Debates of November 1, 2012 (day 27)

Topics
Statements

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Minister for giving me reassurance that people will be respected and dealt with at least in a respectful manner. Not every community has large industrial-type resource development projects. How does the department ensure the local economy and culture are taken into account in the delivery of income assistance? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we are fully aware, especially in those small, isolated communities, that there is not much of an economy in the community, whether it would be a wage economy or business contracts. Those are areas that we have regional representatives, also client service officers focusing on the productive choices. The Labour Market Agreement that we have in place is for those individuals that do not qualify for EI and that require training in specific areas, as well as the Small Community Employment Program that we initiated onto the communities. Those are just some of the program areas that offset the cost of those individuals that want to be trained so they can enter the workforce or labour market. We want to prepare them. Those are just some of the areas that we continue to invest in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It’s encouraging to see that the department is very responsive in terms of meeting the needs of people. This is my last question. It’s just a difference between wage economy and also traditional economies of communities and trying to distinguish the difference between the circumstances of communities.

Do productive choices have to involve training for the wage economy or can the program support people’s choices to hunt and trap? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, it is a mixture where productive choices consist of the wage economy and also we are moving into more of a traditional economy as well. We have individuals that go out trapping. We have assisted them over the two or three months while they are in the bush. We have done so. We will continue to do that, even those individuals that may be on the land hunting and other sources to bring in some harvesting, as well, for the family and netting fish as well. Those are areas that we are embarking on. I for one like to pursue that even further, how we can engage those clientele so they can make those productive choices. Those are areas that we continue to explore. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

QUESTION 281-17(3): PRESCRIPTION SERVICES IN SMALL COMMUNITIES

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions about the idea of continuous prescriptions. What policies do doctors follow right now in determining how long a prescription will last and how it should be renewed? Is that policy the same under all health authorities no matter how they operate? Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is currently working on the development of a pharmaceutical strategy. It is not moving as quickly as we want. Included in that strategy is the management of pharmaceuticals.

As far as actual policy that the doctors use or any of the health authorities use to dispense or prescribe medicine or drugs to individuals, it should be a standard process right across from the Beaufort-Delta down to Fort Smith.

The Minister mentioned the pharmaceutical strategy. I’m glad that at least they are evaluating it, but will the Minister review the prescription renewal system and make some changes that work better for smaller communities across the Northwest Territories? Do we have to wait for that pharmaceutical strategy? I think it would be implemented far sooner than the whole strategy. Thank you.

If this is an issue, and I believe it is – the Member is bringing this up and we don’t want that to continue – I will talk to the department and we will relay the message to the authorities that we need to make some changes so that this type of thing, where an elder has to leave a community to go get a prescription drug, is a common thing that is renewed all of the time. Making them jump through some hoops in order to get a prescription is not necessary. We will address that issue. Thank you.

I’m glad the Minister is understanding of the issue that is impacting my constituents.

Has the Department of Health and Social Services taken the time to look at the way other jurisdictions handle continuous prescriptions? I believe there will be some useful lessons there. Thank you.

The Member may know that our drugs are handled by Alberta Blue Cross. We have gone to them, looked at them and they’re a large organization that we deal with. They have made recommendations to the Department of Health and Social Services on how to improve our systems, recommendations that will go into the overall pharmaceutical strategy. I’m not sure if that work included a look on their initial recommendations. They looked at the best practices across the country. For sure, when we develop the pharmaceutical strategy, we are going to look at best practices across the country. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just wondering if our legislation provides for nurse practitioners to also dispense medical prescriptions. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I realize that in the health centres, the health centres can dispense drugs but not prescribe. I think one of the things that nurse practitioners can do is prescribe drugs. I don’t know the details of that right now. I’m a little bit mixed up on the dispensing and prescribing. My understanding is what I have heard from the health centres is that they can dispense from the health centre, but only a nurse practitioner or a doctor can prescribe. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

QUESTION 282-17(3): CKLB BROADCASTS OF GNWT “ON THE AIR” RADIO PROGRAM

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up on my Member’s statement today. My questions today are for the Deputy Premier. I would like to go back and talk about the show entitled “On the Air” that the government had produced with CKLB.

First of all, why are we defaulting on an agreement? We had a 20-month agreement with CKLB and we have only worked with them for five months. Why have we defaulted on that agreement? Is the government committed to getting this program back up on the air? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Deputy Premier, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. CKLB, the Aboriginal broadcasting, is very important to this GNWT, more specifically when we have to reach out to the most isolated communities. There have been other partners as well. There is ECE and also federal contribution towards this. We feel that we need to invest in this area.

With respect to advertising and also the air time, we have contributed approximately $3,400 a month towards broadcasting. We did continue to do so until March. Unfortunately, due to the reorganization and the Executive communications staffing vacancies, it was discontinued. But we are in the process of reviewing that again. Within the next two or three months we want to start that up again because we feel that it is important for us. Mahsi.

I’m not sure, maybe the Minister can correct me if I’m wrong here, but in terms of 20-month agreements – and there hasn’t been anything on for the last 10 months except for five months in agreement – that must mean we’re five months left into the agreement. So can the Minister confirm with me that we’re still in an agreement and that we don’t have to renew another one in two to three months? Can he confirm if we’re still in the same agreement with CKLB or not? Because if we have a contract with them for $3,400 a month and we’re not doing the programs, they’re losing out on funding for their own organization when they rely a lot on other funding. Can he confirm if we’re still in the old agreement? Thank you.

Mahsi. That detailed information I will need to get for the Members. I don’t have that specific agreement, whether it be a year or two, due to the fact that there’s been a vacancy, there’s been a reshuffle within the Executive department. So we have to postpone that until such time as the next couple months. But it has been up to March 5, 2012. So it’s been a few months that we were without broadcasting, but we are committed to returning that with CKLB broadcasting. So we’re committed. Mahsi.

I believe the program, or the GNWT renewed program had a contract that was supposed to keep the program on air up until March 2013. I’d like to ask the Minister if he would look into that and get the contracts in there to get the program on the air as soon as possible, because our residents of the Northwest Territories need to know what we’re doing within our government.

Can I ask the Deputy Premier if he’d be willing to renew the contract to translate the government programs in the five Aboriginal languages so that those communities that speak their own language and listen to their own language are able to benefit from the program as well? Thank you.

Mahsi. We’ll do what we can to expedite the process. As I stated, there hasn’t been a committed individual to take on the broadcasting as we have done in the past, but we are focused in those areas, and with reshuffle of the Executive communication area now, we need to identify an individual that can take on the task again. So we are committing to that.

With respect to the five Aboriginal languages, we need to work with CKLB on what could be delivered in that time frame and also in that area. We have done so, successfully, in the past. Obviously, we want to reach out to our communities too. So it’s very important, especially in the most isolated communities where they don’t have the broadcasting of television, that there’s radio broadcasting in all communities. So, definitely, that will be our approach. Mahsi.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe that Cabinet did receive a letter and a proposal from NCS looking at, in the interim, while they’re waiting for someone to take on the host position and host the radio program, that an NCS staff would host the program, working very closely with employees of the GNWT to get these programs and services out to the community.

Would the Deputy Premier look at that option until a suitable candidate from the GNWT is able to take that on? Will he look at that possibility and that proposal and get this show back on the air? The sooner the better, for not this government but for residents of the NWT. Thank you.

Mahsi. Within the Executive department, the communication and services, there is a proposal that has been submitted, along with others that are out there with various programs. With respect to this particular proposal submission, it is being reviewed by the department. Again, what the Member is referring to will be taken into consideration and I will be speaking to the Premier, as well, upon his return, to see if we can expedite this process. Once we identify the individual as the interim, what can we do. So those are questions that we need to address with our Executive department. Mahsi.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

QUESTION 283-17(3): GNWT HEALTH AND SAFETY CLAIMS COSTS

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up from my Member’s statement today with questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. In my statement I pointed out the almost universal improvement in departmental claims experience, including the Department of Health and Social Services which dropped from 39 percent of claims down to less than 1 percent, but with the prominent exception of our health authorities, including Yellowknife and Stanton and with the exception of the Sahtu, which has stayed very low.

Is the Minister aware of this situation and is it being treated as a priority concern of his department? Mahsi.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I am aware of the situation. We are doing what we can to address the situation with the extra costs and so on, recognizing that providing health care service in an environment like a hospital is a lot different than maybe other departments that are operating from 8:30 to 5:00. Thank you.

Thank you. Actually, the hospital is relatively low compared to those authorities that don’t have hospitals, but the Department of Health may not exercise individual operational control of the health authority, but perhaps they do. However, ultimately we must hold the Minister responsible for their funding and oversight. So, obviously, the substantial failures here in reducing claims experience have a negative consequence of large penalties that the GNWT must pay.

Can the Minister confirm that helping the authorities control these costs is not only in the interest of but ultimately the responsibility of Health and Social Services? Mahsi.

Thank you. Working with the health authorities and the department, there are many strategies in place to mitigate the risk including training staff programs to return to work for injured staff, and also putting in the occupational health and safety committees in all of the authorities to try to address this issue. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. The essence of the problem here is that the Minister’s department has made an exceptional turnaround in the claims experience and yet the authorities are not. I’d like to ask, is this a confusion of lines of authority here? What are the lines of authority to deal with this issue? Thank you.

The information I have is that the largest number of claims, not based on change in the percentage, but the largest number of claims is at Stanton where there’s a hospital; the Beaufort-Delta, where there’s a hospital; Fort Smith where they have a health centre and acute care. So all of those areas have successfully passed accreditation by Accreditation Canada. So they have the standards, they’re good standards, they meet the standards and this ensures that there is rigorous safety procedures in place. A big part of passing that accreditation is to have those types of safety procedures in place. Thank you.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister, I think, is correct, according to the information I have. Stanton is the highest at 20 percent, but there are others that are high, as well, and the trend of all of them is to go up from five to 20 times the percentages over the last four years.

I’d still like clarity on what the lines of authority are for dealing with this. Is it that the Minister has no authority or thinks he has no authority? What is he doing to exert his responsibility, as the Minister, to get training programs in place that result in the sorts of progress that we want to see?

I think I have the authority to make changes here. I have no doubt in my mind. But the housing authorities are working on it. That’s the thing. We conduct safety surveys with Workers’ Compensation Committee on a regular basis. They do audits on a regular basis with the authorities. I’m not sure this is an issue of authority. I think it’s an issue of how to address the problem.

We have a situation where we’re providing 24/7 care. You can’t go home at 5:00. The hospitals have to keep going. We are in an environment where we’re operating 24/7, 365 days a year, and in addition to that we have one-third of all the public service working in the Department of Health and Social Services. The numbers are high and it’s something we’re aware of. It’s something that we are trying to address. We do have discussions with the authority.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

QUESTION 284-17(3): FACILITATING DIALOGUE BETWEEN ELDERS AND YOUTH

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about a leader, the Great Chief Sitting Bull. One of his quotes was, “Lt’s put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.” Sitting Bull was a very spiritual man, just like our elders in the Sahtu and down the Mackenzie Valley. I wanted to ask the Minister, because the elders are very concerned about the way things are going today, that the land is changing, our children are changing, and our children will die if we do not wake up and start talking to our children. I want to ask the Minister of Health in his role as the Minister responsible for Seniors, if he has looked at any type of initiative to bring the elders together from the Northwest Territories to talk about the changes that are happening in the Northwest Territories and to communicate that to our young people.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The NWT Seniors’ Society does come together on a regular basis. Many of the communities do have seniors’ societies. I think this type of work is something that, interestingly enough, the Stanton Elders’ Council is interested in doing. They talked about this in the context of the health of the community and how they have a strong desire to have an elders' conference, bringing all the elders together headed by the Stanton Elders’ Council to one central location and having a discussion to talk about this. In addition to that, they’ve also asked that they meet with our Ministers Forum on Addictions. Once their work is complete, their community work, they want that forum to touch base with them. I’m going to try to make both of those things happen. For sure they’re going to meet at the elders’ forum and now we’re working on putting a budget together so that they can have an elders' conference.

I would ask if the Minister would look at working with the Minister of MACA and seeing if they can bring some of the youth down the Mackenzie Valley to sit with the Elders’ Council and talk about some of the changes that are happening today.

Life today is very, very hard. The elders are saying if they do not get the message to our young people, our young people are going to be very pitiful in the future. We need to bring this forum together so that the elders can talk to the young people and tell them if you do not smarten up, you will not survive very long in this world. We need to come back with a very strong message to tell our youth that life is very precious and very short. Our elders want to take that role on. Will the Minister look at this?

Interestingly enough, I have actually thought about that, trying to bring the youth and the elders together in a central location. I also thought about the logistics of doing something like that and how difficult that could be. I think it’s not insurmountable, and I will be glad to meet with the Minister of MACA and the Minister responsible for Youth to see if we can put something like this together.

I would ask the Minister if he would have a serious discussion with the Minister of MACA to put together some form of a plan or outline and come back to committee to see that they get the support to go ahead or he could look within the government to make this happen. The survival of our people is at the brink of having our elders tell the youth what needs to happen in terms of continuing on with a good, healthy life in the Northwest Territories. I ask the Minister if he would come back with some form of discussion plan or some kind of plan and say this is what we want to do to pass on the words of our elders to our young people.

Like I said, we would on the elders’ side and the Elders’ Council. I recognize that we need to engage the various seniors’ societies across the North to try and put this together and pay for all of this. I need to be able to find the funding to do such a project. Also, if we are going to engage the youth to find the funding for that as well.

Speaker: MR. SPEAKER

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.