Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that aside from the capped contribution from the Government of the Northwest Territories there are no plans at this time to have any O and M spending on Betty House.
Seeing that it’s a new facility and we do have a lot of high incident rates of clientele that do go there, I think it would be in the best interest of this department to work at bringing those services into the House. Some type of counselling or some type of partnership where they can assist these clientele with the help and support that they need. Is that something he might be bringing into the next business plan for the next fiscal year?
The person services that may be needed for individuals living in Betty House can be provided by the YK Health and Social Services Authority, like any other member of the city of Yellowknife. That part we can still cover. I was more or less responding to the actual operations and counselling services that may have to be available within the envelope of Betty House, but I also understand that this is what the Member is referring to, then we will take that back to the Department of Finance to have that discussion to see if there can be money found in that area. At this time we had not planned on participating in that way.
That’s great news and that’s great to see that initiative and working together in that area. There was another mention here of treatment services related to children, youth and families. My colleague talked about child and family services earlier. In another aspect, the Community of Hay River Interagency Committee just had a meeting not too long, and they talked about treatment facilities or treatment programs for youth. We didn’t get a chance to bring them up in some of the business plans, but it is something that the community of Hay River is very strong about.
They’ve really gone through a lot in the last couple of years. They’ve taken great strides in creating awareness around the alcohol and drug problems in the community, and it’s something that really needs to be supported.
I’m just wondering if the department has taken any consideration or action into some of the recommendations that came out of that. If there are any youth treatment programs, whether it’s counselling, therapy, I’m just wondering what kinds of programs the department offers to youth. Not just in one of our communities but throughout the Northwest Territories. To our small communities, to our regional communities, to the capital here in Yellowknife.
Youth are counselled also with community counselling programs. We have about $6 million in the Community Counselling Program across the territory, and they counsel adults and youth alike.
As far as actual youth facility infrastructure or building for youth treatment facilities, the department hasn’t looked at that closely. We do know that the treatment of youth in a facility environment or in a treatment centre, the numbers for the territory are very low. I think we’ve treated 12 youth in three fiscal years, the past three fiscal years, because the majority of situations with youth are that they must volunteer to go to treatment in order to make this viable. Most youth that do go to treatment are forced into treatment. Unlike adults, you don’t usually come out and say that they have an issue, an addiction issue or other types of issues. Nats’ejee K’eh is the treatment centre for adults. We actually thought about looking at that facility and saying maybe, if there can be one program per year or something, working with Health Canada on developing a youth treatment program within that building. Right now the past fiscal year Nats’ejee K’eh ran nine different programs for adults. I think five treatment programs for female and five for male. We’re looking at if that is the right mix and if there would be a requirement for an actual one of those programs to be a youth treatment program within that facility and Nats’ejee K’eh will work with Health Canada to develop an actual treatment program for youth.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Time is up. We’ll move on to Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to ask, to start off with, if we know currently how many children are in care outside of the Northwest Territories and how many are in care inside the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We know the number, of course, but we don’t have that info with us.
I wonder, I know the Minister is aware, having been on the Social Programs committee and our review of the act, that these are important statistics to monitor and I’d appreciate it if he could supply those numbers to committee. They are important for monitoring and seeing how well we’re doing. They’re relevant in this case. Another number is for the children in care in the Northwest Territories, what number are in their own home communities versus which number are not. I wouldn’t expect the Minister to have those at the tip of his fingers, but again, I know he understands the importance of those numbers and why they’re relevant. I’d appreciate those numbers if possible.
I’d like to move on to the community child and family service committees. I’d like to find out what the department will do different, given the failure to establish any last year, and recognizing the challenges that the Minister has spoken to, what will be done differently? What is the total number of committees that we’re trying to get on the ground this fiscal year?
We will provide youth in care outside the NWT and youth in care within the NWT to Standing Committee on Social Programs.
The child and family services committees across the territory, the main thing we are doing different is we’ve hired a coordinator, who starts this month, who will be going to the communities. We’ve had our staff going into the communities and right now we’re trying to get the one committee that was working during our review of this child and family services committee in Fort McPherson. We feel that is going to start up again. We are fairly enthusiastic about the results when we had our staff member go into McPherson to work with them. This coordinator is going to be working in the child and family services and our target will be the five additional to the Fort McPherson. We’d like to do five additional. If possible, we’re going to try to do as many as possible.
We have the task of dealing with health and social services authorities at the regional level and we have advised them that we are interested in seeing those child and family services committees getting off the ground as soon as possible. So there may be more than five, but our target is five at this time.
Thanks for that information. I appreciate that. I know the Minister is aware that there is quite a range across communities and if it happens that we can focus on those with the greatest interest and concern, that would be great. Just one specific, I know my community of Detah did express an interest to the interim Minister of Health and Social Services for a presentation with respect to this. I don’t know whether this Minister has had a chance to follow up, but hopefully that didn’t fall through the cracks. I just thought I’d mention that.
I guess, just sort of continuing on a similar vein with respect to the review of the Child and Family Services Act that was done, will we be seeing legislation coming forward to address the recommendations that were made by that Social Programs committee on the Child and Family Services Act during this fiscal year?
Our intention is to go to the community, working with the authorities to go to the communities where the need is greatest, where there are most kids in care. Also, in as far as Detah goes, we have a meeting set up for fall. In fact, I’m personally going to be meeting in Detah with the CEO from the health and social services authority from YK for this specific item. I will just have the deputy minister respond on the work that we’re hoping to do in the revision to the Child and Family Services Act.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. DeLancey.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the legislative revisions to the Child and Family Services Act, we are looking at them and we’re planning to bring a legislative proposal forward in the next fiscal year, 2013-14.
Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Bromley.
Thanks for the comments from the executives. I will look forward to that. There were quite a number of recommendations made at the operational level as well. I know the Minister is aware. From things as mundane as the prehistoric computer system that our social workers are forced to use and deal with, to their despair, to even recommendations related to foster care and so on. Where are we at on those and can we expect some of those to be addressed this fiscal year? Thank you.
The department is willing and prepared to provide our response to the report, and I’m not talking about the initial response, but any actions that we have taken in relation to the 73 recommendations made by the committee to the committee.
One specific: Did they replace the prehistoric computer system?
I don’t think that has happened yet.
I know this department has a really good anti-smoking campaign. I would suggest that one of the biggest things they could do, having observed social workers, is replace the prehistoric computer system as an effective anti-smoking mechanism.
I’d like to move on. This committee made recommendations on a community model for an addictions treatment process, relatively recently, that has a high potential for success in our communities based on its northern design that was tried out in I believe it was Old Crow in the Yukon and so on. Will this budget be supporting the application of this process in our communities this year?
That is not likely. We have evaluated the program and the success rate is low. Only three individuals that had attended the treatment were still sober after 12 months.
Of course, there is a second number that’s important there, three out of how many, and that needs to be compared to what I understand is a 4 or 5 percent success rate for other programs. It would be interesting to hear those numbers. Thank you.
There were 12 people that attended that treatment. It was only given once in 2004, I believe.
I’d say a 25 percent success rate, five times our current success rate, would be nothing to sneeze at. I don’t know how fully it was applied in that case, but it seems like it would be a worthy investment to at least try a demo project or two.
I think it’s well acknowledged by this Minister and this House that this is a serious and challenging difficulty. I know there’s lots of work being done in the mental health and addictions area and so on, but I’m continually frustrated when suggestions are brought up that there seems to be a willingness to prove they’re wrong before trying them out. It would be nice to have a can-do attitude sometimes with some of these things, recognizing we have to be objective and go with the data.
I guess my last question is: I believe the Minister knows Ms. Cindy Blackstock, and she is bringing a national suit about the failure to fund properly especially Aboriginal children in the sense of child and family services activities. Can we get an update on the status of that and its applicability to our situation in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Going back to the Old Crow treatment, we are prepared to relook at the principles, re-examine the principles of that treatment. A good point, you could look at it from the perspective that 25 percent is maybe better than some of the rates that we have been achieving. I apologize for that. We will look at the principles of that again.
We also have the Matrix program that we’re looking at in Fort Smith. We found that had a fairly good success rate, so we’re prepared to look at that.
On the Cindy Blackstock lawsuit, we don’t have an update, but we can get an update and provide a written update to the Standing Committee on Social Programs.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Bromley, your time is up. I can put you back on the list if you need to be there. Next on the list, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It was brought up earlier today, but I’d like to bring it up again, on the elders’ long-term care. It always seems like we run into barriers with the wording. If it’s not wording, it’s policy. It seems like we have to find another definition to be suitable for the communities and their needs, referring to maybe an elders care facility that is needed in the Mackenzie Delta. Without the need of a nurse on hand 24 hours a day, but you know, that’s what the communities want, as the Minister mentioned. But I think that we need to start planning. We have over 300 elders over the age of 60 in the communities, and we can’t be depending on Inuvik’s facility. There’s already a backup for people from Nunakput and also Inuvik. There’s a clear need that we need to find something that’s suitable, whether it’s Fort McPherson or Aklavik. I’m hopeful within the next year here we see something that’s in the budget to meet the needs of the elders. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As indicated by the Minister of the Housing Corporation, Joe Greenland should be ready this summer or towards the end of this summer, for allocation of those units to the elders in Aklavik. Our deputy is working with the president of the Housing Corporation on trying to build or renovate these places and build these places for elders to live in and provide assisted living from our department. We’re prepared to do that in Joe Greenland, so that we support the elders that will be moving in there.
As MLA Blake said, when we use the term long-term care, then we say, well, we can’t afford the four and a half nurses that are required to run a long-term care of this magnitude. They’re saying don’t call it long-term care. What we need is for the adults who live there, have some nursing support, home care support, security support and so on. So we are working with Housing to try to achieve that over there.
In Fort McPherson, the community indicated that one of their major needs was for us to increase the physical accessibility to the current senior citizens home and also provide an elders daycare. So a lot of the individual families are taking care of their own elders in the community and they want to be able to work. So they want us to set up working with the Housing Corporation, because it is their facility, to have an elders daycare in that facility and have a washroom that is accessible for the elders, easy for the elders daycare workers to be able to assist the elders in that home. So that is something that we want to work with the Housing Corporation on achieving in those two communities.
The next item I’d like to ask about is home care. At the moment we have one part-time person in Tsiigehtchic and I believe only one person in Fort McPherson. That’s not adequate for the needs of the communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if there are plans to make a full-time position in Tsiigehtchic and add one or two more people in Fort McPherson. Thank you, Madam Chair.
We have asked the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to work with the community through what we refer to as a Primary Care Team. Included in that is the home care workers, and to re-evaluate the needs in both of those communities of both Tsiigehtchic and McPherson to see if they can provide home care to the residents that need home care. I think if we’re successful in building in this elders daycare, it will be the home support workers that will be working with the adults in Fort McPherson. I think the authority would have to increase the amount of home support workers that they would need for Fort McPherson.
No further questions at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Next on my list is Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My questions surround the topic of emergency shelters. I’m hoping the Minister of Justice is also listening to these questions. The Member for Yellowknife Centre brought up in general comments yesterday the issue of the Yellowknife downtown emergency shelter. He went into great lengths to talk about the concerns that the citizens around the shelter area have with respect to how things are being run. The fact that there is still consumption of alcohol happening, delinquency, no solutions being offered. If they are, they are being remiss in doing so.
The Member used a term that these people are lacking hope. They needed hope. I’ve been reminding myself that it’s more than just hope; they need a purpose to move on. Many Members were involved with the follow-up not that long ago with the shelter administration. We did get an update. There are about 283, on average, patrons to this shelter that frequent it quite often. Again, I’m talking from multiple angles here, Madam Chair. As a previous business owner in the downtown core of Yellowknife, my first inclination when this project came on was one of relief, only to find out that this became a funnelling effect for some of the lost souls to congregate in the downtown core, which basically culminated to more violence, more theft for the shop owners and a lot more disruption for the downtown merchants and in respect, as well, for the patrons and residents of the downtown core.
I know the Minister didn’t have a chance to respond to the Member’s comments, but given the fact that this involves Yellowknife, involves many constituents of mine, involves many constituents of many Members here on both sides of the House, can the Minister take a moment now that he’s had time to think about a response, what is the department looking at doing for program review to enhance the quality of life for these patrons who are in need of intervention, substance abuse intervention, counselling, redirection, job deployment and rehabilitation? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Our intention is to start discussions with YK Health and Social Services Authority, for them to work with the organization that is currently the shelter, the John Howard Society, and to bring those issues to the forefront and that they’re to discuss those issues. Direction will be given to YK Health and Social Services.
I do appreciate the Minister bringing awareness to the situation. My question would then follow that the results of these findings, would this be considered the first phase of a number of different types of emergency shelters that could be provided to other areas of concern? I know I have the Member here from the Sahtu who has issues in the Norman Wells area. I know there are issues up in the Inuvik area. I know there are issues in Hay River. Will the Minister look at committing a so-called protocol or set a policy for day shelter use in terms of what programs can be developed? Is this the first stage, Madam Chair, that this department can be counted on to make the necessary improvements so we can redirect these lost souls?
We haven’t thought in depth about the situation outside of what is happening with the day shelter in Yellowknife. Like I indicated, we want to provide direction to YK Health and Social Services to work with them. The objective would be for them to come up with an evaluation that indicates what the problem is and what the solutions are. That kind of thing would most likely be applied to other communities where the situation is similar.
However, what I will commit to doing with that information is to discuss that at the social envelope Ministers meeting which is chaired by our Minister of Justice. We feel that it’s going to include more than just Health and Social Services. It most likely will include other social departments. I think this type of initiative would most likely be dealt with at the social envelope Ministers’ level. Thank you.
At such time as we do get a result to this question – and I know I’m speaking to the Minister of Social Services and that’s why I wanted the Minister of Justice to be within earshot – at such time as we can have programs in place, that we can actually have these protocols in place to create programs for these people who need purpose. The issue of violence, the issue of safety, the issue of theft is widespread in the downtown corridor. Merchants are screaming for our attention. I guess with this could also be brought to the social envelope Ministers is to have more policing in place with more recommendations from RCMP and in conjunction with the municipality to create more foot traffic, foot patrol and drive patrol to protect the citizens and the businesses of the downtown corridor while we’re working on improvements to this program.
I am again prepared to have that within that direction to Health and Social Services to ensure that they engage the RCMP, so that any of these recommendations or solutions that come out do involve the RCMP or have the RCMP’s blessing.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next on my list I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, he talked about the success rate of a program in Yukon. I want to ask the Minister if he knows the success rate of Nats’ejee K’eh.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We recognize the capacity. We know the number, the capacity. The last government, we believe, was 48 percent. We know the number of people that complete the program. The completion of program is 38 percent. I’m not talking about 38 percent of the individuals that enter. I’m talking about the 38 percent of the full capacity, is how many the percentage of people that finish the full 28-day program.
We don’t know what the five-year success rate is at this time. We do recognize that this is the standard from individuals in the field that they were rated at a five-year success rate and we don’t have that number. We would have to track the clientele for the last five years in order to be able to come up with that success rate. I don’t know how difficult of a task that would be, but we could attempt that if we go back and get the individual names from Nats’ejee K’eh. There’s going to be some doing with access to information and so on, but we’ll try to get that information just by using numbers.
The Minister is correct; he’s given me some numbers for Nats’ejee K’eh on the capacity and finishing and he’s very correct on the success rate. We can probably do it very bush league type and I can tell you how many people in the Sahtu went to Nats’ejee K’eh and how many stayed sober after six months, eight months, 12 months. I think what the Minister, I’m not too sure if I really want to know that, because that takes a lot of effort and energy and we want to do something that’s different, like prevention. Like you talked about before, how we can best use those resources, time, and effort. I’m not going to ask the Minister for that information. I just wanted to know if he had those stats. For me it’s an indication that we just have to know that we need to do some work in that area. There’s no use going too hard on that.
I guess what I want to know is where we go from here, the different programs that we have and different perspectives on how we want to deal with addictions in our communities. We certainly had some uptake to different programs and styles, how we go about doing it. For myself I think one area that needs to be looked at, and the Minister can take this as a suggestion, that the place where people can go for hard drugs is now in our communities. It’s really hard for our younger people who are getting into it and sometimes it’s very difficult to get out of because that’s a powerful thing. It’s nobody’s fault, but we need to look at someplace where, somewhere in Yellowknife or the North, that we can have a place like that.
I just want to offer that suggestion to the Minister. I wanted to see how it’s going with the child and family committees in our region. I know there was a strong push for that at the last Assembly. They had some discussions on that Child and Family Services Act.
I guess two things. The treatment itself and the success rate, and the different requirements that now regions are asking for and someplace where the younger people can go. I think Yellowknife is a good spot for the hard drugs. I know right now they’re going to Grande Prairie and things like that, but we have some places here that we could look at. That’s going to be our challenge here: who goes first. That’s why we have to have that discussion. I’m hoping the Minister is looking in those areas that I just brought up. Those are my comments.
Our Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan talks about filling the gaps, and those are some of the gaps that we are hoping to fill. We recognize that we do not have a good treatment facility within the Territories on hard drugs. That we might be able to provide treatment for alcohol at Nats’ejee K’eh, but I think the hard drugs is certainly a gap that we need to fill, and the Member is correct that the issue is starting to spread into the smaller communities as well. We’re going to be using the community counselling as much as possible. We need to get stats, if need be, and then to work with community counsellors to be able to bring the stats down and provide a service to the communities.
That’s all for me.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Next I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question here related to the description of programs with regard to special living requirements to assist people to live in their homes. There’s been some discussion about providing home assistance for elders. I wanted to ask a question with regard to this budget, and the need to provide assistance for independent living for older adults, not elders, but challenged adults. We have quite a number in the city of Yellowknife at the moment who are living at home with their parents or other caregiver, and who will soon need to be in not an institution, but a house with some supervision, sometimes 24/7, sometimes maybe 10 or 12 hours a day, but we have very little facilities to accommodate these people. I’d like to know whether or not this budget, apart from existing programs and facilities, includes any funding to expand the independent assisted living services that we have for challenged individuals.
