I will now rise and report progress.
Good afternoon, colleagues. May I have the report of Committee of the Whole. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Before I call for the report of Committee of the Whole, I have been informed that your wish is to sit late today beyond our daily adjournment. By the authority given to me as Speaker, by Motion 1-17(4), I hereby order you back into Committee of the Whole and authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, and report when the committee deems appropriate. I would like to ask Mrs. Groenewegen to take the chair.
Where we left off yesterday, we were dealing with the Department of Health and Social Services. I would like to ask the Minister if he would like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.
Yes, I would, Madam Chair.
I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.
For the record, Mr. Beaulieu, could you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right is Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of Health and Social Services. To my left is director of finance, Jeannie Mathison, Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We were on page 8-31, community wellness and social services, operations expenditure summary, $89.259 million. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a committee motion.
Please proceed.
Madam Chair, I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to identify the funding necessary to fully implement the chronic disease management model. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.
Madam Chair, I wish to speak to this motion, in favour of this motion, by using the soothing words of then Auditor General of Canada, Ms. Sheila Fraser. My reference is to the tabled document of March 1, 2011, in this House from the Auditor General with respect to this motion directly.
Page 14, paragraph 39, “Recommendation: Department of Health and Social Services, in collaboration with health and social services authorities, should identify a course of diabetes education, prevention and treatment programs; monitor implementation of programs across the Northwest Territories; identify and collect data to measure program results; and use this data to improve program delivery.”
The department’s response: Agreed. “Establishing a chronic disease management model for the Northwest Territories is currently identified as a key action contained in the Foundation for Change, the Department of Health and Social Services system action plan for 2009-2012. The recommendations related to diabetes will be addressed with the overall model of chronic disease prevention and management delivered through primary community care teams. The first draft of this model has been developed and is to be completed in 2011-2012.”
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Committee, we are on page 8-31. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a committee motion. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to increase overall funding for addictions and mental health program delivery initiatives, including funding needed to implement the mental health and addictions plan and community wellness plan.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The motion is in order and is being distributed. To the motion. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This motion is as a result of committee deliberations that we never felt the government really achieved the 3 percent expenditures for mental health and addictions prevention and promotion, and this is one aspect of it. As well, I am pleased to move this motion because during my recent constituency tour in January, many of the community wellness plans were being approved by the communities of Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake, Wrigley, Jean Marie and, for the most part, Fort Liard as well. What this spoke to me about was that they’re very pleased, they worked so hard and worked with the Department of Health and Social Services working towards these wellness plans. However, they found that once they started combining their wellness plans in all aspects of health and prevention, addictions and mental health, that the funding pool wasn’t really enough.
So what this motion speaks to me about, and I’d like to champion and put on the record, is that more money has to be delivered to the communities on the ground. I’ve spoken in this House; as well, I’ve done a Member’s statement for the community. As an example, Trout Lake gets their community wellness planning, they get their addictions and mental health funding, I think there was one pot, it’s about $5,000, but almost $2,000 of it is used for travel. So as a result, they only got $3,000 for on-the-ground programming for the community and it doesn’t go very far. So by combining the pots, it’s still there, but at the same time we’ve got to take into account that travel into remote communities. Of course, there’s still travel for specialists for Hay River and Yellowknife. At the same time, when you start going to remote communities, you’re talking about air charter, higher costs of accommodation in those communities.
So that’s why I like this motion, I champion it and I’ll look for full Regular Member support as we move forward with this motion, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Committee, we are on page 8-31, Health and Social Services, activity summary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I also have a motion and I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate steps to accelerate the implementation of year two actions identified in the Mental Health and Addictions Plan that will lead to a more robust mental health and addictions network better able to support the timely establishment of specialized wellness courts. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is in order. The motion is being distributed. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think everyone is aware that we have very serious issues of mental health and addictions in the Northwest Territories, some of the highest rates in the country by far. We also have very, very high rates of recidivism, and in our corrections these are obviously the results of our history and some of the major events there. Some examples of that are residential schools and the trauma that that entailed and still does to this day, a lack of early childhood development. As a result of these sorts of things, many people are still struggling and, unfortunately, we currently have a system that simply dumps many of these people into our jails.
It’s well recognized, and I think supported by our government, that we need to do something about that, and that there are demonstrated models out across Canada and North America and now the world, often termed mental health courts or wellness courts. We’re aware that the feasibility study being done by the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Services will be done the end of next month, and committee wants a wellness court or the equivalent mental health court on the ground and operational for our people sooner rather than later. This is particularly so in light of the federal legislation that is causing more and more people to be jailed as it slowly gets implemented. There has been some assessment work done on that that demonstrates there is very serious and significant costs associated with that and prevention is the way to go.
So a major consideration that enables a wellness or mental health court to be in place is the astute observation of our justices, that we need the assurance of mental health and wellness services to be in place so that such a court can be enabled. This motion is meant to highlight that and to demand a timely action on it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a motion. I move that this committee strongly recommends the government take immediate action to supplement funding that is currently identified for youth addiction education and prevention programs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. It is being distributed. To the motion, committee. Mr. Yakeleya.
Madam Chair, with the support of the committee, this motion is on the floor to talk about the funding that is needed for our youth. There is a high population of youth in our community, and education around addiction and prevention programs needs to be fully supported and recognized for the amount of issues that the young people are dealing with and the harmful effects, the community effects, the impact of addiction and prevention programs that have taken our young population, and that this motion comes from the committee to see the priority in our funding of these types of programs, especially for our young generation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a motion. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to identify the funding necessary to develop and establish a territorial detox program model and implementation plan that will lead to the creation of four detox beds – two each in the northern and southern parts of the Northwest Territories – during the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. A motion is on the floor. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I continue on with this motion, I do want to put on the record that during the current sitting of this session the Minister of Health and Social Services did commit to implementing two detox beds in the north and two in the south. I would like to make sure that we do hold him to that commitment as the people of the Northwest Territories did hear that and are expecting that in this fiscal year.
Detox beds are something that are truly needed in the communities and hospitals. We do have a policy that anybody who wants treatment does, in fact, need to be sober for, I believe the policy states, or even if there is a policy, but what is known out there is 30 days. When people who do need the treatment and can’t be sober for the 30 days, and that when our emergency staff let these people back out into society or on the streets after sobering up after being in the emergency ward, that’s where our government starts failing and is not seeing the appropriate need and help for these individuals. It’s putting an added stress on emergency staff, it’s putting added stress on our RCMP staff who deal with a lot of these cases in terms of the jail cells, and we need to find a way to help the people that are recurring in the emergency rooms as well as recurring in the jails.
Speaking to nurses and RCMP officers, they say the same thing, they support the idea. We can free up some of our staff to do other important work rather than continuing to deal with an issue that has been not addressed and overlooked for so many years. I commend the committee and the hard work that the committee has done to support this idea, and I commend the Minister of Health and Social Services for committing to this, as well, during this fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Page 8-31, Health and Social Services, activity summary, community wellness and social services, operations expenditure summary, $89.259 million. Mr. Hawkins.
