Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if an employee themselves can instigate a direct appointment. Can they express interest in a position and bring it to the attention of their superiors that they would like to be considered for a direct appointment to a specific job opening? Thank you.
I do not believe any of the departments would be closed to that idea. I think that if there’s a good performing individual in the system that sees there’s an advancement opportunity within their department or other departments and sees there’s going to be a competitive process or a job that has become vacant and they have shown interest in it, I believe that we would facilitate people that may be interested in the position, for a direct appointment by their own request. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is probably the third or fourth time in as little as four months I’ve had to remind Members of Cabinet, especially the Department of Health and Social Services, as per page 21 of the Guiding Principles and Process Conventions of the 17th Assembly, number 3. “Except under extraordinary circumstances, Members of the Legislative Assembly should be made aware of and have opportunity to discuss significant announcements, changes, consultations or initiatives before they are released to the public or introduced in the Legislative Assembly. Use of the element of surprise is inconsistent with consensus government.”
Mr. Speaker, this morning I find myself reading News/North introducing a brand new pilot project initiative for youth addictions treatment that will be launched soon in the Deh Cho. Funny thing, Mr. Speaker, as deputy chair of Standing Committee on Social Programs, this is the first time I’ve seen this information and was surprised to read about it in the local paper.
My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services please inform the Members here what exactly is this new youth addictions treatment pilot project announcement? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This initiative that was identified in the paper today is actually an action item that was identified in the Shared Path Towards Wellness, A Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan 2012-2015, which has both been tabled in this House but also brought forward for discussion with committee. I will check Hansard over the last couple of sessions, but I’m pretty sure the Minister of Health also mentioned it in this House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, I’m very familiar with the initiatives the Minister tabled in the House. Unfortunately, this is a pilot project which had nothing to do with those recommendations per se and was never brought to committee for detail.
Can the Minister indicate here what are the terms of reference for this new pilot project and is this open to all youth across the Northwest Territories?
Youth addictions prevention promotion activities are key factors in addressing mental health and addictions in the Northwest Territories. This is, once again, outlined in a Shared Path Towards Wellness, A Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan 2012-2015. Within that are a number of current projects that are ongoing which include training of health and social services authorities staff to use early intervention screening tools and counselling techniques to more effectively identify and support youth in dealing with their addictions and/or mental health issues.
Also, the project that the Member is talking about today, working with the Deh Cho communities to develop a youth on-the-land pilot program, this pilot project is currently in the planning stages and will be implemented during the spring/summer of 2014 in the Deh Cho. This is a pilot project to help us develop a program that we’ll hopefully be able to roll out to different communities and regions in the Northwest Territories. This pilot project is where we’re going to learn and develop something that we hope works. Once again, this is an initiative that has been discussed and identified within the action plan. We want to work with youth throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I assume from the Minister’s response that this pilot project is going to be only reserved for youth in the Deh Cho. I guess my question was: Will all youth have an opportunity in the pilot project? We didn’t quite hear that today here.
Can the Minister indicate what are the budget parameters in reference to this pilot project and where did he get the money from? Thank you.
One hundred thousand dollars of existing territorial services program budget for 2013 has been reallocated to cover the expenses associated with the initial planning and this pilot study. Once again, we’re going to run a pilot project in the Deh Cho and when we figure out what aspects of it work, how to make a program that works across the Territories, we’ll certainly work with committee to find a way to roll that out in the rest of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
I’m assuming this $100,000 oops was a little misnomer that happened during the changeover. I’ll give that to the Minister.
Can the Minister reassure the Members of this House that all future significant announcements or initiatives from his department will be properly vetted with members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs for the remainder of his term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think I was pretty clear on that last week. I plan on working with committee as we move forward on major initiatives within the Department of Health and Social Services over the next two years. This is a consensus government. We need to be partners and we need to work together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke on how people receive income assistance on the reserve. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Can the Minister provide assurance that he will personally look into the treatment of clients at the Hay River Reserve by the income assistance officer? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through the Office of the Auditor General, this has been earmarked to our attention. We need to deal with the personnel within our income support office, especially the client service officers. We have implemented some changes already. At this time, we are developing a competency-based training program for our staff and it’s going to be developed through initial discussions with CSOs and we are having a trainer come up. This is an area that has been earmarked by the Office of the Auditor General, so we are moving forward, along with the Hay River Reserve and other communities that may have faced these types of incidents in the past. It’s been brought up in the House, so we are seriously looking into that. Mahsi.
I think the Minister reminded me of the significance of the Auditor General’s report, in terms of program service delivery of his department in terms of meeting the needs of people.
Once again, can the Minister outline and explain to this House the immediate steps in terms of improving that service to clients? Mahsi.
Part of the plan is, again, a competency-based training program that is going to be broad across the Northwest Territories that the client service officers deal with, so we can develop a professional base dealing with the clientele. There’s also going to be a work-based training program that will be introduced, exchanging information and so forth. Also, there will be a conference for CSOs in January 2014, enhancing staff and knowledge so they’re aware of who is working, skills and abilities, and also on-line discussion and information sharing. These are just some of the key areas that we are implementing within our department to enhance our client service officers, the professionalism that they should be delivering to the clientele. Mahsi.
Thank you. The Minister indicated that he’s taking measures in terms of ensuring that workers received competency-based training and at the same time ensuring that the people are treated with a little respect in terms of receiving department services.
What is the priority at this point? Is it ensuring that the employees receive competency-based training or client satisfaction? Mahsi.
Mahsi. My belief is that it is a combination. We need to satisfy both. We need to have individuals that are working, client service officers that are providing dignity and respect to our clientele and also having those individuals that we have to deal with clientele. So we are developing programs that will capture that, providing competency-based training and identifying caseloads. We have some of the communities that have a high number of caseloads, so we are currently reviewing those caseloads. That will capture the attention of client service officers, especially in the small, isolated communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand each GNWT employee is bound by a Code of Conduct. I wanted to know how can the Code of Conduct of any GNWT employee ensure that, indeed, GNWT employees work in a professional manner and, indeed, provide services to clients in a manner that’s respectful and dignified. Mahsi.
Mahsi. That’s the very reason why we have this competency-based training program. There is a Code of Conduct within our Education department, within the income support division, and at the same time we have to work with other departments as well. They do have their own disciplinary procedures, as well, the social envelope departments. We work with MACA, Housing, Social Services, Health and other departments. When we deal with the clientele, it’s not only income support. There are other departments that we have to work with. That’s the whole reason why we developed this competency-based, based on the Office of the Auditor General. We want to make it work. We want to make it work for our clientele and that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need for public sector salary disclosure and this is not the first time I’ve raised this particular matter in the House. I’ve cited several provinces across this country that have databases or have even tabled public reports, a sample of course, an excerpt of a public report from Ontario that does this.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources what’s stopping him from publicly tabling a disclosure paper or document that demonstrates and clearly shows transparency of all salaries over $100,000 and more, and that would include, of course, public sector employees, boards, agencies, et cetera. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding at this time is that there’s a privacy rights issue for individuals not to have their names and exact salaries printed in a paper. GNWT salary grids including everybody that makes over $100,000, that would be the deputy senior management. All of those salary grids are on the Human Resources website right now. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate that good attempt at an answer by the Minister, because he talked about privacy rights. I’d like to draw the public’s attention, and more specifically the Minister of Human Resources’ attention, to a document I found on Northern News Services website. It’s dated April 27, 1998, and it’s quoted as such that Premier Don Morin, oddly enough the old Member for Tu Nedhe, had succumbed to the pressure of Regular Members and tabled all salaries of these employees with their names attached to that.
So if we’ve done it in the past, what’s stopping us today from doing it going forward? Thank you.
Thank you. Likely the law is stopping us from doing it, but I can check with the Department of Human Resources and if there are no privacy laws that we are breaking to print people’s individual salaries, then I can discuss that further with the Members across. Like, probably go to the committee as opposed to just saying that I’m going to table people’s salaries here in the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
I suspect that laws have evolved in such a manner that we can only use the black highlighter when we explain things. Quite often Members want information.
I’ve invested quite a bit of time in a document that’s a few pages and it’s potentially a private member’s bill. It’s called the Private Sector Salary Disclosure Act.
I’d like to know if the Minister of Human Resources would be interested in co-sponsoring this act me with so the public can finally have true accountability, which is happening across this country from Nova Scotia to B.C. Now it’s time the Northwest Territories joins the rest of Canada. Thank you.
Thank you. Likely I will not join in the sponsorship of that bill. It sounds like the majority of the jurisdictions are still not disclosing all of the individuals’ salaries publicly. Another thing is that the Territories has a very small population. I suppose when you’re dealing with millions of people, and people make the decision to print people’s salaries, most people don’t know who the specific people that have their salaries printed are. But in our jurisdiction I know that there are very few people and everybody knows everyone, and I don’t think that that would be something that would be appropriate. But I would still check legally. If we can do it legally, then like I said, we’ll work with committee to get something like this done.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s one of the few times we’ll ever say this, but apparently size doesn’t matter on this particular issue. In Vancouver, you just type a person’s name and it will give you the information.
As I tabled in this very House, I only tabled a small excerpt, but in Ontario they go very detailed, down to the name, the position and whatnot.
The last thing I’ll say is I’ve drafted a Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act. Would the Minister be interested in this particular project that I’ve been working on and would he see what he could do to get behind it? Thank you.
Thank you. The department and myself would be glad to review that bill. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation. I’d like to follow up on a bit of a pet subject of mine and that’s homelessness.
Some time ago, I guess it was in 2011, we received a report on homelessness in Yellowknife. Following that there was a commitment from the government to hire a homelessness coordinator. That has been done and I’m very pleased to see that we’ve had that coordinator for going on to a full year now, I think.
The Premier and the Minister both promised an evaluation of the two programs that we had before we got the homelessness coordinator and my understanding is that the evaluation of those two programs has been done. But about a year ago, not quite, the Minister indicated a review of cross-departmental, throughout the whole government evaluation of homelessness programs and what was required was going to take some time.
I’d like to know from the Minister if that fulsome review of homelessness within the GNWT has been done and when we might be able to see it.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our homelessness coordinator actually started in August of this year, and she has had the opportunity to meet with some folks here in Yellowknife and in Nahendeh, I believe, and it’s her intent to try and go across the Northwest Territories to meet with all the stakeholders and get their input on some of the programs they’re running and some of the improvements that could be made. As far as an overall report, this will be part of the process. I will commit to try to see where we’re at with that and get some information to the Members as quickly as possible.
I’m a little surprised that it was August when we hired the coordinator. Some months ago it was going to be January. I’m very glad that we have somebody hired and we have somebody in the position. I’m very glad that homelessness is going to be under one person’s authority and purview.
I’d like to know from the Minister if there are any plans, in terms of homelessness, for the 2014-15 budget that he can share with us at this time. Are we going to have an increase in the amount of money that’s available for homelessness programs?
As far as the infrastructure goes, I think we’ve made it well known that we’ve made some contributions to some organizations to help with the infrastructure, and we do that throughout the Northwest Territories. I think one of the things we do quite well is make some contributions to some of the infrastructure that they’d be running.
As far as the programs go, that’s under a different department. But 2014-15, we will be having discussions on the business planning process, I think, come December, and there will be an opportunity there for Members to have some input into that. I believe for the last few years it’s been about $350,000 in the two different pots that we administer, so we will be able to have that discussion during the business planning process in December.
It’s unfortunate we don’t know at this point that we’re going to get more money for homelessness; $300,000 is a pittance, and it really doesn’t address the needs that we have across the territory. But I thank the Minister for the opportunity to provide some input in December. I look forward to that.
A response that I got to some questions I sent to the Minister some time ago mentioned that the Housing Corp is working with Health and Social Services to keep seniors in their homes and he referenced a project that they were working on. I wondered if he could tell me whether or not that project has been determined, if he could share some of the details of that project with the House.
I’m not sure if the Member is talking about the pilot projects that we’re trying from each community or for four communities as far as helping with homelessness goes. I know on the seniors side of it we have about 300 units that are in our public housing portfolio that are specifically earmarked for seniors and we try to keep seniors in their homes as long as possible. As well, are the programs that we have for seniors that do own their own homes? We have a Preventative Maintenance Program that we’re able to assist them in working with Health and Social Services on the home care part of it. They do a good job in keeping a lot of the seniors in their units. There are a number of initiatives that we’re working on right now.
As far as details on the pilot project that we’re working on, homelessness in some of the communities, we’ll have further details. We’re still early in the planning stages right now and locations haven’t been determined yet, but as soon as we have more information I will be sure to pass it on to the Members and seek their input as to how they would like to see this rolled out.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I look forward to that information and those details. Lastly, the Falvo Report in 2011 referenced the need for standards within the homelessness facilities, particularly within the city of Yellowknife here, and I’m talking about the Centre for Northern Families and the Salvation Army. I’d like to know from the Minister if the idea of establishing standards for homelessness centres is something that is on the radar of his department.
