Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are with respect to respite services in the Northwest Territories. The Department of Health and Social Services is currently developing a territorial-wide respite program. I’m wondering if the Minister could please provide me with a bit of an outline on the timeline how they’re going to move forward and when they expect to actually see a territorial respite program ready to go for review by the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and also when we think a territorial respite program might be rolled out for all residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member laid out in his statement, there are various components that are being conducted right now, including the community workshops. So we expect that the work will be done by April/May in time for next year’s business cycle. Thank you.
As the Minister pointed out, there are regional respite focus groups taking place starting in February and going through February. That information, I understand, will then go to the advisory group who will provide some recommendations to the department on how to design or what might be the best model to use in the Northwest Territories. Could the Minister please tell me what is the makeup of that advisory committee? Does it include non-government organizations like the NWT Disabilities Council as well as the Yellowknife Association for Community Living? Is there representation from small communities and towns throughout the Northwest Territories, and who else might be on that particular advisory group? Thank you.
There are employees of the department on the committee as well as NGO groups and regional organizations. Thank you.
That is not particularly helpful. If she could please give us some examples of the NGOs that are on that, that would give us a better sense as to who’s represented on this committee.
A second point that I’d like to ask about is: there are a lot of people here, 29 families who currently access services from the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. Clearly, this program is not going to be in place. It doesn’t sound like there will be even something to go forward to committee until the next business planning cycle. Is the Minister working with the Yellowknife Association for Community Living to provide services in the interim until a territorial respite program is designed? Specifically, will YACL be supported by the GNWT to provide respite services for those 29 families and any other new families that come to the table for services in Yellowknife? Thank you.
The Member is aware and we’ve had discussions with the committee about a way to go forward. I would like to just reiterate that we are committed to providing support to the families who are under the YACL program. Yellowknife Health and Social Services is currently negotiating a contribution agreement with YACL so that we continue to provide the programs to those families who are currently getting the services from YACL as we work toward a respite care program. I have communicated that to the Members and I’m happy to confirm that again in the House today. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Minister for that. I think hearing that in the House is very important today for those 29 families and important for us to hear as MLAs.
I’d like to just go back to my previous question. If she could give me a bit of an understanding of what groups are represented on that advisory group. Are some of the groups in the Territory that are providing these types of services going to be represented on that advisory group? Specifically, the NWT Disabilities Council and Yellowknife Association for Community Living; are they part of the advisory group? Simple question. Thank you.
The advisory group is not formed yet and so I will get back to the Member on that.
I just want to caution that we will, if that’s what the Member is wanting to know, definitely consult with the Council for Persons with Disabilities and YACL and other groups that are involved in this work. We need to make sure that eventually, at the end of the day, those are the groups who will be vying to provide the program and we don’t want to interfere with their ability to be able to deliver the programs. I need to make it clear that we will definitely consult with them to advise us. We will work with them throughout the process, but we don’t want to do anything that would jeopardize their ability to be a service provider when all the work is completed. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
