Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It goes back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about deficits that have been accruing specifically at Stanton, which is what I want to talk about today, but at other health authorities across the Northwest Territories.
Eighteen months ago the Minister came to committee and presented a plan that would see those deficits get back to zero. In fact, over the past 18 months deficits at not just Stanton but at other health authorities across the Northwest Territories are growing at an uncontrollable level and pace. I’d like to ask the Minister, over the past 18 months what is leading to increased deficits being run up at health authorities across the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have discussed on many different occasions in standing committee and in health information dialogue and in the health community, deficit is a common issue everywhere in Canada. Every jurisdiction is faced with rising health care costs, rising health care services, rising drug costs, equipment costs, labour costs and the demand of service. NWT is no exception.
Stanton Territorial Health Authority is a territorial body. Their deficit is not Stanton’s deficit per se, but it is a system deficit. Dr. Corkal, who is the medical director, and the CEO, Kay Louis, and the public administrator are tasked with this issue. They are working very closely together to see how we address and get to a complete and comprehensive plan. I’d be happy to work with the Members on the other side to make sure that we make prudent and very clear decisions that would minimize the impact on our residents, but that it shows a systematic change that will require courage and foresight and vision about how we go forward with respect to our health care.
Obviously this isn’t a new problem. It was a problem in the time I’ve been here, almost seven years; just over seven years. It was a problem two years ago when the Minister came forward with a plan to address it. She says there’s a plan being worked on today. How am I supposed to believe that the Minister and the government can come forward with a plan that’s workable? The one that she brought forward two years ago, they haven’t done anything with. In fact, things have gotten much, much worse.
When is this plan the Minister speaks of going to be presented to the Standing Committee on Social Programs so that they can see a way forward on fighting deficits at the health authorities across the Territories?
I’m sure the Member would appreciate that our overarching goal in this House cannot be about reducing the deficit to zero without understanding what the impacts of that would be. I don’t think the Member would support reducing or eliminating programs at Stanton that would impact our residents and the regions across the Territories.
It is important that we work as leaders of the Assembly and work with our health care partners and health care administrators to get advice from them on exactly where the cost drivers are, what are the things that we must have, what additional resources should we support them with, but what are the system efficiencies that we need to make decisions on. If that means moving some of the offices out of Stanton, if it means charging for parking or whatever else the Member mentioned, they have to be ranked with all of the other priorities.
These are very, very serious issues. Every day on the national media you cannot go a day without somebody talking about the pressure in the health care system. My part as the Minister is to make sure that I’m not trying to balance the budget for the sake of balancing the budget. That would not be the easiest, but it would be the most blunt way to do it. I think it’s important that we do it the right way so that we protect the core services and important services.
Going back to the plan that the Minister presented two years ago and talked about balancing budgets, I’m not sure exactly what she’s talking about. I’m not standing up here today suggesting that programs be cut, services be cut. I’m suggesting that we come up with a workable solution and a plan going forward.
I have a question that I don’t need a long, verbose answer to. I’d like to ask the Minister, is the department and Stanton Hospital, is there an intention to start charging people for parking at that hospital?
I am not aware of that plan. If there were, I would let the Member know.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Staying on the same line, looking for a short answer, how about for the utilization of television and phone services in patient rooms at Stanton Hospital? Will patients be charged for utilizing those services?
On the note of parking, there are lots of government buildings where the employees do pay for parking. That would be the kind of thing that administration would do on their own. I will get an update on that. I am not aware of patients being charged for TV or any other service, but I think anybody who has travelled to southern facilities, all those are charged. So I’d be happy to talk to the authority to see if there are plans like that or any other plan. It hasn’t come to my desk. I’ll share that with the Member when it does.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This question is for the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation. He actually preceded my Member’s statement which I had scheduled for next week on vacant housing. Nevertheless, it’s a serious concern in my riding and we’d still like to address it.
The Minister does say that the intake period ends today and I hope that many of my constituents did file applications and make the effort to get in. I’d just like to know, will the Minister be able to compile intake numbers and provide those numbers to myself?
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once the application process is over today I will be able to provide some numbers to the Members, if they wish to see the number of applicants in their communities.
During my constituency tour this fall many of my constituents continued to tell me that because they’re being in arrears, that they’re not eligible and they actually didn’t want to apply again this year. What kind of flexibility in terms of eligibility does the NWT Housing Corporation have when they are viewing a client’s application if they have some arrears or big arrears? How do they manage those?
Mr. Speaker, arrears is a huge concern. That is why I have been trying to get the message out across the NWT that arrears need to be taken care of because it affects your ability to access some of the programs. However, that being said, one of the programs, the HELP program, does allow a minimum amount of arrears. I believe it is up to $5,000, and the flexibility, I have also asked the corporation, as I have said in my Minister’s statement, to look at the core need income threshold and maybe be a little more flexible in that, because we have a lot of people out there that would be good homeowners, however, some are just likely over the core need threshold. I have asked them to be a little more flexible when looking at that. That is why I am quite confident, Mr. Speaker, that we will see a good majority of these vacant units fill up after the intake period, once all applications are processed. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I, too, look for some success in this intake period during the fall time. However, those constituents that do have arrears, Mr. Speaker, still speak to me about their disputing how those arrears occurred, how they happened. Some of them are very old. I have raised continuously with the Minister and in this House about it and an appeal mechanism within the Housing Corporation. When is the Minister going to enact such a committee? Or, actually, it should be an independent committee, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of doing that right now. We are hoping to have an appeals committee in place by April 1, 2011. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the case of a community, if there are no eligible clients for a particular unit, what is the Minister’s plan to allocate for that particular unit in the community? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, if we have no eligible client for that one particular unit, as I have said before, we will try another targeted intake to see if there may be eligible applicants that we may have missed. If that fails, then we would speak to communities to see if they have... We have had community groups approaching us about the availability of some of our youths. We have said to hold off until after our application process. All that being failed, we have to... We will consider turning them over to a public housing unit, because that is one of our biggest needs in a lot of our communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement. My Member’s statement was on the Community Health Nurse Development Program and the confusion that exists out there with respect to its current status. Does it exist? Has it been eliminated? What is going on? My question is for the Minister. What is the status of the Community Health Nurse Program? Does it exist or has it been eliminated? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program continues. We continue to support the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is good. What does that mean? From what I understand, there has been no intake in that program for the last year at least. There is, as far as I know, no planned intake. As far as I know, my research shows that there is only one person enrolled in the program and they are coming to an end very soon. I am glad to hear that it is continuing, but what does that mean? Is there going to be a new intake? Are we going to put some more people in the program? This is a great program for transitioning hospital-based nurses into community health centres. The numbers show that it has been very successful to date.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member. This is a very important program, but like any other programs, it has to work within the existing budget. It went over budget by quite a bit, so our approach right now is to support students that are already there. We are spending $750,000 this year. We will bring in new intake as the budget allows.
Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I am very confused. Like I said before, I understand that there is only one person enrolled in this program. That certainly can’t possibly be costing us $750,000. If there is $750,000 set aside for the Community Health Nurse Program and there is one person in it, how are spending that money? It seems a little odd.
Mr. Speaker, I will get back to the Member on the details of where that budget is being allocated. The Member should know that there is a lot of cost associated with having a CHN. It is a very important program, but it needs a partnership from the authorities and mentors and extra costs in supporting a student through the program. I will undertake to get back to the Member on the breakdown of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware of the costs associated with running an individual through the program. I know the program covers a portion of the salary, but it also covers some training O and M. But I guarantee you it is not $750,000 for one nurse. If there is only one nurse in the program, I see no reason why we can’t have any intake on that program immediately. I would like the Minister to commit to reviewing the program and if there is only one employee or one nurse enrolled in the program, I want her to commit to having an intake immediately to put some people in that program.
The program works, Mr. Speaker. It has been successful and it gets nurses in communities, and 14 out of the 20 are still there today and six of those are indigenous aboriginals. It works. Make it happen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the department and the government is doing a lot of work to put our nurses through our various training programs. We just direct appointed a number of nurses. We support nurses going through this program.
Mr. Speaker, this year’s budget for the CHN Program, we have a contract with Aurora College for $460,000 and we spent $350,000 in salary subsidy for CHNs in their second year program. It is important that we support them through their programming, and we will be interested in taking on new students, but we need to make sure that we have the budget in place to support them.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to let the Member know that we support this program. I support this program, but it would be irresponsible for us to not pay attention to the budget. Mr. Speaker, I think we agree on the point that we support this program. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of MACA, the Minister responsible for consumer protection. It is regarding the control of payday loan gouging. I understand that a legislative proposal may be underway, the first step in creating laws to control these abuses. We certainly need action now. I am wondering if this Minister is moving forward quickly on this. Can we expect solid support from this Assembly for the fast-tracking of this law to protect not only Yellowknife residents but travellers from communities caught short on money when they are in the capital? Will the Minister confirm that legislation is forthcoming and that bringing this forward is a priority and perhaps confirmation on the status of that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously this is a concern that we have heard on a couple of occasions now. Although MACA, through the consumer affairs department, hasn’t really received any complaints, we understand that it is still a concern out there. There is the cost of credit disclosure that is going to be introduced and that would compel the lending companies to fully disclose the interest rates that they are charging on loans. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that gets into my second question here. I think there are two essentials for any law on this. The first is that firm and reasonable controls on the actual amount of additional charges, that can be attached to a loan agreement. So I’m hoping that there will be those controls as well as the clarity and declaration to the customer.
The Quebec legislation, which is considered the most strong -- and I hope that is being referenced by the folks drafting this bill -- establishes a percentage ceiling that forbids additional charges exceeding a certain percentage of the principal amount.
The second one is clear language, of course, as the Minister has noted, so the borrowers know what they are signing.
So will the Minister confirm and commit that both of those will be in this legislation? Thank you.
I haven’t had an opportunity to look at the legislation that’s being drafted. However, I will commit to the Member that, as committee, they will have opportunity to have some say into what goes into this particular piece of legislation.
Yes, so the first was firm and reasonable controls on the actual amount of additional charges. So I will look for that.
As the Minister knows, it is a much more expeditious, faster process if those can be in first rather than coming to committee to, again, identify them later and go back, a time-consuming approach. The new law is meaningless, however, without enforcement, Mr. Speaker.
We learned in recent media reports that MACA officials don’t monitor lenders’ practices to prevent abuses. People being ripped off have to use the courts, which is difficult, costly, and, for most people, impossible. I’m sure the Minister recognizes this, that the clients often do not have the sort of capacity required, and that’s the same reasoning for how they are being taken advantage of.
So will the Minister commit to placing a high priority on bringing this forward before the end of the 16th Assembly, legislation that is clearly enforceable and the enforcement requirement to back it up is there? That may take approaching the people rather than waiting for complaints. Thank you.
It is our intent to have this...(inaudible)...legislation passed through the 16th Assembly. We do take all concerns very seriously and this is one that we are starting to hear a bit more about in recent days. As a 16th Assembly, if this is a priority of the 16th Assembly, then that will enable us working with committee to move the legislation along a lot quicker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to this and I think it is something that we are hearing a lot about and I guess when it comes forward, I am wondering if the Minister would accompany it with some information on the degree to which this exists in other communities. I know it’s a big one in Yellowknife and the people from other communities are being taken advantage of in the city. So it would be good to have that information, as well, from other centres. Thank you.
My understanding is there are a couple of outfits here in Yellowknife that provide this service. I would have to confirm. There may be a couple more out in the larger communities, but I will confirm that information and I will share it with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the Territorial Admissions Committee. This committee was established about a year or so ago. From a press release last September, it states: “A new Territorial Admissions Committee (TAC) has been established to streamline the application process for long-term care into the NWT’s 10 long-term care facilities.” So the committee has been in place for a year or more and I would like to ask the Minister at this point how successful this program has been and how many people have been placed. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
