Sandy Lee

We believe it’s just a Collective Agreement increase. There is no enhancement in the programming. Thank you.

Yes, please, Mr. Chairman.

We have provided this info as a response to lots of questions that the Member has raised. He is right; he has raised this before. This program is oversubscribed; it went way beyond its budget. We have one person in there and we are spending all the money that we have available in that budget and we are not able to take in new people unless we come with new money, which is the reason why we need to review this as we need to review the Nurse Practitioner Program and nursing programs. We need to look at all the demands on educational programs for health and social services staffing and we need to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That speaks to various programs that we have within the department which is funded to authorities to assist our residents who need special support. In Yellowknife we deliver that program through Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority who funds to YACL and YWCA and other homes and facilities. Is the Member asking for a specific dollar amount for that or is that program criteria that he’s looking for?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that money we envision creating four family home visitors centres, two in the Deh Cho and two in Beau-Del. This is for the development and delivery of early intervention initiatives which will promote the development of a strength-based, solution-focused, family-centred delivery of support services. Specifically trained support workers who will work with families to optimize the home environment for the health and physical, mental and emotional well-being of children and families. This initiative is similar to the current Healthy Families Program model, which...

Mr. Speaker, obviously there is an avenue for a Legislature or next Legislature to consider reorganizing portfolios for seniors or whatever. But from my personal point of view -- and I have had many discussions with the Member about this -- so many things that the seniors need and help with cover different departments and those departments are complex and they need to specialize in those areas, whether they be Health and Social Services, or Housing or income security. Those on their own are vast programs.

Mr. Speaker, for now it appears that the Member has a very specific situation respecting...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was talking about CHN program, which the Member for Kam Lake was referring to. I am not sure if he was referring to that as an Aurora College program but I was speaking of it in the context of overall human resource training programs for health and social services assistance. CHN program is fully subscribed, as the Member is aware because I have stated that a number of times. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would not disagree with that. I just want to note that Foundation for Change action plan has a number of priorities and objectives. It’s a three-year plan and there are some areas where we are able to fund it, but we have made it clear from the beginning that those are planned, those are what we want to do, subject to finding resources.

I could provide the Member with what we have in the department on that topic.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister responsible for Seniors, the issues that MLAs and our residents bring forward to my office pertain to various government departments and programs. I work with the relevant departments and their Minister to resolve some of the issues. I’m not familiar with the particular case that the Member brought up, but I’d be happy to look into the situation and see what we can do and what has been done. Thank you.