Mr. Speaker, I believe I heard the Member correctly when he indicated eight-month wait times. If the Member is aware of somebody who is waiting eight months, we are trying to constantly improve, and I would strongly encourage the Member to seek consent from that individual so that they can approach us so we could find out what is going on in that particular file because, on average, three months in Yellowknife is what we are seeing for non-urgent issues.
Mr. Speaker, all community counselling programs with wait times or wait lists have an intervention plan in place to ensure that urgent clients do not slip through the cracks. This recognizes that individuals may change over the time that they are waiting. They may come in, they may not be deemed "urgent," but it may escalate as a result of changing situations. As a result of these plans, triaging of all clients on referral are prioritizing urgent clients. We are offering same-day counselling to individuals who are identified as urgent, and when possible, short-term workshops and other things are done in the community to give our residents options. If an individual is on the wait list, and they are told, "Your appointment is going to be in six weeks," and there is a change in their situation, they should immediately reach out to the Health and Social Services providers, who can do a new, updated assessment to determine urgency, and if appropriate, they can take advantage of these services.
Once again, if the Member is aware of somebody that is eight months, please reach out to them and encourage them to either talk to quality assurance or get consent from the Member so that we can look into this file and figure out what went wrong.