Phare to the Chamber. She’s one of the best in the business.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Item 8, written questions. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment:

1. Does the Department of Education, Culture and

Employment income support division have a definition of “transitional housing” that they use to determine a client’s eligibility for income assistance?

2. If yes, please provide it. If no, how does the

department determine if a client is in transitional housing, and if they are, how does the department determine if the client is eligible for income assistance?

3. What policy governs clients whose only

accommodation option is a motel or hotel room? Why are they not eligible for income assistance?

4. Explain what a client in an emergency housing

situation, i.e. no housing options, should do to find accommodation. Who should they go to?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Can the Minister provide to this House and make publicly available the entire set of inspection reports for registered daycare facilities in the Northwest Territories, beginning in the 2010-2011 fiscal year up to and including the 2014-2015 fiscal year?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a document from the Canadian Education Association, entitled “2014-2015 Winners of the Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.” The document, as I mentioned, highlights East Three Secondary gardening program.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. I wish to table the Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly – 2015: Corrections in the NWT – Department of Justice.

Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, be read for the second time.

This bill includes amendments to the Child and Family Services Act that would add a new definition of youth and add provisions respecting the protection and services available to youth, add a new provision requiring the director to notify a child and a child’s parents of the right to be represented by legal counsel, add a new provision providing for mediation, amend the criteria for determining that a child needs protection, add a new provision requiring an application for an apprehension order to include a statement of alternatives to apprehension that had been considered, add a new provision requiring notification of the applicable Aboriginal organizations of an application for an apprehension order in respect to an Aboriginal child, amend the maximum amount of time the child may be placed in a temporary custody by the director or of the director, add a new provision authorizing new roles of the child and family services committees, add a new provision requiring the Legislative Assembly to conduct periodic reviews of the act and make minor technical changes and corrections.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 47 has had second reading and is referred to standing committee.

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 12, Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act; Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act; Bill 46, Deline Final Self-Government Agreement Act; Committee Report 10-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories; Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016; Tabled Document 205-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2014-2015; Tabled Document 206-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015; and Tabled Document 207-17(5),

Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

Good afternoon. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order and ask, what is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with TD 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.