Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services in follow up on my Member’s statement.
I know the Minister is supportive of respite. Her message in the House has been clear, both as a Regular Member and as a Minister. The Foundation for Change is clear: we plan to expand respite services in the Northwest Territories. But then in early October we were sort of surprised, out in left field, when all of a sudden we learned that the Yellowknife Association for Community Living respite program is being discontinued.
I’m curious; can the Minister of Health and Social Services help me understand how the political message about supporting respite, the political support for respite has not trickled down to the department and the authority, where the authority, Yellowknife Health and Social Services, has decided to cancel an important respite program here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’d like to thank the Members for Great Slave and Kam Lake for looking back in the record and reading statements that I made. I was, and I continue to be, an advocate for supporting persons with disabilities. I fought for and got the respite care program and I was grateful that the government implemented. As a Minister, I have worked to expand the respite program to communities outside of Yellowknife, and it is part of the Foundation for Change Action Plan.
Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate that there were some communications that really caused heartache to the families. I don’t think that was necessary, but it has happened. I’d like to just state my commitment to continue to support the families who need the respite care program. It is the intention of the government to expand. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday I was listening to the radio and there was a report on and there was a representative from the Yellowknife Health and Social Services who indicated that, basically, they’re offering families who need respite an opportunity to enter into a voluntary service agreement, a VSA. To me, this is an acknowledgement that respite services are needed here in the Northwest Territories. Even indirectly, Yellowknife Health and Social Services is recognizing that respite is required. Unfortunately, I don’t believe in any way, shape or form, requiring a family to enter into a VSA through the Child and Family Services Act, which is about child protection… These children aren’t being neglected. They’re not being abused. Their well-being isn’t in question. We’re talking about care of these children for short periods of time.
My question to the Minister is: Given that the authority has acknowledged the importance, can we get them to find some money within the authority or within the department to help actually fund a continuation of respite in this particular organization as well as the Territory as a whole?
I have talked to the Member privately and I’ve responded to any parents that I’ve had a chance to talk to recently, and I say it again, that the Department of Health and Social Services considers the respite care program a very important service, and that I’ve stated in answering questions to the Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins, on Monday, that we have a resolution that we are working on. The important thing is that we work together to get the support that the families need. I intend to do that and the government intends to do that as well. Thank you.
Sounds great. I’m happy to hear a resolution is in the works, but I obviously don’t know the details of that resolution that’s in the works. Does that mean that the Yellowknife Association for Community Living will continue to receive the $250,000 that they need in 2011-12 and ongoing to run the respite care program here in Yellowknife? Thank you.
Right now we have had, over the last number of years, two different care programs. We’ve had one in Yellowknife that the Member mentions and we have been running a pilot project outside of Yellowknife for smaller communities. The government would like to look at the whole program together, because the focus has to be in providing services to families who need the respite care program. I don’t think there is any question here about the importance, and advantage, and the benefit that those programs bring to the children and adults with disabilities and their families. I say it once again, that we are committed to providing a respite care program in the Northwest Territories and we will use the money we have in the budget and look for additional resources to continue to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I fully believe the Minister when she says she supports respite. I am happy to hear that they are planning to do something. I am going to continue to ask the Minister to commit to finding the $250,000 for the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. Will the Minister commit the $250,000 to keep this particular respite that serves 29 families in Yellowknife and offers high-quality programming and services to help these children socialize and integrate into the community and provide the needed relief to the parents of these children? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the Member sits on the Standing Committee on Social Programs. The way we fund money and extra resources is to work through that. I intend to come to the committee with the details of that. The focus is to help the families who need respite care not only in Yellowknife but across the communities. We need to look at this program comprehensively. I am willing to do that. I am committed to do that. We have, in fact, increased the money on respite care within the department budget. We do need to address the program with YACL, and I am committed to coming back to the committee with the plan and I am committed, and I say that with everybody in the gallery, that we will continue to provide services to families who need respite care. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
