Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services, specifically for persons with disabilities. Residents at Enterprise have very limited access to services, especially if people are disabled and they have very limited services in the community. That’s more likely a general statement that could be upheld in smaller communities.
My question is to the Minister. How will the Department of Health and Social Services support continuing the handivan services in Hay River and the surrounding communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Public transportation is the responsibility of the municipalities, and this includes things like the handivan services. At the present time, the GNWT doesn’t have any available funding through the Department of Health and Social Services to support this initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I was expecting an answer like that. Has the Department of Health and Social Services discussed this matter with other departments if there’s no funding, like MACA or with the Town of Hay River, to look for a partnership solution to these problems? We need an answer today. Mahsi.
Aside from medical travel, the Department of Health and Social Services isn’t actually involved in transportation, but I have had this issue raised to me and we have shared this information with MACA, who has indicated to me that the community government could choose to use either their gas tax or community public infrastructure funding to purchase handivans in their communities to provide services to their residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Perhaps you could sum up the situation like this: We need to do something today and now. I think persons with disabilities lack the services and support that they could have in larger centres, but in small communities people struggle. The town can’t afford to maintain the services, and at the same time, local costs cannot be absorbed by the Hamlet of Enterprise. The Minister is mandated with his department and also has the responsibility to look after the general interests of residents of the GNWT.
Can the Minister step in and commit to assist and providing the funding to the Town of Hay River immediately so that disabled persons can access the handivan? Mahsi.
It’s my understanding that the Town of Hay River actually did have a handivan in place, and for a period of time they did provide services throughout the community for persons with disabilities, including services to Enterprise as well. That service was actually discontinued by the community.
I would strongly encourage the community to continue to have dialogue with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs around what money they can use that has been allocated already. Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Social Services, as I said, doesn’t have a responsibility for travel of people in the Northwest Territories outside of medical travel, and this wouldn’t fall under that scenario. But I will certainly share the information once again with the Minister responsible for MACA and strongly encourage the Member to work with the community and have them continue their dialogue with MACA.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a very disappointing lack of commitment and a lack of a very substantive answer to an everyday problem that we experience in small communities.
I don’t know; what is the role of the department, then, and the Minister, the role of this government in addressing persons with disabilities that require services at the local level? What role is this Minister going to play and what role is this government going to play in addressing services that could be directed towards meeting the needs of disabled people?
It’s a shared responsibility across the Government of the Northwest Territories depending on the different portfolios. Housing has a significant number of responsibilities around persons with disabilities and they have been addressing those. As does MACA with communities, as does Health and Social Services, things that we’ve done around the Early Childhood Development Action Plan, work around respite. As the Minister responsible, one of my responsibilities is to share information across the different departments and ensure that they are working towards a common goal, but it doesn’t change the individual department mandates.
I have indicated that I will certainly continue to work with MACA. I strongly encourage the Member to have the communities that are affected discuss the issue with MACA and see if they can find a new resolution. But community transportation is not a responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services, so I strongly encourage him to continue to have that dialogue with the appropriate Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
