Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Ms. Simone Gessler, principal of Weledeh Catholic School in Yellowknife, on being recognized as one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals for 2014.
The Learning Partnership recently announced Ms. Gessler as one of 40 exceptional educators from across Canada. Through her leadership at Weledeh Catholic School since 2010, literacy rates have improved substantially, with 100 percent of students now demonstrating significant improvements in reading, sense of confidence and self-efficacy, and 70 percent are reading at or above grade level.
To achieve this, Ms. Gessler adapted the “Response to Intervention” approach to create a program aimed at improving literacy for all students. This program addresses the needs of students who struggle with reading and challenges the entire student body in a relevant and interactive three-tiered approach. The International Reading Association has recognized the program’s success and I presented Ms. Gessler with a Ministerial Award for Literacy in 2013 for her achievement.
Ms. Gessler now has the opportunity to attend a five-day Executive Leadership Training Program delivered by the internationally renowned Rotman School of Management later this month. Once complete, she joins some 300 exceptional educators that comprise the National Academy of Canada’s Outstanding Principals.
Ms. Gessler graciously attributes the successes of her school to the hard work and dedication of each of her staff. Under her leadership, teachers and
students work purposefully and her school is a place for learning directed at success for all.
Please join me in congratulating Ms. Simone Gessler for her passion and dedication to excellence in education. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With devolution implementation in less than six weeks, GNWT assumes responsibility for mines, oil and gas installations set up under “modern environmental review processes.” Already an enormous responsibility, if we are unprepared, this could become an enormous liability.
Under today’s system, each project, mine or whatever is required to post financial securities as part of the review process. This is meant to provide money that protects the public and the environment from closure and clean-up costs even if the operator goes bankrupt. Until April 1st, this financial security will be held by Canada, presumably with immediate transfer to GNWT on that date.
Mr. Speaker, the federal government has not collected all the financial securities approved by our management structures. I found one example of financial security where $263 million was approved by the Wek'eezhii Land and Water Board for a mine, but the federal government holds only $127 million in security leaving a gap of $136 million, greater than 50 percent.
Just recently a diamond mine in Nunavut shut down. Guess what. They have not paid their security deposit, so the federal government – i.e., the public – is paying the bill.
This raises a number of questions. How many sites? What is the total gap between approved financial security versus that actually held by the federal government for transfer? The Commissioner for Sustainable Development notes that Canada is already liable for $8 billion in mine clean-up costs because of previous failures to hold security.
Will they hand over to us the financial securities held on the 1st of April? Will the GNWT and the public be left on the hook for the substantial liability gap that exists?
Oil and gas operations also present a sticky problem. As of April 1st we will be the oil and gas regulator, yet financial securities are apparently held by the National Energy Board in an office in Calgary. Is there a gap in the holdings there and how can we understand the level of liability we are assuming when we don’t even have a functioning oil and gas regulatory office?
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
While Cabinet proposes to roll out even more subsidies to the resource extraction industry, are they secretly deciding that fully paid security deposits are an unnecessary burden on industry that hinders our competitiveness?
We have spent the last week insisting we leave a positive heritage for future generations. This potential liability could do the exact opposite. I will have questions. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like all Aboriginal people of the NWT, the people of Kakisa have fished for generations. Kakisa was established in 1962 when the Dene living at Tathlina Lake moved to the east side of Kakisa Lake to be close to the Mackenzie Highway.
Fishing is integral to their way of life. In late 2012, Noda Enterprises, the business arm of Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation, opened a fish plant in Kakisa. This basic fish processing and holding facility allows local fishermen to prepare pickerel for sale in the region as an alternative to selling to the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation.
In 2011 and 2012, the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment made valuable contributions to the establishment of a fish plant through a funding arrangement that has now become the Northern Food Development Program.
There’s an increasing demand for fresh fish. The Northwest Territories has some of the highest quality fish in the country. It is a popular menu item at local restaurants. MLAs have long waited to see fish served in seniors homes, hospitals and other facilities. Operations like the Kakisa fish plant is an important step towards developing local and regional markets.
It would be good for the community if the fish plant in Kakisa could stay open longer and serve more customers. Commercial fishery is a priority in the implementation of the Economic Opportunities Strategy. I support the government’s initiative to increase commercial fishing and want to see benefits extend throughout the Northwest Territories. We need to encourage people to work in the local fishing industry.
The fish plant in Kakisa is an example of how communities can work using traditional skills and a renewable resource. I encourage the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment to work closely with fishermen and all interested communities to ensure the best use of public funds and help the commercial fishing industry in the NWT reach its potential. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On paper, this government provides quality health care to all residents no matter where they live, yet a select group of NWT communities does not have year-round nurses. Tsiigehtchic is one of them and it’s a stressful situation not to have reliable access to care, Mr. Speaker. Residents are fed up.
Being without a nurse in Tsiigehtchic isn’t for lack of trying. For years the community has been petitioning the Department of Health and Social Services for a year-round licenced practical nurse. The idea made it into the Health and Social Services 2010-11 Business Plan, but the Minister of Health eventually reneged on that commitment.
In the House on February 7, 2013, another promise was made. The former Minister of Health, the Honourable Tom Beaulieu, stated the department plans to continue to work with community leaders in the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority to try to provide nursing services in Tsiigehtchic. When I asked the Minister if he would commit to an interim measure, a pilot project to hire a licenced practical nurse, he gave an unequivocal yes. That was more than a year ago. Once again, nothing materialized.
Now, I have discovered that the new Minister of Health retracted his predecessor’s commitment. A meeting took place a few weeks ago in which the Minister informed the chief and a few others that an LPN would not be hired because of limitations posed by the service delivery policy.
Mr. Speaker, what doesn’t make sense to me is that the service delivery policy hasn’t changed since the Honourable Tom Beaulieu was in charge.
The lack of housing had been mentioned as a barrier, but that’s no longer a problem. The community has set aside housing specifically for nursing staff.
For far too long Tsiigehtchic residents have not had reliable access to health care. This government has to do better. The Minister of Health appears to be someone who can’t follow through on commitment.
Mr. Blake, the time for your Member’s statement has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
For far too long Tsiigehtchic residents have not had reliable access to health care. This government has to do better. The Minister of Health appears to be someone who can’t follow through on commitments. He will have an opportunity to repair his reputation during oral questions today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to stand here today on our micro theme day on community nursing.
In theory, this government provides high quality health care to all residents regardless of where they live. In reality, there’s a two-tiered system. A handful of small communities don’t have year-round fully accredited health providers. Wrigley is one of them.
When the nurse isn’t there, except on a fly-in basis, residents don’t have reliable access to health care like the larger centres. This creates a scary situation when a serious medical emergency arises.
For years I’ve been pressing the government to staff empty nursing stations in Wrigley. We were told full-time nurses couldn’t be hired unless police officers were on site. In 2010 we seemed to be making progress by securing policing services. However, that is where everything came to a halt.
Although the former Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Sandy Lee, approached the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority with a plan to enhance services in Wrigley, it was never implemented. It seems there was a peculiar disconnect as the regional authority disregarded the Minister’s recommendations.
Regrettably, the succeeding Minister of Health and Social Services withdrew the plans, stating that Wrigley didn’t meet the minimum threshold under the department’s service delivery model. The reason given was the community has to have 250 people to warrant full-time nursing staff.
This delivery model must be revamped. I should not have to provide a report of the statistics on the rise of cancer, diabetes and heart disease in the communities. Health care shouldn’t be reduced to numbers. People’s lives hang in the balance. Who says because you live in a smaller centre, you can’t enjoy the same level of health care as the larger centres do?
Nurses play a critical role in the lives of people every day because there are no doctors in the communities. Often it is the nurses who help diagnose conditions such as cancer and diabetes at the earliest opportunity. Nurses providing preventative measures should be our goal in health care.
There’s another element. With the new oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu region, Wrigley is experiencing more traffic visitors and activity. Due to these changes, the community’s needs have begun to escalate.
At this time I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you very much, colleagues, for being content with me concluding my statement. Due to these changes, the community needs have begun to escalate. It is the only community on the winter road from the Sahtu to the Mackenzie Highway. It’s about halfway between Tulita and Fort Simpson. There are no services in between.
We have been told in the House that the Department of Health and Social Services is currently reviewing options and creative ways to provide health care. I would like a report from the current Minister on plans to enhance nursing services in Wrigley and other small communities within Nahendeh.
It’s no secret that governments across this nation struggle to provide high-quality health care in small Aboriginal communities. Given that 50 percent of our Aboriginal population is smack dab in the midst of that statistic, I say it’s time for us to lead the way and refuse to accept the status quo by developing a plan that meets the community needs within the 17th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On the eve of National Nutritional Month in March, we recently were reminded of the nine-year success of the Drop the Pop campaign in the NWT, which I want to commend all stakeholders for upholding and supporting all these years.
This campaign, which is part of the Healthy Choices framework, has done wonders to support the reduction and sometimes elimination of sugary beverages in our schools, promoting healthier eating and lifestyle management.
However, recently Canada has come under fire since the publication of a study in the journal of JAMA Internal Medicine that concluded people who get 25 percent or more of their daily calories from added sugar are three times more likely to die of heart disease. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian consumes upward of 26 teaspoons of sugar a day, which accounts for more than 20 percent of total calories, and further estimates that more than one-third of sugar Canadians consume is added by manufacturers to foods.
I can only assume, based on NWT’s eating habits and lack of affordable healthy food choices, our sugar consumption is much higher. The political spin on this is that our related health costs due to caloric obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular and diabetes are many times higher than the rest of Canada and, thus, we should be paying attention.
These national statistics are so alarming that the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is planning to unveil new guidelines on sugar consumption sometime this spring and urging all levels of government to get involved. We are already seeing such organizations like the American Heart Association recommending a sugar limit of 5 percent of daily calories for women and 7.5 percent for men. Given all the data, it’s clear that we need to collectively toughen our stance on sugar, like our previous governments did with the Drop the Pop campaign.
Not wanting to leave things to chance, I will be proposing an action on sugar awareness program for the Minister of Health and Social Services and seeking his support on NWT promoting a less sugary world for our residents. Let’s see if his taste buds are up for the challenge. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to discuss the need to allow naturopathic doctors in the NWT to write prescriptions and order tests for their patients.
Recently Ontario became the second province in Canada to give the green light for increased prescribing rights for naturopathic doctors. Their announcement followed the granting of more powers to other health professionals in Ontario, such as midwives and registered nurses.
The leader in this area is British Columbia, who granted its naturopaths the right to prescribe a greater number of medications as well as high-dose vitamins, amino acid hormones, botanicals and herbs in April of 2009.
Though Ontario and BC’s naturopathic doctors are restricted in the types of drugs that they can prescribe, they will be able to provide patients with medication they would otherwise have had to seek at walk-in clinics, emergency rooms or by appointment with a medical doctor, a duplication of services wasting both time and money. This decision will decrease emergency room wait times and clear the way for speedier treatment of those who really do need to be treated in emergency rooms in Ontario.
Right now in the NWT, the patients of a naturopathic doctor must also have a medical physician to prescribe any required tests, a blood test for instance, and to prescribe any pharmaceuticals that they need, blood pressure medication for instance. They cannot get all their needs dealt with in one place at one time. It requires at least two different appointments with two different practitioners.
The number of naturopathic doctors in the NWT has increased considerably in the last couple of years and it continues to increase. We will soon have seven naturopaths to serve our needs.
It’s obvious that more and more Northerners are seeking naturopathic doctors and liking the services that they receive. It only makes sense for the NWT to recognize this increased demand and to accommodate our residents’ needs. We are behind the eight ball, not in front where we should be.
The Minister of Health must reconsider the department’s stance regarding naturopaths, embrace them as the professionals that they are, and make life so much easier for residents who like and want the service provided by their naturopathic doctor to be combined with the ability to prescribe tests and drugs. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to speak to a great event that combines both sport and the strong cultures, traditions and skills of people of the North, an event that brings our youth in connection with our elders and the leaders of the Beaufort-Delta. The opening ceremonies for the 2014 Northern and Dene Games Summit happened yesterday at East 3 Secondary School in Inuvik, which was followed by a community feast.
Over the next couple of days, 245 students from all of the Beaufort-Delta communities ranging from grades 6 to 12 will participate in activities that will test their speed, their strength and their agility. Some of the activities they will be participating in are such things as the one foot high kick, the bench reach, the stick pull and Dene hand games.
The summit was established a couple of years ago by the Beaufort-Delta Education Council and staff at the East 3 Secondary School with the number one goal in mind to instill greater pride in heritage. The summit allows for the carrying on of our great teachings, our great stories and the legacy of our traditional lifestyles. The event will also promote friendly competition, learning traditional skills from elders, fair play, sportsmanship and storytelling.
I would like to wish all of the participants the best of luck and be safe, but most of all have fun. I’d also like to say a big thank you to the organizers, the sponsors, teachers, chaperones, coaches and volunteers who continue to make this summit an ongoing success. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, want to join my colleagues here on asking for nurses in our small communities. I think of this as a P3 project and in the departmental mission we are to promote, protect and provide healthy well-being to the people of the Northwest Territories, and certainly our small communities fit under that criteria as people of the Northwest Territories.
How long have our small communities done without any type of full-time nurses on a full-time basis? How many communities right now can truly say we do not have a full-time nurse in our community? We do have fly-ins, if the weather is good. We do have that, but we do not have full-time nurses in our communities and our communities are getting fed up, the haves and have nots. How can we sit here and still allow a community like Tsiigehtchic or Wrigley or Colville Lake not to have nurses while we enjoy them ourselves in our own communities? We take it for granted. We hire local people to dispense medicine, to fix up sores, cuts or bruises, but we don’t have the security or the certainty of a nurse there. Those days are gone. The little house on the prairie is gone. We’ve got to have full-time nurses now, and I am looking for it from this government here, hoping that this government would set down a plan and say in the next 10 years this is what we are going to do, not reasons why we can’t do it. Reasons why we could do it and we should do it and it must get done. Not yet, in my 10 years that I have been standing here and talking, has the government shown me a plan as thick as this that will tell us we’re going to be putting nurses in your communities each year. That’s what the people want.
I’m going to ask the Minister of Health some questions on why Colville Lake does not yet have a full-time nurse like all the communities in the North.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I stood up in this House and talked about all the wonderful programs and services available in the Northwest Territories. Today I’d like to focus on one area. That is the area of support to seniors.
People are living longer in the Northwest Territories and we want to keep our population from declining by seniors thinking about having to retire in the South because of the challenges here in the North. In spite of all of our good programs, that’s something that we have to be concerned about. I listed some of the support we do have for seniors, such as Pharmacare, vision care, driver’s licence cost relief, property tax relief, seniors emergency home repair programs, and then when you get into residential facilities owned by the GNWT, of course, we know that if a senior is over 60 and living in public housing or government housing that the rent is still very, very low. It’s not zero anymore, but it is certainly not means or income tested, and it is still very, very low. I forgot to mention the fossil fuel subsidy as well. That is another benefit to seniors living in their own home.
But I still think that we need to be very proactive as a government in assessing the needs of seniors coming up. We need to anticipate. Now, I know that the Department of Health and Social Services keeps a lot of statistics, and I’m sure that Housing has some statistics, as well, but in the interests of ensuring the comfort and well-being and the continuance of our seniors living in the Northwest Territories, I would like to know if there is a central census database of any kind which is a proactive measure and contact means to stay in touch with seniors no matter whether they are living in a care facility, living in their own independent home, living in supported housing such as what the Housing Corporation provides. I think that if we do not have a central database like that. We need one, because we need to anticipate the needs of seniors going forward and we need to be very proactive as a government.
I also think that the level of support to seniors, the degree of support to seniors needs to be more level. I hear from a lot of constituents who are under extreme pressure right now with the cost of living. I can only imagine what it is like for people who are on fixed incomes and do not have the ability to go out and make more money. How much of their income, their fixed income goes towards those costs?
Later today I will have questions, I’m not sure if it’s for the Minister of Health or the Minister of Housing, about how we are anticipating the continuing and growing needs of seniors in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to work with my colleagues on a micro theme on seniors. We know in the Northwest Territories that the population of the Northwest Territories is getting older and older and we are seeing a lot of forced expenses with that. We need to support our seniors whether they stay at home or whether they stay in facilities.
In this House over the last few years, you’ve heard us talking about the extended care beds in the H.H. Williams and the new health centre that’s going into Hay River and the fact that they’re not there. We’ve been able to get them in the budget, but the concern is what is the status of the future of Hay River seniors. How many seniors are going to be there, how much demand are we going to see in the future? The government has indicated that they are going to do a study, but we still haven’t seen anything about that study which was supposed to be completed by this year.
I will have specific questions to the Minister of Health about where that study is and what is the outcome for a regional centre like Hay River on the demands for seniors facilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to use today’s occasion to return to the northern jobs issue that I, as well as many of my good colleagues, have been raising over the past several days.
We all know very well that we pass compensation dollars here every single year and in every single budget, and we certainly expected that money to be used for the reason it’s passed. It’s difficult for me to go back to the taxpayer to say the government needs more money and they’re not spending it the way we’ve appropriated it. They look and ask what are we really doing here.
Since I’ve been discussing this issue – and I, as well, extend credit to my colleagues here on this side of the House – I’ve been receiving calls and e-mails from across the Northwest Territories and even in small communities, asking where are those jobs as promised. How can the government stand up and say we have all these jobs that are sitting empty? They’ll fill them with casuals for short term, but why aren’t we employing them properly like we really should? How many vacancies are truly on the books in these small communities where every single job makes a huge difference?
I can’t tell you or anyone in this room who doesn’t already know how important a job is, because those jobs feed families, they buy Christmas presents, they even pay mortgages and rents in many cases.
As Members, we know very well human resource dollars were intended for human resources dollars, not to be used as O and M or capital. But as we all know, these job dollars sometimes find their way to cover O and M requirements and sometimes that’s millions and millions of dollars. Sometimes the human resource dollars aren’t being used and applied properly and they’re used as casual dollars instead of hiring people as we originally intended. Or even worse, if you have a small community maintainer position and you can’t fill it, why aren’t we using it as a transition work development type of opportunity? But, no, we’d rather leave it empty and use that money for other things.
Everything I’m talking about is things like human resources that aren’t properly spent, in my view and certainly the view of many others. If we just take simple facts, the rolling vacancy of the Government of the Northwest Territories is somewhere between 16 and 17 percent and that’s about $15 million. That’s a rolling vacancy.
Everything I’m talking about simply adds to this: the government deputy ministers and Ministers want the flexibility to do what they want to meet their objectives. They call this micromanagement; the public calls it accountability.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement today, I’ve been told by my constituents that the Minister of Health and Social Services informed the chief of Tsiigehtchic and others that a nurse would not be hired for Tsiigehtchic. The Minister did not even have the common courtesy to inform me of this.
I’d like to ask the Minister, why is the Minister of Health retracting the commitment made by the former Minister of Health and Social Services on February 7, 2013? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister of Health and Social Services, my priority is going to be on the client, to providing the best services that we possibly can to the client. This includes residents of all communities throughout the Northwest Territories, including Tsiigehtchic.
In follow-up to the Member’s question, the department has agreed that we would start looking at alternatives and solutions for the small communities like Tsiigehtchic, Colville Lake and Wrigley and we will continue to do that, but we are limited by a number of things.
The current ISDM indicates service levels for communities and that there won’t be nurses in communities of less than 250 people. I can say that we do have regular visits to communities like Tsiigehtchic. On a regular basis, a nurse from the public health unit in Inuvik visits at least one day a week, and during freeze-up and breakup a nurse will actually reside in the community. We also have one CHR and one home support worker in the community.
I understand that more needs to be done. I am committed to working with the Member as well as residents of the community to find solutions that work.
I have directed the department to begin reviewing the ISDM to ensure that the right health services and the right mix are identified for our communities. Work needs to be done on that and I’m happy to work with the Member, with the residents of the community and with committee. Thank you.
The Minister actually brought up a good point and that point is that the community has a full-time nurse there five and a half months out of the year. So why is it so difficult for the Minister to ensure that we have a nurse in Tsiigehtchic for 12 months out of the year? Thank you.
I know the Member doesn’t want to hear the same old same old, but the truth is we can’t put a nurse in the community on a permanent basis unless there’s an RCMP in the community, but I am interested in finding solutions and I’m sure there are solutions. If we work with the community, I’m sure we could find a balance that will give them the support and the coverage they need.
I have had an opportunity to talk to the public health nurse who goes in there on a regular basis and she talks about her interactions in the community and the good work that’s happening there, and I am interested in meeting and having further conversations with the community. In the meantime, we are going to look at our ISDM to make sure that we are finding the right balance for our small rural and remote communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Of course Tsiigehtchic is on that list. Thank you.
Just so the Minister is up to date with what happens in the community through breakup and freeze-up there’s also no RCMP in the community. So I don’t think that that’s a valid excuse.
As I mentioned in my statement, the community has done the work to set aside housing for a nurse in our community. Will the Minister work with the community leaders to find a way to put a nurse in that house? Thank you.
