Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What has been developed, the strategy is basically a skeleton or framework that will be able to go into the communities, we’ll be able to work with communities so that they can set their priorities based on this framework. The framework was developed in cooperation from a number of different organizations, including the Department of Justice, the RCMP, as well as input from communities, so the types of things that they would like to see that will help them develop their own individual strategies. So it’s more of a framework that will be able to be used by the communities to help them set their priorities.
Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. I guess I would like to know if the Minister can tell us at this point – I recognize that it’s a framework – what sort of content is going to be within each individual community strategy. What sorts of activities are you anticipating the community would undertake? What sorts of particular initiatives or what services would a program require to set up their Community Safety Strategy?
That would be presupposing what is specifically appropriate for every individual community. The framework offers the tools to help them set their priorities based on resources they have in the communities, resources that are available regionally, resources that are available territorially. Communities need to set their priorities and each community will have their own individual Community Safety Strategy. I’d hate to presuppose what anyone would look like, given that every community in the Northwest Territories has their own unique realities.
I guess I also don’t want the Minister to presuppose, but I was hoping I could get a few examples of the sorts of things that might be in a Community Safety Strategy.
I’d like to know from the Minister, in terms of implementation within each and every community, is this going to be an initiative or a strategy that is going to require a certain amount of funding? Is it going to be a request within the budget for funding for community safety strategies?
There are a number of programs that already exist in the Northwest Territories. It’s about creating access to the different programs and services, whether they are health programs, whether they are education programs, or whether they are justice programs. We need more money. It’s difficult to say at this point in time. We will have a better assessment of that after we have created the pilot in these first three communities, Tulita being the first community that we are going into. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
He mentioned three communities, and there’s one mentioned in a statement and I would be interested in knowing the other two.
My last question to the Minister goes to how a community can get a Community Safety Strategy. If my community, for instance, wishes to have a Community Safety Strategy, what steps does my community or I have to take to ensure my community gets on to the list to get a Community Safety Strategy? Thank you.
I would like to know what the three communities are as well. We did have the three communities identified. We had discussed them in business planning. Since that time, we’ve had a couple of changes and we have had to reconsider the communities that we are going into. We haven’t decided fully on what the other two communities are going to be, but we are working on that right now. We hope to have those communities listed in short order. So for now, it’s Tulita. We will get back to the Member as soon as we can with the names of the other two communities.
I forget the other part of the question, so I’ll sit down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, she’s out of questions, so we won’t get it until tomorrow. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today on the renewal of NWT health care cards, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he could articulate for us some of the challenges that they have faced in the process and how those challenges have been addressed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is working with all of the health authorities and also the health centres right across the territory to try to make this renewal of health cards as smooth as possible.
As of the middle of this month, we were to process 11,600 health care cards starting in January 2013. We have about an 86 percent compliance. We have about 86 percent of those processed, so there are a lot of health cards being done. Overall, we need to process about 38,000 health care cards in 2013.
For the most part we think it’s going fairly smoothly. We do have some glitches in the system, but for the most part it’s going well. We are trying to ensure that people are not left without coverage. I think that’s the main point. Thank you.
When there are glitches and people are not getting health care cards in a timely manner, what we have been doing… Constituents have been providing us with a list of names and scenarios and we’ve been taking that to the Minister’s office. Some, as Mr. Bouchard had indicated, have not had a lot of success in contacting the insurance office in Inuvik. Mailboxes are full when you call to leave a voice mail and so on. I’m sure this is a big undertaking for them, too, but what would we tell people, what would we tell our constituents if they are not receiving their health care card in a timely manner, if they are frustrated with the process? What would the Minister like us to do? Would contacting MLAs, going through his office, is this a satisfactory method of resolving this, in his opinion? Thank you.
Clients who have applied for renewal will continue to get coverage. The fact that they may not have the physical health card in their hand at the time may not be that important. I recognize that individuals want to have that card in case of travel, but for the sake of seeing a physician or getting pharmaceuticals, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Individuals, if they apply and their health card is not there on time, has not arrived by the time their old health care card has expired, we are still going to be able to provide coverage for those individuals.
That is very good to hear, and I’m sure the public will be glad to hear that, too, because it is a little different than when I questioned the Minister during the last sitting of the Legislature. That is a little bit different.
Has the department, in response to the concerns about a lack of health care card, revised the policy so that people who haven’t got a physical health care card in their hand are still receiving coverage? Has this been an amendment to the policy in light of these problems?
The anticipation is that things would go smooth and that an individual that gets a postcard 45 days before their birthday will then have, essentially, some time – I believe it’s four months even after their birthday – to apply. But their coverage is intended to continue as long as they have actually applied, whether they have the card or not.
That is just something that we’re doing now, because, of course, ideally, people would apply for their cards, go through the regular system, the card would come on time and they would be covered. That was the planning that took place. That was the intention. We were planning along the lines of success.
However, since there are some failures in the system, we’re saying that if you’ve applied and the individuals know where you’re trying to get a service from the doctors, from the drug stores, then we will continue to cover. People that haven’t applied or people that don’t have an old card but are indicating that they are a resident that would be eligible will have to pay up front and then bill for reimbursement if they are eligible for a health care card.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure I understood everything that the Minister just said, but it seems like in there somewhere he said that if you have applied for your card and you were a holder of a card previously that you will get coverage. I’d ask the Minister if he would commit to communicating that out to the folks at the front line so that there’s no confusion when a person who is a bona fide NWT resident shows up and their card has not come in the mail yet. If that could be communicated somehow, because there does seem to be some misunderstanding about that even on the front-line worker level.
I will commit to having the department advise the health centres and the drugstores that individual clients who prove that they have applied could do one of two things. The drugstore or the clinic can do an immediate check to see how far along in the process their card approval is, or also just to prove that they have applied and they will be covered.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my opening Member’s statement earlier today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment some questions in regard to the Aurora College campus in Inuvik and the lack of programs that are actually at the campus itself, in the facilities.
I would just like to ask the Minister, starting off: How are programs distributed throughout the three campuses in the Northwest Territories? How do we decide which campus gets which program and moving forward from there? That will be my first question. Just how are programs distributed, diploma programs, certificate programs, throughout the three campuses in the Northwest Territories?
The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would just like to congratulate all those graduates, over 141 graduates between the three campuses. That’s a huge accomplishment for those individuals and I’d just like to applaud them for that.
The programs that have been distributed through the three campuses are based on the needs of the communities and through the venue of the Aurora College Board of Governors. As you know, the Board of Governors is meeting in the next two weeks, I believe in Inuvik, and those are the opportune times to ask those questions or give ideas and suggestions on various programs that should be delivered.
I understand where the Member is coming from. I will be addressing that with the current board chair and also the president. As we move forward, I would encourage also the Members to approach the board representative from a regional perspective. In that fashion, they do make the decisions as a board of governance. We provide them up to $30 million to deliver programs across the Northwest Territories. I will be forwarding that information to the board governor. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister can’t answer the second question I was going to go into, but has the Minister, speaking with his colleagues on the Executive Council and Cabinet, talked about what types of programs are needed for the Inuvik-Tuk highway, for the early childhood Children’s First Centre or the other projects that we have going on in Inuvik? Has he spoken with his Cabinet colleagues to say we need these programs in Inuvik so that our leaders, as stated in the statement earlier, do get addressed and we want to hold accountable providing those programs? Has he spoken with his Cabinet colleagues to get those exact education programs for the Aurora College so the local people can become our leaders in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, yes I have. We will continue to pressure that at the Cabinet level. At the same time, I have a board chairs meeting that consists of the college and all the education board chairs, and we discuss the communities’ needs. If there are ideas generated or suggestions, then we will work with that. At the end of the day, the Board of Governors makes that decision based on the communities’ needs. They work with the community representatives what is required, whether they be the activities happening in the Beaufort-Delta, Sahtu region or Deh Cho region. It will be based on that. We get a lot of feedback. From the feedback, we discuss around the table with educational leaders and develop programs based on that. This is an area that we closely monitor. We will continue to make changes to our programming for the Northwest Territories that will benefit the North. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, being new to the Legislative Assembly, I’m finding out new processes, the way things are being done. My understanding, from what the Minister just said, is the board of directors make the final decisions on where programs are being offered. Why is there not a process where the Minister might make the final write-off on where these programs are sent? Or would the Minister take those recommendations from the board of directors, bring it back to standing committee, and standing committee can have some recommendation into how those programs are being delivered?
Obviously, we have a strong voice here, small communities, rural and remote communities that do need these training programs. Would the Minister be open to having that as a process, bring in recommendations from the board of directors to standing committee and having dialogue from there so that we have a greater interest in how these programs are being offered throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we do go through an annual basis before we distribute funding to the college so they can deliver programs, trying to get feedback from the Board of Governors on what is needed and to make changes.
As we know, there are a lot of community learning centres for the Northwest Territories that need to be fully taken advantage of. There are all of these different programs that should be delivered at the community level. I will take the Member’s suggestion seriously into consideration. I will be working with the Board of Governors, the chair and also the president to move this forward and identify what changes are required at the regional or community level. I will bring that forward for the Board of Governors. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up on my colleague’s questions on the health care cards and the renewals. I am wondering what the department is doing to commit resources to speeding this process up and the backlog that is currently happening in the system. What is the department doing? The Minister indicated 11,000 have been completed but they are estimating that there is somewhere around 35,000 to 40,000 that have to be completed, so we are only about a quarter of the way done. What is the department committing its resources to speed the process up and make sure it works faster?
Perhaps I wasn’t clear. There are 11,600 until birthdates, until the 16th of May of this month, and at that point we had processed approximately 86 percent of those. But right up until the end of 2013 we will have about 38,000 people right from January too. So another 26,000 and some-odd cards, people whose cards will expire from May until December. Then the rest of the people, the 3,000 or so residents of the NWT, their cards will be expiring in 2014.
I guess my question is still what kind of resources? Obviously, we as MLAs are getting e-mails, three or four a week from different people that are having difficulty getting renewed. Obviously, the process is not working quickly right now. What resources are we committing to make sure that the process works quicker?
The residents of the Northwest Territories are frustrated right now. Myself and Mrs. Groenewegen have given you several examples today of people who have applied, including myself. My card would have never renewed before my birthday. I had to go to the pharmacy and get it updated. What is the department committing to resources?
I’m not sure that putting more resources in the Inuvik office, which is responsible for processing the cards, is the answer. Perhaps we could deal with trying to provide them some assistance in the processing of the cards.
The process is that people in Inuvik are dealing with the cards as they come in. They’re processing and sending them to Ontario, they’re being printed, and then they’re being mailed out to the individuals in the Northwest Territories that are to receive health care cards. But if I can commit to the Member that we will contact the Inuvik office and see if the issue is a lack of manpower. If the issue is a lack of manpower, we’re prepared to put some individuals in the office to process the applications. Thank you.
As I indicated, some of these applications are going back and being mailed. We’ve looked at the website, and the website seems like it’s very inefficient. So these applications are being returned to people incomplete. Is there not a quicker way, either by phone call or e-mail, or an e-mail on the website that somebody can send information to or their questions to? Obviously, the applications are coming back, people are phoning in, the phone number is not working because half the mailboxes are full when somebody calls and they can’t even leave a message. So I understand maybe the resources and the bodies may not be the answer, but definitely communication systems. Is there a way that we can improve the communications system for residents?
Yes, I think there is a way that we can improve the communication and I will have that discussion with the executive, and they will, in turn, have a discussion with the people that are responsible for making sure that the lines are open when people want to get a hold of information.
The reason that the applications are often returned is an issue of ensuring that people are eligible for health care cards when they apply for it. There is information that is needed on the health care card that guarantees that those individuals are eligible, and we are trying to comply to previous issues where people that were not eligible for health care were holding NWT health care cards and that was a huge issue. We think that we’ve arrested that issue with this type of diligence, and if that’s causing some further delays, then we will try to address those delays as soon as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along those lines of communication, what are we doing for the health care centres, the health clinics, the pharmacies, to provide them with information, to provide them with this excellent line of communication? Because that’s where residents, my residents that I talk to, have been going and several residents have been going to get the information. It seems like the pharmacy has a separate line of communication that they can use. What are we doing to assist those groups, those private groups that are basically carrying the ball for the GNWT?
It’s no secret that the majority of the issue seems to be focused in on communities outside of Inuvik and outside of Yellowknife. Definitely we are looking at how to close that gap.
Like I indicated, we thought that it was an anomaly that individuals were having issues, but if you look at the numbers, we have a fairly high compliance rate. Most people are not having issues, they are getting their cards on time. We have taken time to ask individuals. There are some in the system that do come forward to MLAs, that indicate that there is a problem. We are trying to address those problems as quickly as possible. But I will touch base with the executive to make sure that if there are simple things that are missing on the application and so on, that they are not returned, that a phone call is made to fill in information that can be filled in with a phone call. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are from earlier today in my Member’s statement, to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Since the Minister promised last February to appoint a health board to the Beaufort-Delta, what steps have been taken to actually reinstate the board? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess aside from having some contact with the MLAs from the Beaufort-Delta, we have not discussed reappointment of a health board with the Aboriginal governments or the other municipal governments in the Beaufort-Delta. We have continued to work with the public administrator in the Beaufort-Delta.
In speaking to some of the members that sat on the last board, I know one of the major concerns is to have financial experience at the table. With that said, I’d like to ask the Minister what issues stand in the way of getting this board reinstated and why is it taking so long. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The previous board was disbanded. It was for reasons that I’m not totally familiar with at this point. However, one of the requests from the Beaufort-Delta, in speaking to some of the leadership, there was an indication that if we are going to reappoint the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Board, that individuals sitting on that board should have some knowledge, good knowledge of sitting on a board, good knowledge in being able to read financial statements, having some skills to sit on that board, and they’re able to effectively report the workings of the board back to the communities. They said, don’t just pick people to sit on the board; pick people that are going to be functional, that are going to be effective, that are going to improve health services in the Beaufort-Delta. That’s why it’s taking some delay to be able to bring those types of people together.
That leads me to my next question. When can the region expect to see a new board appointed?
The process of appointing a new board is going to start immediately. We are looking at the governance. In 2011 we had a report done by a consultant. The conclusion was that the system, as it is, is not sustainable. We are working with a Joint Leadership Council that includes all the chairs and all the boards looking at a sustainable government system first. Once we have a good system that we think that we are comfortable with right across the Territories, we are going to put the board in place. We also recognize that we were waiting for the CEO to come in. That has happened, so we can start the process. In fact, I’ve had one discussion with one leader about starting that process. We are also possibly looking at if the governments would allow an advisory board and some other structure. But again, I will consult with the four MLAs from the Beaufort-Delta before I start to move on reappointing the board in the Beaufort-Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Short, final supplementary, Mr. Blake.
