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Roles

In the Legislative Assembly

Elsewhere

Crucial Fact

Historical Information Glen Abernethy is no longer a member of the Legislative Assembly.

Last in the Legislative Assembly September 2019, as MLA for Great Slave

Won his last election, in 2015, with 79% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Question 787-18(3): New Services in Downtown Yellowknife August 12th, 2019

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the good neighbour agreement was not done by the end of June. We are still committed to getting this work done. We have hired a contractor to help us facilitate the process. It does take all the stakeholders. It does take the GNWT, the RCMP, the contract provider, as well as the neighbours to make this a reality. We did share a draft good neighbour agreement with the partners on the 24th, and we are hoping to reconvene here in August to work out the details and finalize that good neighbour agreement. We can propose. We can work with our neighbours. We can't make people sign this agreement, but we think there is value in having this agreement. We are committed to trying to get it done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 786-18(3): Nursing Services in Tsiigehtchic August 12th, 2019

The Member and I actually had a conversation on this when he brought it to my attention that the RNs aren't spending a full day. I have already committed to the Member, and I will commit to the Member in this House, that I have directed the department to work with the authority to make sure that our RNs are spending the full hours in the community, either seven-and-a-half or eight. We have to work out some details on that. It may require a little bit of overtime. It may require the RN staying overnight so that they can provide certain hours on one day and certain hours on another day, but I am committed to the Member, to the community, to the region, to make sure that that community is getting the hours promised.

Question 786-18(3): Nursing Services in Tsiigehtchic August 12th, 2019

The employee is scheduled for a full day, but in the community itself, a portion of that time is spent driving to and from the community, as the Member has already indicated. I can get the exact numbers from the department on how many hours per day the RN was able to spend in the community during those periods of time. The nurse does work a full day; only a portion of those hours are actually spent in the community, as the Member previously indicated in his statement.

Question 786-18(3): Nursing Services in Tsiigehtchic August 12th, 2019

Mr. Speaker, outside of break-up or freeze-up, we are scheduled to have a nurse into the community of Tsiigehtchic one day a week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tabled Document 462-18(3): NWT On the Land Collaborative 2019 Report June 6th, 2019

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table had following document entitled "NWT On the Land Collaborative 2019 Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 783-18(3): Standards for Children or Youth in Care Who Go Missing June 6th, 2019

Time is meshing together. I either made a statement on that today or yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was today. The bottom line is, the quality improvement plan is a living document. We're hoping to have the document go live, reckoning that it will continue to evolve over time, but yes, it does and will include these types of things as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Question 783-18(3): Standards for Children or Youth in Care Who Go Missing June 6th, 2019

The training I mentioned in my last response is currently being enhanced, and we are in the process of developing a more stringent training framework. We are expanding the length of the training from two months to three months, and we are designing new training processes that include a combination of in-class study, structured self-study, and supervision, ensuring that our staff are appropriately trained and that they are competent in the knowledge and the skills that they need prior to employment as child protection workers, so we are trying to do a lot of this work up front, before we actually appoint them as child protection workers.

Social workers in our system are not all child protection workers. Only those who have received designation and have certain specific training are, so we are trying to do more of that up front so that they have the skills to respond accordingly when those unfortunate situations do occur.

Question 783-18(3): Standards for Children or Youth in Care Who Go Missing June 6th, 2019

When a child is under the care and custody of the CFS system, the director is in a sense the parent of the child, the de facto parent, and the director does have the ability to provide some responsibilities in this area through child protection workers within the system.

The practice expectation when a child or a youth does go missing is that the child protection working is to take all measures required to locate the child. This includes, obviously, things like questioning last-known contacts of the child or youth; seeking out possible locations that the child or youth have visited or regularly visits; searching for a child or youth at those locations, both directly in person and in collaboration with other known acquaintances, foster parents, and the RCMP. So multiple individuals can be engaged in this.

Child protection services training actually includes training in these exact standards so that individuals know what their expectations are and know how to respond to this. We did just get audited. We have acknowledged that we need to do better in many of the areas, and we are enhancing training in many areas, including this area, to make sure that our staff know what they need to do when one of the children in care does go missing.

Question 783-18(3): Standards for Children or Youth in Care Who Go Missing June 6th, 2019

Mr. Speaker, yes, there are some standards in place to guide staff in the event of a child or youth who goes missing. One of the standards that we have is based on serious incidents. This standard provides direction to staff to ensure that they take required actions to address a serious incident, that they contact the RCMP where required, that they seek medical attention for a child or youth where required, and provide verbal and written notification to the director.

Serious incidents do have a range that are identified within the standards from 1 to 4, and, as a note, if a child under five were to go missing or be away from their placement without authorization for any more than three hours, they would actually be considered a priority 1, so we would engage the standards immediately.

We also have some standards in place, Mr. Speaker, for when an individual is out of territory in a placement. This standard provides direction to staff on how to initiate an alert both within the Northwest Territories and outside the Northwest Territories, in the jurisdiction where a person is placed. So, yes, Mr. Speaker, in short, we do have standards in place to address exactly these situations.

Question 781-18(3): Health Services Issues in the Deh Cho June 6th, 2019

I did have an opportunity to speak about this exact issue earlier in this sitting. In the new Stanton, we do have the ability to prepare country foods. We've put in flash freezers and other tools that will actually help us prepare. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to go live with this new program at Stanton until July. Right now, we're working to help train up our contractors who provide food services, to make sure that they are aware of how to do this. They will be visiting places like the Yukon hospital that actually already does a really good job in this area, and we are looking forward to seeing traditional foods available in Stanton Territorial Hospital in July. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.