Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize the community health representative from Lutselk'e, Jennifer Jonasson. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Michael McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s good to see so many people in the House today. I would like to welcome everybody. I want to welcome some of my constituents: Clara Sabourin from Hay River Reserve. It’s good to see her here. Thank you for coming. We also have, from my home town, Jessica Field, who has come to join us today. Thank you. And an old friend of mine, Jim Allard. Good to see you here, Jim. And of course, we can’t have enough McLeod’s in the House, so I’d like to welcome Karen here with us. Thank you for coming also.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize three constituents in the gallery. There’s Gladys Edwards from Aklavik, we don’t get many constituents here so… Charlene Blake from Tsiigehtchic and also Maria McSwain from Fort McPherson. I’d like to welcome you to the House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a long-time friend and colleague, Donald Yukon. We went to high school together. Also a McLeod that my brother’s already beat me to the punch and recognized her. Welcome to the gallery.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to recognize some of the Sahtu leadership, specifically the K’asho Gotine chief Arthur Tobac, Metis leader Jim Allard, the Yamoga Land Corporation president, Mr. Harvey Pierrot, and also Larry Hutchison, who is the advisor to the leadership there. I also want to recognize the Aurora College students Trudy Kochon from Colville Lake and Donald Yukon from Deline. I also am very happy to recognize an old school chum, Ray Ruben, a good hockey player from Paulatuk.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Wilbert Antoine, a constituent from Fort Simpson. He’s working with Canadian Zinc. Also accompanying him is Mr. Chris Reid from Canadian Zinc as well.
Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I still have more yet to do. I’d also like to recognize the hardworking community health rep, Ms. Gloria Hardisty, from Wrigley. As well, once in a while we get somebody who gets their name mentioned about three or four times, Ms. Karen McLeod of Fort Liard. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up with my topic of my Member’s statement and that’s the facilities that are operated by the Government of the Northwest Territories that are visitor and resident related; they’re used by many NWT residents and visitors alike.
Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of people like Mr. McBryan, who would like to know why the gate is closed on the access to Alexandra and Louise Falls and the Escarpment Creek by Labour Day weekend when there are still many people visiting and coming into the North and people wanting to use these facilities, could I ask the Minister to please tell us why we do not have the resources or why we just cannot leave these facilities open to the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our tourism facilities and our parks are wonderful assets of this government and it’s usually some of the first impressions that visitors to the Northwest Territories see. Unfortunately, two years ago the tourism budget was cut and so the improvements that we were going to do to our facilities had to be rescheduled and we had to make do with the limited budgets that we had. The budget that was cut was never replenished, so we have to operate within a limited amount of resources. For our tourism season, we operate within the limited resources that we have to operate under. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, we’ve had an unusually nice fall this fall, the nice warm weather. As a matter of fact, I think there isn’t any snow in Hay River today, and even going a little further south towards the border, I think it’s been 10 and 12 and even 15 degrees recently. Mr. Speaker, the reason that the Minister gives that the program for the facilities there cannot be expanded because of limited resources, what is it that does not allow or precludes the GNWT, ITI, from just leaving the gates to those facilities open so that people can enjoy them whether they are staffed or not? Thank you.
We have had a lot of discussion with our clientele, what visitors and campers and people who come to enjoy nature, what their expectations are when they come to utilize a tourism park or facility, and they want to make sure that we have clean facilities, that they have an ability to enjoy nature and the environment, and we cannot do that if we just leave the parks wide open and have no control and no monitoring. We’ve come to learn that we have to have some control in order to make sure that we maintain our facilities and that the people who use the parks can enjoy the facilities. Thank you.
I agree with Minister McLeod that when we do have people come there, we want everything to look good and we want things to be tidy and clean, we don’t want the places to be vandalized or look unkempt. Our territorial park facilities, which include the facilities around the falls and Escarpment Creek, are open from May long weekend to Labour Day weekend. How much would it cost this government to extend that into a shoulder season of, say, Easter weekend to Thanksgiving weekend? How much money are we talking about? Thank you.
I guess it would depend on whether we’re talking for all the parks in the Northwest Territories or are we just talking about the three that are between Enterprise and the border. If we are talking about the three, then it would be a matter of paying the wages of probably about three or four people and also some contractors. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not to be unkind where there are other parks, but we are the southern part of the Northwest Territories and obviously have, usually, the weather on our side for the greatest amount of time. I don’t need to compare it to the campground in Inuvik, for example. Geographically, we do have a few things going for us in the South Slave. One of them is a longer warm season for those parks, the three parks that Mr. McLeod refers to. I would ask the Minister if he would undertake to get a costing for us on what it would cost to expand that into the shoulder seasons a little bit so that people could enjoy those beautiful facilities that we are so blessed to have. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I would be pleased to do that, because one of the things in tourism and parks that we like to do is we like to see people using and enjoying our facilities. We will be pleased to come up with a number and maybe even amend our business plan, if that was at all possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services and are related to the respite program. It is delivered at the Yellowknife Association of Community Living. The association has received a letter from Yellowknife Health and Social Services saying that their funding for the 2011-12 fiscal year has been cancelled; therefore, there will be no respite program at this association. I was wondering if I could get the Minister to tell me if we could get that money reinstated to continue that program on for a longer period of time. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a program that Yellowknife Health has been funding the Association of Community Living. I believe in talking to the authority, they wanted to engage YACL so that they could have discussions on how to go forward in light of the fact that the funding will expire at the end of 2011. I think we should give them time to discuss and look at options. I believe that is what they are doing. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I saw the letter that was sent. It says, congratulations, you have no money. There is no funding for 2011-12, so I am not sure what discussions could be had, based on the fact that they have cancelled the funding. What I am asking the Minister to do is work with her department and see if she could find the $250,000 it will take to run this incredibly important program for these families in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Member that this is an important program. This is not the matter of debate. The program was a pilot project. The funding was time limited. The Yellowknife Health Authority is being responsive and responsible in letting them know so that they could engage, and they are talking about all options that are available to assist the families. I understand that the executive director and the authorities are willing to discuss all options with the authority, and we should give them a chance to do that.
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there was some time limit on this and that this was a pilot study. This was also tied to the THAF funding which was originally cut and there wasn’t going to be any of it for this year, but the THAF funding has been extended for this year and next year. I am curious why it was tied to that funding originally. Why would we only extend this program for one year when we have the THAF funding for two years? Why are we differentiating between these programs and cutting off at 2010-11 when we have money until 2011-12?
Mr. Speaker, the Member and the Members across have an input. We have a consensus system of government here where we see all of the details of these funding mechanisms.
THAF funding was for five years and it was to expire in March of this year. We were able to extend the program with the federal government, which we appreciate very much. The federal government is supporting us in a big way. But the new funding program or package is not identical to the first THAF. It is an extension and it has a specific criterion that has earmarked all of the money that they are funding. The extension of THAF, which is now called THSSI, does not provide for the respite care program. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Which begs a question: Why we are able to fund it for 2010-11 and not 2011-12 if it is the same funding?
My question goes to THAF and planning within the department. We all know that the THAF money was intended to be an opportunity to explore some of these other areas of health care and that we were supposed to do some transition planning on how we are going to fund these programs, especially the programs that work, in the future. This is one that worked. This is one that had value, yet I don’t seem to recognize or see any evidence that the authority and the department did the planning for the longevity of these programs. I think we have a responsibility here to continue to deliver this program. So once again I go back to the Minister and ask her to commit to finding the funding to continue this program on. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I will be coming forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs on details of THSSI funding that we had received. We are just finalizing that and transitioning, Mr. Speaker, but that does not mean finding ways to extend the program. We need to understand very clearly that THAF and THSSI funding will expire at the end of 2012. We need to come up with an exit program. Transition does not mean finding ways to extend, it means exiting. I will be coming forward as a supp to deal with THSSI. I will be putting forward a proposal to the committee members for everybody to review. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on the questions of my colleague Mr. Abernethy and direct them to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I am really confused even more so than I was prior to our statements. In an effort to bring some clarity to this issue and the funding for this program, I want to know from the Minister how we can have information from the Department of Health and Social Services which tells me that funding for this program in 2010-11 will be continued and next year into 2011-12, and that there will also be an increase in that programming. I would like to know from the Minister what is the funding in the business plan for 2011-12 for respite services. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure if that information is not before the House. We know -- and I want to be totally clear -- that having Yellowknife Health having advised YACL that this funding will not continue, that is public information. We need to address that, but I believe the information on business plan and the future budget issue is not something that we could discuss in detail.
For the benefit of the Members, Mr. Speaker, as I stated to MLA Abernethy, I will be coming forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs on the detailed information about THSSI and I think we will have a chance there to talk about details of the program. We are doing that by way of a supplementary appropriation by the rule of the House. I am fully planning to come forward with a proposal and get full input from the Standing Committee on Social Programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for the commitment to bring us forward a plan. That is certainly something committee has been asking for, for quite a while. But there is still a huge confusion around this issue. The Minister has been telling me, through my inquiries, that there is no change to the respite programs for the next fiscal year. Yet, Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has cut all funding for a program that presumably is continuing in 2011-12. I need to ask the Minister why am I getting different answers. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think it would be very helpful when we have detailed discussion about THSSI funding and what is included, because we are subject to the rules and the funding that has been negotiated between the federal government and territorial government.
Like I stated before, the federal government has extended THAF as THSSI for us to transition and exit other programs. There are very, very specific criteria on how we should use that funding. So I will be bringing that forward to the standing committee. That just got finalized, the federal Minister just announced that. We’re just in the process of penning that agreement.
Mr. Speaker, on the issue of what is Yellowknife Health saying, Yellowknife Health has been in charge of administering this program and they also get money for other programs for THAF and THSSI and they have decided to engage YACL to tell them well in advance -- this is six months in advance -- YACL will have this program until the end of March. That is more notice than probably any other program such as this and we all want to work together to see what options there are.
There’s no real need to be confused or anything about that. All that information will be out there. There’s full opportunity for us to discuss. I think we will all benefit from having more information about what THSSI funding includes and what they’re proposing for us to do with it, what qualifies, what doesn’t qualify. This is very important funding for everybody. It’s important for Members and the standing committee, Yellowknife Health and the department to work together. Thank you.
I do agree with the Minister that it is important to discuss this, but I’m having a very difficult time. I believe this is a matter of poor communication or lack of communication. It would seem to me that this funding is coming from the department to the Health and Social Services Authority in Yellowknife and then to the programs that they happen to be running. I don’t understand why the specifics of the federal funding would change from the year ‘10-11 to the year ‘11-12, and that’s what I hear the Minister saying.
She also mentioned that, you know, a transitioning is not to be used for ways to extend programming. Well, if it’s a valuable program, I don’t understand, Mr. Speaker, why the Minister wouldn’t want to look at which programs are good and which are not.
In the business plans that we discussed, I would have assumed that we were discussing the budget for ‘11-12 and I would have hoped that we would have been advised about changes in programs. Why did the Minister not advise us of changes to this respite program when we discussed the business plan? Thank you.
I have to agree with the Member that all of the programs that we fund under THAF are very valuable programs and the programs that we will be funding under THSSI are valuable too, and anything that we will not be able to continue because of the criteria and lack of funds, I need to let everybody know that THSSI funding is a lot less than THAF funding. So we will be faced with discontinuing and not being able to continue on with some programs. That’s why it’s important that we find time to discuss in detail what this transition means, and I totally respect the role that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has to play. We will be faced with looking at a good program versus another good program versus another better program, and these are tough choices we need to make.
The timing of Yellowknife Health Authority’s announcement is very unfortunate because we are not able to look at the full picture, and I want to commit to the members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs that I am going to come forward with the entire picture of what the THSSI renewal looks like, what it means. All of the authorities have been asked to look at what their budgets are and how they want to and how they are dealing with this transition. We need to work together on that and we could only do it when we have a full picture. I will be coming to the Standing Committee on Social Programs as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the commitment for the full picture and I guess I have a difficult time understanding why we don’t already have the full picture when we are using some of this THSSI funding in this particular fiscal year.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister if she will commit to meet with the Yellowknife Association of Community Living to hear their concerns, to understand why it is they are so upset about the cancellation of this programming. Will she do that and when? Thank you.
Absolutely. I’d be happy to meet with the group. I was there when this respite program wasn’t there and it was one of the things that Standing Committee on Social Programs, that I used to sit on, are good for. I understand the value of this program. We have to look at this in the context of the financial pressures that we are in. I want to say again to the Members and the families and the authority and YACL and everybody out there, that I am committed to looking at everything we possibly can to see and look at all options possible. We need to work together to finance this. Thank you.
Thank you. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
