Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my Member’s statement, a vital service in Hay River, which is the handi-van, that deals with seniors and people with disabilities to get around the community to attend medical appointments and stuff like that, has not been receiving any government funding and has seen cost increases and has pressures there. So my questions are for the Minister of Health today.
Is there any funding available to assist these people, seniors with disabilities, to get to their medical appointments and go throughout the community of Hay River?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s no question that handi-vans provide an essential service for persons with disabilities; however, the provision for transportation services for people with disabilities is beyond the core mandate of the Department of Health and Social Services. I have had an opportunity to share the concerns that have been raised by the Member and the public with the Minister of MACA, and at present there is no GNWT funding available to municipalities for transportation services. The funding that they do receive from Municipal and Community Affairs is for water and sewer, operations and maintenance, and maintenance of infrastructure.
The community government could, obviously, choose to use some of these dollars from their gas tax or community public infrastructure to purchase a van, but that obviously wouldn’t help them to operate the van. However, O and M funding from the community government could be used for this purpose, if the community government chose to.
I strongly encourage advocates of persons with disabilities to continue to work with your community governments to take full advantage of the available funding for those purposes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The difficulty with that solution is we are downloading the information to a municipality where some of these services aren’t just a municipal issue. We are dealing with people from Katlodeeche that use the service as well as the fact that this is not public transportation. This is transportation for a specialized group that need wheelchair access, that need low ramp access. So we’re not talking about public transportation, as the Minister indicates from MACA.
Is there a way that we can have all these departments, whether it’s the department for seniors, people with disabilities and MACA, to get together and find a funding solution for this handi-van?
The Northwest Territories isn’t unique to this particular challenge. Throughout Canada, many municipalities do fundraising and other initiatives to raise money to support things like handi-vans. This is a community issue. This is a community transportation issue. It happens to be citizens and residents who happen to have some challenges with existing infrastructure, like normal cabs and normal vans, but it is still a community issue and I would encourage all the communities that are affected by the downgrading of services, like the handi-van in Hay River, to work together to see if they can come to a solution or conclusion with respect to the provision of transportation services for their residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I don’t quite understand the fact that the Minister of Health believes the transportation to health facilities and the need to get those people who need special transportation is not a department issue. I don’t understand the fact that this is being downloaded from private organizations to communities to find the funding.
Is this not the responsibility of the GNWT to deal with its public issues to people’s public access to medical services?
Nothing is being downloaded, because nothing has changed. The fact is, the communities have had this responsibility and they have actively pursued it in different communities. There is fundraising that can be done. Communities have always taken this action. It’s not being downloaded, because it has always been the responsibility of the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
So, Mr. Speaker, I guess the problem with the handi-van in Hay River is the fact that we found an initiative. We actually got some sponsors for the purchase of the vehicle and we got some private funding to start with. We should have first come to the government and begged and pleaded and nailed them to the cross here in this House to get the money. Now that the shortfall is coming, the government still wants to deny their responsibility here. Downloading, yeah, there’s no downloading because you aren’t providing any funding.
I am asking the Minister to commit to looking at all the different departments that are associated with this type of transportation to find a solution for the handi-van.
Is there any way the Minister can... I don’t know which Minister to ask next because every Minister says it’s somebody else’s responsibility. Is there a way the Minister can look to get the solution done?
Mr. Speaker, across this country, communities are responsible for the provision of ambulance service as well as mobility services. This is something that is consistent in Canada, it’s something that has been consistent in the Northwest Territories. All of the communities in the Northwest Territories that want to provide those services step up and meet those needs of the residents of the communities. It isn’t being downloaded because it isn’t in the mandate of the Department of Health and Social Services. As I’ve indicated, I’ve had conversations with MACA. There is money being flowed to communities that they can choose for this exact purpose if they would like to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
