I would like to thank the Minister for that answer. I think for the interest of time here, I will ask two quick questions. One is that to get a little bit of a reason as to why home care almost dropped by a million dollars when what I am seeing in the communities I represent is a greater need for home care and also something of a family shelter. Right now it is difficult to set up any sort of family shelters in very small communities because of the nature of that type of work. It is difficult to place families in a shelter in the community and there is no actual infrastructure in place for that, but there is infrastructure in the larger centres where we might be able to see some sort of proposals from larger regional centres that support the smaller communities when it comes to this type of operation. I guess I am wondering if there has been or if there will be proposals coming for some sort of family shelters but there isn’t a substantial increase in that budget either, but my main interest for this is to ask why the budget dropped so immensely. Thank you.
The Member is correct that there has been that decrease for home and community care and that is because that money was coming from THAF funding and now it is being reduced. What I need to say once again, and it is really important and we are very committed to that, and I am committed to that, and that is what has been occupying my mind for a long time, which is home care and community care and front-line services is what is really important, especially as our senior population increases. We want to be able to support seniors to live an independent life and in order to do that we need to increase and expand services so that keeps them away from institutional settings. We need to find ways to adjust to this, and to do that we need to make structural change.
Once again, this is all related because we haven’t seen this, we have to prepare for the THAF funding coming to an end. We need to prepare for how do we adjust to that so we need to make systematic changes so that we somehow allocate the money appropriately. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Lee. Committee, we are on the same page, 8-29. Excellent comments. Next I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one question. When we discussed the business plans, the information that was provided to committee was that the Government of the Northwest Territories was revising the homeless framework. I think that it was supposed to be done sometime within the next six to eight months, but I am not sure when it was intended to be done. I wonder if the Minister could advise what the revising of this framework means and when we can expect a revised framework. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can’t remember exactly when that was but I could tell, I mean when that was stated, I could tell the Member that this is a cross-department initiative between Housing, ECE and Health and Social Services, so I would be happy to provide the Member with more info on that. That is about what I remember right now about what we talked about. Thank you.
I am not quite sure that I understood what I heard. There is a trio of departments that are looking at this particular framework, but what information is the Minister going to give me? I am looking for a revised framework. If it is not being revised, then that is fine, then tell me that. But when will we get this revised framework, if it is indeed being revised? Thank you.
I was going to ask if the Member could give me more information about exactly what she is looking for because it is still not clear to me exactly, maybe she could help me with more detail. Thank you.
I can advise the Minister that it is on page 33 of the Health and Social Services business plan around about the middle of the page.
Just for clarification, Ms. Bisaro, is that the budget or the business plan?
That is the business plan, Mr. Chairman, and if the Minister needs to get back to me, that is fine.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro, and I should have identified you. Minister Lee.
Thank you Mr. Chairman. I do have a copy of the business plan with me, but I am now looking at page 33 and I don’t see it, so I think it would be best if I could talk to her and see if we could give more information to each other.
Thank you, Minister Lee. Next on my list I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have two questions for the Minister. The first question is more retrieving information from the Minister in terms of non-government organizations. Can the Minister provide to me the list of NGOs in the Northwest Territories? Can she break them down maybe by the regions or health authorities for me?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a huge list. It would take us weeks to get that. I am wondering if, because there are many, many NGOs, non-government organizations, whether it is social services, seniors, humanitarian, environmental, sports. So I am wondering if he could be more specific about exactly what he would like us to get. Thank you.
I do apologize, Mr. Chairman, for that to the Minister. Let me rephrase my question. I mean more specific to the Department of Health and Social Services.
Could I ask if he is interested in the ones that we have direct dealings with and perhaps provide funding to? Also I need to clarify that we understand that they are not typical NGOs in communities and lots of our funding goes to community councils and community organizations and municipalities in all regions. Thank you.
I would leave it in the good judgment of the Minister in terms of what she provides to me and if I could get that information sometime in the short time frame here. If I need more, I will come and see the Minister in terms of what more information I need. I do appreciate the Minister’s offering to look at this. I would like to see if I could get this sometime in the next couple of days.
Will do.
Thank you, Minister Lee. Committee, we are on page 8-29. Excuse me. We have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just in terms of looking at emergency shelters for my region, we had looked at several possibilities of having emergency shelters in my community yet we seem to be stumbling over policies or different programs or services and we just can’t get it into our region even though we have been asking for it. So I guess I want to ask the Minister is that something that we can look forward to putting emergency shelters in the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am aware that the Members and Members’ groups have applied on some funding under the homelessness fund and it was fully subscribed by the time that came in this fiscal year, but we will resubmit it for next year, which is beginning in a few short months. So hopefully that application will have better luck. That’s how our program works at the moment. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Once again, we are on page 8-29, activity summary, community health programs, operations expenditure summary, $85.067 million. Agreed?
Agreed.
We’re on page 8-30, activity summary, community health programs, grants and contributions, contributions.
Agreed.
Thank you. On page 8-31, information item...Excuse me. Mr. Yakeleya.
On 8-30, Mr. Chair, in terms of the prevention and promotion funding to the authorities or agencies or NGOs, I’m looking more at the health promotion activities in terms of the high increase in diabetes in our communities, especially to retail outlets such as the Northern Store, the Co-op. Is there anything that this department is working with the retail facilities in terms of promoting healthy food/healthy eating and discouraging non-healthy foods such as lots of candy, pop and that kind of stuff there that I know is a money-maker, but is also hurting our children. Is that something within the promotion?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya, Minister Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Earlier this week, I think it was yesterday, I made a statement in the House about Drop the Pop, where we did indicate that we were working with the grocery stores across the Territories to help them be our partnerships. We can’t directly tell them what to sell and not. I think the best way is to encourage them to be our partners and understand that there will always be some people who will make choices for pop rather than something healthier, but as much as possible we would work with our partnerships and grocery stores would be one of them. We are expanding our investments into Healthy Choices Framework which deals with healthy eating and such. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Once again, committee, we are on page 8-30, activity summary, community health programs, grants and contributions, contributions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 8-31, information item, community health programs, grants and contributions, continued, $85.126 million.
Agreed.
Just to repeat, that was $65.126 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 8-32, information item, community health programs, active positions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much. Just for the record, the reason for the increase in personnel, Mr. Chair?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lee.
That’s the new position for Healthy Choices Framework and that’s the health promotion and healthy eating. That’s one of our strategic initiative investments.
Thank you, Minister. Committee, we are 8-32, information item, community health programs, active positions. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 8-33. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here in relation to funding for the Stanton Territorial Health Authority. I wonder if the $69.5 million for that authority includes any development of a Stanton Master Plan for renovations. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lee.
