The Auditor General has continually pointed out how this government has failed because we fail to put evaluation systems in place. Obviously, it’s getting too late to put an evaluation system in place. I had asked the Minister what systems he had put in place to ensure that information. This is very disappointing and, I would say, very irresponsible to be going forward with this program without those systems in place.
The Wellness Court is heavily dependent on other departments in the social envelope; for example, Health and Social Services and perhaps ECE.
What systems are in place to capture, compile and understand results from across these departments to evaluate Wellness Court programs and enable timely improvements, given that there is obviously none in Justice? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, just waiting for my light to come back on.
I’m not quite sure what the Member is getting at. We have systems in place at the Department of Justice. I can’t speak for the other two departments, but we are not going to be putting the resources and the effort into establishing a Wellness Court here in the Northwest Territories without a way to measure the success of it, measure how it is impacting people that are going through the court system. When we lay this out, those measurements are in place; they certainly will be looked at. All I was mentioning was that the court has only been established since October 2nd. It is too early to get the statistics the Member is talking about. That was my thought process there.
To the Member, we do have processes in place at the Department of Justice, and I want to assure the House and the Member that we do in fact have those in place. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the additional information from the Minister. I wonder if the Minister would commit to providing that. I apparently misunderstood his earlier comments.
I think we all expect great things from this program, judging from the results we have seen in the Yukon.
Will the Minister commit to annually report back to this House as to the efficacy of the Wellness Court and its attendant programs in other departments, which are critically important as well? Mahsi.
Yes, that would be something that we would look forward to doing. Again, we believe it will be very successful and we would like to share all that information with Members of the House and the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with some more questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment because several things have been shared in the House since I asked my first questions, which create more questions.
The Minister referred to a survey that was being done. I would like to ask the Minister, will he table a copy of this survey in the House, and who exactly is being surveyed with respect to the Junior Kindergarten program rollout? Who is the survey for and what does the survey look like? Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the survey will be to find out what the 23 communities, if there is any major issues that we may have missed out on from the parents, from the community organizations, even as far as the regional centres and also Yellowknife, just to share their perspectives. We may have missed out on various key initiatives that they may bring to our attention. I want to hear from parents as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we had over the weekend, how can we best reach out to those communities, and that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I was under the impression that there was already a survey that existed. So if the survey does not exist yet, I would like a comprehensive list of who is going to be surveyed and what the survey questions are going to be, because it’s all about the questions you ask in terms of the information that you get back in.
I would suggest that not only parents of Junior Kindergarten-aged children should be surveyed, I think we should survey other parents in the education system, because when we met with our DEA in Hay River, we saw them struggling over what they would cut out of the kindergarten to Grade 12 program in order to accommodate Junior Kindergarten. They were talking about things like they need to look at the busing program, for example. The Premier says that our DEAs and DECs are being over funded by the legislative standard by $17 million per year, but I would like the Minister or the Premier to sit in some of the meetings of some of these DEAs and watch how they struggle to cover the initiatives that this government mandates them with, things like inclusive schooling, for example, for which there is also inadequate funding.
I would like to ask the Minister of Education if he would inventory, in the 23 communities where he says Junior Kindergarten has already rolled out only for three months, would he inventory in those 23 communities exactly what preschool, early childhood development programs already exist and report that back to this House? Thank you.
Mahsi. That is exactly what we’re doing. My staff is currently meeting with YK1 and YCS, just through discussion on their overall budget as well. We are doing the same thing with South Slave school board as well. There are discretionary funds in there, as well, and there are various areas of funding that we found to be flexible. The flexibility is there that we can work with. At the end of the day, it is up to the school boards to decide if they can allow that to happen and so forth. My staff is diligently working with the school boards, whether it be Yellowknife and Hay River, Fort Smith, the South Slave district.
Yes, we’re doing the overall inventory of the 23 communities, and obviously, we need to identify what programs are currently in existence and we’ve done the research, as well, and we’ve provided all that information to the board chairs as well. Those are the discussions that we need to compile, as well, so I can share that with the Members of what we’ve compiled to date.
It is indeed confusing. At first I thought the Minister was saying that he was going to inventory the preschool programs in the communities, and now he says they’ve already done it. If he’s going to say he’s going to do it now, I was going to suggest wouldn’t that have been a good thing to do before you rolled out the Junior Kindergarten.
Anyway, the Minister last week referred to the specialized education that the teachers of children in early childhood development and Junior Kindergarten would require. The Minister indicated that that training had already taken place.
Again, could the Minister please tell me, in the 23 communities where Junior Kindergarten has already been rolled out, how many of those educators of those children have already received that specialized education?
I believe I did share that with the Assembly here. I’ll share that information again on the number of those individuals that were trained last spring and this past fall. That is continuous training with new staff that are coming on board, because we have to be prepared to deliver the qualified programming. It’s a curriculum base. It’s a play-based curriculum base, so we need to have those staff that are qualified to deliver that. There has been training that took place, so I will provide that list to the Member.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t fully understand everything the Minister is telling us. I guess this is my final supplementary.
Are there educators teaching Junior Kindergarten in the 23 communities today who are not qualified to do so by way of an early childhood development specialized credential of some sort?
When it comes to delivering Junior Kindergarten in the 23 communities, obviously the teachers will be teaching our kids, our children in our school system, and the teachers go through various university degree programs, and part of the programming, of course, is early childhood as part of their degree program. We may not have a specific early childhood specialist teaching our kids in our school system, but we do have qualified teachers in our communities that are teaching our kids.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The time for question period time has expired. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m seeking unanimous consent to return to number five on orders of the day.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I’d like to recognize a couple of constituents of mine in the gallery, Paul Bushey and his son Davis.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to do this one early. I’d like to recognize two young students from the Chief Albert Wright School, Chris Kosh and Shannon McPherson, who are going to be serving the MLAs this week.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled “2013-2014 Status of Women Council of the Northwest Territories Annual Report.”
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Growing Forward 2: A Summary Report of the Small Scale Foods Program, 2013-14.”
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table the Territorial Court of the Northwest Territories Action 2013-000272, between Her Majesty the Queen and the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories as represented by the Department of Transportation of the Government of the Northwest Territories, Grizzly Marine Services Limited and Bill Prodromidis.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Item 15, notices of motion. Mr. Moses.
Mr. Speaker, that’s for item number 18, not the item that we have before us.
WHEREAS the population of the Northwest Territories is ageing, with the proportion of seniors of the general population rising by about 8 percent annually;
AND WHEREAS the waiting lists in the NWT for extended care facilities are long and getting longer, with urgent current and future need for services for seniors in both large and small communities;
AND WHEREAS the numbers of seniors living in Yellowknife will triple by 2031, and the number of beds needed may parallel this increase here and throughout the NWT;
AND WHEREAS there is a projected shortfall in the NWT of 200 long-term care beds and 60 dementia beds by 2031, according to the 2013 GNWT Health and Social Services Continuing Care Review;
AND WHEREAS it is acknowledged that supports for seniors to age in place are beneficial to our society and will help in some degree to delay and reduce the need for long-term care, but will not relieve the existing deficit in facilities;
AND WHEREAS facilities in Norman Wells and Behchoko with 18 beds each are being constructed, and these projects are a step in the right direction but will again not address the territorial deficit and building need;
AND WHEREAS the Avens Society has a proven record of providing effective and efficient long-term care facilities to residents from across the Territories, with 52 percent of Aven Cottage residents and 18 percent of Aven Manor residents from home communities outside of Yellowknife, at relatively low cost;
AND WHEREAS Avens Society is poised to begin construction of a 60-bed facility pending indications of government support;
AND WHEREAS the territorial facilities at Aven Manor were built in 1987 and are coming to the end of their useful service life, with critical electrical, structural and mechanical and systems upgrades needed;
AND WHEREAS Aven Manor was never designed to provide long-term care, with the consequence that there are significant occupational hazards with the continued use of the space by people who have high level care needs;
AND WHEREAS current NWT waiting lists for Avens Campus facilities are four to six years, and eight months for a long-term care bed;
AND WHEREAS Avens Territorial Campus plays a key interim role in providing care for NWT seniors, there is recognition that regional facilities must also develop to meet regional needs;
AND WHEREAS government financial support of facilities for seniors is crucial;
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that the government develop a long-term action plan for the provision of the necessary long-term care beds, indicating the steps they will take in the areas of resources, facilities and timing to meet this urgent need for facilities for seniors, including possible partnerships to serve those seniors who have some financial independence, in both large and small communities;
AND FURTHER, that the government provide Avens Society with the assurance of support needed to enable construction of their proposed new 60-bed territorial facility and renovation of existing facilities to begin next spring;
AND FURTHERMORE, that the government respond to this motion within 120 days.
Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know my colleagues in the House are all aware of the changing age structure in the Northwest Territories and that as a proportion our numbers of seniors in the general population is increasing steadily from year to year. This has been a long-term trend and its slowly ramping up. The projected shortfall of 200 long-term care beds and 60 dementia beds by 2031 was a result of one study. In fact, the numbers of seniors in Yellowknife will grow at triple the rate of the rest of the Northwest Territories. I recall discussions in the past about the number of seniors, the amazing proportion of the population who are seniors over 65 years of age in the Mackenzie Delta, for example.
The present projects in Behchoko and Norman Wells are certainly a step in the right direction and they are significant, but I think it’s well-recognized that they are a step. They alone are not sufficient.
There are long waiting lists for Avens campus facilities. Again, I would say most people are aware of this and for long-term care beds. Four to six years for the cottages, eight months for long-term care beds and these are rising steadily again, along with the forecasts that we’ve been hearing about.
Avens Society, again, has a proven record, a long history for support to all territorial seniors, but Aven Manor was built in 1987 and is quickly coming to the end of its service life without significant renovation to meet codes and safety requirements. It requires extensive upgrades to the electrical, structural and mechanical systems, including, for example, replacement of roof and a boiler. Kitchen facilities have long been recognized as inadequate on that campus.
Avens, of course, was never really designed for long-term care. The society is now poised to begin construction of a 60-bed facility designed to meet modern standards and to serve all territorial seniors. However, it’s no surprise that government support is crucial and must be in place for Avens project to proceed next spring. In fact, there is site preparation happening right now as we speak and I believe the Minister of Health and Social Services has been supporting that effort, if not with resources then through other means.
So I think there’s a long standing reputation of this society. They set very high standards. We know that they have recently met the accreditation process, a very rigorous process to meet all standards of care and safety and so on and they’ve made it through that, this independent society with very high standards and very high percentages of success in the examinations that they went through.
The ongoing need for facilities for seniors with some financial independence continues to this day and I know the Minister is well aware of that. What can this government do to form partnerships with private enterprise to address this growing need? There is likely some other innovative ways of addressing this.
Retaining seniors I know is important to this House. The Minister of Finance has talked a lot about building our population and growing it by a couple of thousand over the next five years. One way of doing that is to provide appropriate levels of support for our seniors so they don’t have to travel south to find those supports. Let alone the support is important to the health of our families, many of whom are under certain levels of stress as they try and provide that support themselves.
The current infrastructure plan of Health and Social Services will not provide the needed facilities in time for people that are soon going to need seniors support facilities to be able to stay in the NWT, as I mentioned. Elders, after all they’ve contributed to society in the North, deserve some certainty that they will be safe and comfortable in the autumn of their lives, not concerned about whether their basic needs will be met, and that’s beginning to be the case for many people.
Therefore, I and my colleague Mrs. Groenewegen are calling for a comprehensive and transparent action plan that recognizes all of these conditions and meets the needs identified for proper treatment of our seniors, meeting long-term and different levels of care in all of our communities, both large and small, across the Northwest Territories. This plan needs to improve what this government will do to work with private industry to provide facilities for those seniors who are financially able but still in need of care.
Specifically with respect to the Avens project to provide 60 new long-term care beds and essential renovation of existing aging facilities, we are urging the government to provide the support needed to realize that project that is already well-designed and, as I mentioned, site preparation taking place. That society has a record of pooling incredible resources from businesses and contributions from members of the public, amazing volunteer services and so on while it contributes to their efficiency and so on. I know that’s the case in a number of our communities.
So I’ll leave it at that. I think the need is very clear and transparent to all. I look forward to hearing perspectives from across the Northwest Territories as represented by Members of this House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. I’ll allow the seconder to the motion to have remarks. Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Mr. Bromley for taking a lead role in drafting this motion. Reading this motion you may think that a lot of it applies to the Avens development here in Yellowknife, but I think that it sets a template and it sets a precedent and sets a good model of how our government can respond to our seniors in the Northwest Territories requiring extended care and care in their later years.
The demographic of our aging population in the Northwest Territories is irrefutable. It’s great news. People are living longer, people are living longer more independently, but certainly we need to, as a government, try to ensure as many options for as many different needs as possible that can be met here in the Northwest Territories in order to keep our seniors, as Mr. Bromley said, retain our seniors in the Northwest Territories.
I think that with this increase in the number of seniors that we’re anticipating over the next few years, it would really behoove this government to get ahead of this issue and to come up with, as Mr. Bromley says, a very transparent action plan to meet the needs of seniors. I think that we would be remiss if we thought, as a government, that we have it all within our power and within our financial means to address all those needs. That’s why I think a very important part of this motion is that we look for opportunities to partner with NGOs like the folks that had the vision for the Avens complex here in Yellowknife. We need community involvement; we need NGO involvement; we need to harness the contributions of corporate entities in the Northwest Territories. I think we need to be very clear to the public out there that this is not something that the government can take on singlehandedly and do a good job of. We need to harness the volunteerism and the work of NGOs.
Yellowknife, like I said, Avens is highlighted in here, but there’s no denying, as well, that Yellowknife is half the population of the Northwest Territories, and I think all of our communities, including the capital and the regional centres, do serve as centres for these types of services. It may be ideal to try to keep seniors in their own local and perhaps small communities as long as possible, but when that level of care goes to a certain degree and that’s not available at the local level, then we need to think of all these aspects and different levels of care that are required.
When we look down south, we see all kinds of organizations that are involved in the provision of seniors housing, whether it be churches, you often see churches that get involved in this type of thing and in a lot of those instances the seniors themselves have the capacity to pay and we have to consider that option. I don’t think you can think that the government is going to provide all these services at no cost. I think we, as a government, at some point need to consider people’s ability to pay, their willingness to pay, especially based on what they may see the requirements as. If people have an expectation and if we can have joint ventures of public private partnerships, get the private sector involved, I think that our government needs to actively pursue what kind of models are serving seniors in other jurisdictions in Canada, bring that information home, and let’s get ourselves well-prepared to make sure that we take care of our seniors in a comprehensive and the best way possible.
I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. To the motion. Mr. Bouchard.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be supporting this motion as well. In our recent difficulties with long-term beds in Hay River, we also had lots of people from the community say, what’s the future plan.
Obviously, we’re going to need more. The aging population of the Northwest Territories is going to be a factor in Hay River and how do we… We were asking at that time for the 10 long-term care beds to be replaced that were out of the capital budget and now they’re back in, but what are our needs coming forward? I know in November they did a continuing care review and that there are indications that there are strong demands out there, so now that we’ve done the review, we need to come up with a plan on how we’re going to go forward and, as the mover and seconder talked about, there’s need for partnership. So, obviously, we as a government are a small jurisdiction. There will be lots of pressures for us to solve this problem, and some of those problems have to come from the private sector as well.
So, Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank Mr. Bromley and Mrs. Groenewegen for bringing this motion forward before the House. I do understand, going through our capital budget, that there are a lot of projects on the go here. However, we also have to make decisions based on the needs and what we see as legislators as what’s coming down the pike, whether it’s education, in this case, or health or justice. But in this case it’s dealing with the high demographic of our senior populations of the Northwest Territories and to address that, the lack of infrastructure, to meet these needs.
I understand that there is support for the Aven Manor here in Yellowknife, and even though it is in Yellowknife, they do offer beds to seniors in the small communities.
When I was thinking about this motion, like I said, there’s the issue of lack of infrastructure in some of our regions, some of our communities. Obviously, I’ll be supporting this motion, mainly because there is an increase in the seniors population, and we’re seeing that over the years to come. But it goes beyond just beds, as I’ve mentioned before when we’ve discussed this.
A lot of our seniors go through things such as neglect. A lot of our seniors get abused in the small communities, whether it’s emotional, financial, psychological or physical. Our seniors need to get out of these situations that they’re in, and in some cases it’s not even the hardships on the seniors in terms of abuse and neglect, but even on the families themselves when there’s no centre, no infrastructure for seniors to go to. Sometimes it does put a lot of responsibility on the families, which in turn affects their mental health, which in turn affects whether or not they can do their job fully. All those things need to be taken into consideration when we look at creating this infrastructure for our seniors.
That’s one part of it, but another one is currently in our long-term facilities now we do have issues where we have patients that have dementia that are roomed with seniors that do kind of live a pretty independent lifestyle. That could be a stressful situation on those individuals as well.
Like I said, I thank Mr. Bromley and Mrs. Groenewegen for bringing this motion forward. I will be supporting the motion based on the fact that I would like to see more opportunity for some of our community seniors getting some of these beds and having the opportunity to partake in the facility and be able to get out of some of these situations that they are in in the small communities.
So, as I said, Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you Mr. Moses. To the motion. Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise today here. I’d like to thank our mover of the motion, Mr. Bromley, and Mrs. Groenewegen for seconding it.
You know, the Avens concern is nothing new to this House and I’m glad today we’re having a chance to finally discuss its importance. The crux of it is, the motion is very detailed but the motion raises the important issue of critical and a crisis that is pending. That crisis is that many of us in this room are reaching that critical age, some sooner than others, so I am hoping that this resonates loud and clear for those that are closer to that threshold.
With that, Mr. Speaker, there is a concern that we have been waiting on this side of the House for many opportunities to address this issue, and we’ve been very patient. We have waited for such things as Our Elders: Our Communities report which was tabled, I believe, on June 2nd of this year, and we were hoping that that would have laid some of the foundation of concern for dealing with the long-term care beds and dementia, but clearly, and shamefully, there was no targets or timelines, and I guess that was a disappointing factor.
We did wait for the Aging in Place Action Plan, which is a bit of a side issue in terms of trying to allow a senior to live in their places for a longer period of time, which I do agree with, but again nothing really substantial to formulate how we’re going to make this happen. Then, of course, you heard from some of my colleagues about the continuing care review. Again, all great initiatives in their own part, all speaking a certain sense of wanting to do something but, really, with no targets or timelines and with no financial commitment, it really is hard to come to grips that we do have a policy and a strategy moving forward.
Really, what are we looking at? The motion speaks to developing a long-term care plan, indicate the steps, the timing, and it enacts to include possible partnerships. These are all realities we live with today, and these are simple asks. We are not asking to build a rocket ship here; we are asking to design and develop something to which everyone will be in at a moment in time and, as I said earlier, some of us sooner than later.
I do support the motion. I believe that what we’re looking for here is a NGO that is looking for our government’s support. They have asked for a memorandum of the support, we have talked about this issue in our capital estimates last week, and clearly, even though it appears they have come forward numerous times to this government, we haven’t been to the table or at least haven’t been forthright in supporting them. I am hoping that through this motion, through this action, we are able to diffuse this situation that we have in the Northwest Territories and provide this territorial facility to allow a pressure relief, so to speak, with the aging in place concern that we have.
Again, I do like to thank Mr. Bromley and Mrs. Groenewegen for bringing this forward and I will be supporting this motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will not be supporting this motion, simply because this is an infrastructure project. I think recently we have had a shift toward and trying to enhance and renovate the Stanton Territorial Hospital, so it’s another large capital project that will be directed towards Yellowknife.
The other point that I wanted to make is, in the regional centres and community centres that we live in, there has been almost a shift away from the board that existed in the regions and communities so that people could have a voice. For cost efficiency, that is still under review and there is perhaps a trend to looking at a centralized coordinating body for health and social service issues in communities. Communities and regions, for that matter, feel that they don’t have a voice, and in this instance I think their voice has to be heard.
Also, the point that I wanted to make is, yes, it has to be acknowledged that we have an aging seniors population and the figures and the production for a need for a seniors facility here in Yellowknife projects by 2031 we will probably reach a point of critical mass where it will necessitate the need for more infrastructure, especially for specialized care. But at the same time, my faith is that the department, through its work, will look at and seriously examine the Home Care Program initiatives that we have, and I’m really hoping that could be enhanced. The Home Care Program provides care services for elders in their homes in small communities, and it would be really ideal if the department could identify registered nurses or nurse practitioners to be designated to those teams of people that can deliver those services to elders in their homes.
Not everyone in the communities wants to move to Yellowknife. They have very specific needs, especially First Nation elders that have a cultural tie to the community, extended families, there is also just the comfort of ensuring their independence, living in their home, being close to their grandchildren. Therefore, it is almost incumbent upon this to ensure that communities do have at least the opportunity to enhance their training and their capacity so that programs such as the Home Care Program can be enhanced. Designate, perhaps, trained professionals to work with the home care workers to ensure that those services are provided in the small communities. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the Motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
