Masi. Members' statements. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize and welcome Tim Moorhouse, of Chestermere, Alberta, who is chair of the Canada FASD Research Network. I truly appreciate the hard work he and the CanFASD Research Network do each year to support FASD education and awareness in Canada. Welcome to the House.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize the members of the Anti-Poverty Advisory Committee as visitors to the gallery today. The committee has been meeting this week to review applications for the Anti-Poverty Fund and prepare funding recommendations. This committee has been in place for two years now, and they are concluding their terms at the end of this month. I have greatly appreciated their input and guidance over the past two years, and I have deep respect for their commitment to NWT residents and communities. I'm happy to have them here with us today, and thank them for their support and their time as committee members. They are the committee chair, Mayor Mark Heyck of Yellowknife; Elder Pat Martel from K'atlodeeche First Nation; Nora Wedzin from Behchoko; Knute Hansen from Aklavik; Ruby Jumbo from Sambaa K'e; and Kyla Kakfwi-Scott, who is the senior advisor of the Anti-Poverty Committee. Once again, thank you all for being here. Thank you, Tim. Thank you for everybody for joining us today.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize the LGANT 2017 award winner, and a constituent of the Nahendeh riding. Welcome, Ruby Jumbo, to the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge Mayor Mark Heyck, a constituent of mine, and thank him for all the work he's done on behalf of the Anti-Poverty Steering Committee and as mayor of this community. Thank you.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Range Lake.

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize a constituent of mine. I'm going to try again, Mr. David Wasylciw, I think I might as well stick with "W," and a friend of mine, Nora Wedzin, in the gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize a good friend of mine, a former city council colleague of mine, and the mayor of Yellowknife, Mark Heyck. Welcome and thank you for being here.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I, too, would like to recognize Mayor Heyck. I had the pleasure of serving with him on city council and I want to thank him for all the work that he's done on behalf of our community. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Mr. Knute Hansen. Knute has been involved with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation from the beginning and still continues to advocate for Inuvialuit. Welcome, Knute. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. I would also like to welcome Mayor Mark Heyck to our Assembly and Nora Wedzin, special counsel. [English translation not provided]. Item 6, acknowledgments. Item 7, oral questions. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier on I spoke about partnerships on suicide prevention, and my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, a patient's ability to control their privacy during their engagement with the healthcare system is critical to their treatment and ongoing healing and wellness. The Action Plan on Child and Youth Mental Wellness commits the department to developing standards of practice for children and youth privacy. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us a bit more about this work? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the development of the action plan the Member has referenced, and we actually engaged with youth from across the Northwest Territories, and they made it very clear that privacy is of particular interest and importance to them. Youth have been very vocal about the fact that they do not feel that their privacy is always respected when using the healthcare system, so ensuring proper protection and rights of privacy and confidentiality is an extremely important part of the work that the health and social services system is doing. We want to make certain that our system in the Northwest Territories is set up with standards of practice to ensure that youth feel safe in seeking healthcare, regardless of where they go in the Northwest Territories.

In 2017-2018, the Department of Health and Social Services has been working to research the current legal context and the best practices around privacy, confidentiality, and legal rights of children and youth, related to mental wellness. This work has included consultation with the chief health privacy officer. They are doing a jurisdictional scan as well as examining connections to professional standards and codes of conduct from many jurisdictions across the country. In 2018-2019, the department will work to develop the standards of practice that will guide Health and Social Services systems staff respecting and protecting the rights of youth to privacy and confidentiality. This work will all be followed by training for staff across the Northwest Territories.

That is valuable information for youth to reach out. Mr. Speaker, the action plan also speaks of reviewing the out-of-territory program that is a program that sees children and youth leaving the territory for specialized care. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us more about the scope of this review, including how it will interact with the need to establish reliable care options in people's home communities.

Mr. Speaker, we heard from youth that our programs and services need to be flexible and they need to be adaptive to their needs, to the children's needs. Initial work to prepare for review has already taken place. This work is focused on determining the best scope and outcomes for the review. It is anticipated that the review will include an examination of the needs of youth, including health and mental health needs, behaviours of concern, trauma, supervision needs, education, employment, housing, social supports, and any others that are deemed important. The review will also include an examination of the strength of children and youth, including mental wellness, social supports, physical activity, and in connection to culture, which we have heard over and over again is incredibly important.

In addition, the review will look at staffing models at facilities and the full spectrum of programs and services that children and youth need to access to support their individual needs. We are using a recovery-oriented approach to care and recognizing that youth needs change over time, and we know that it is essential that a full spectrum of services is available and accessible to children in order for them to basically have the best outcomes and the best potential future. Mr. Speaker, we need to have a better understanding of the evolving and complex needs of children and youth served both in the territory but also in facilities that we are supporting outside of the territories, and that is the work that we are doing now.

I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, the action plan's objectives include creating a supportive environment to protect the mental wellness of children and youth and improving mental wellness programs and services through locally relevant data and perspectives. Mr. Speaker, how will the future of the territorial suicide and crisis support network reflect the need for community-based programming like Project CREATeS or the GNWT sharing circles?

The crisis response network is one thing, and the supports that we are providing at a community, territorial, and regional level, they interrelate, but they have a different role. The suicide prevention and crisis response network will take a whole-community approach, involving relevant community partners who are figuring out who is in the community, who can be part of that network, and will focus on prevention, intervention, but also look at responses after an incident has occurred. The work will also include supporting community-level plans that can be developed to meet the needs of individual communities, recognizing that the communities have a lot of great ideas and they know their communities better than somebody sitting in Yellowknife or even a regional centre might, so it's critical that we get their involvement in the design to a community response. The programs that the Member has mentioned, I am not familiar with the CREATeS program, but I am certainly willing to have a sit-down with the Member so he can help me get educated on that, and then we can have a conversation with the department about how that might be something we can look at, if appropriate, in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.