It’s not in the strategic plan for the 17th Assembly, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to do analysis and collect data that will help us be informed when the department does move forward with reviewing this more thoroughly. We do have a significant number of projects on the go that are going to improve the health and the care and the future of residents, and those need to be our priority for the remainder of this term.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Continuing on with questions on 8-27, I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one quick follow-up on that. I suppose the biggest recommendation to come out of the exercise from the 16th to me was the realization that we really want everybody to have other coverage and that that could be tapped into to help protect our resources.
What proportion of the NWT residents have additional coverage and what are we doing to make sure that those that don’t somehow get it to the extent that that’s possible? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Based on numbers that we’ve had in the past, we know that it is estimated that about 10 percent of NWT residents have no access to supplementary health benefit coverage. So that means the rest – 90 percent – have coverage of some capacity, whether it’s through private insurance, extended health benefits, NIHB, but about 10 percent don’t have this type of coverage.
Thank you. Is territorial coverage, GNWT coverage, included in the 90 percent?
So I guess what we want to see is those residents get additional coverage that will help protect the territorial resources.
Mr. Bromley, I’ll get you to rephrase that question a little differently. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My understanding was we wanted to make sure that people had additional supplementary benefits and health benefits coverage beyond the territorial GNWT coverage in order to protect GNWT resources, essentially third-party, and that we were going to promote that. That’s the statistic that I’m looking for.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley, for doing that. Minister Abernethy.
So, just so I’m clear, what you’re asking is: How many residents of the Northwest Territories do not have third-party employer-provided types of insurance or other supplementary insurances like NIHB? Am I correct?
That’s correct.
I don’t believe we have that detail. I do remember in the last government when the supplementary health debate occurred in the House, there was some recognition by the department that we would find ways to encourage people to obtain some sort of third-party insurance, whether it’s through employers or other things. I’m not currently aware of the status of that, but I will talk to the department, I will get an update and I’ll provide that to committee.
To me, again, that was the biggest recommendation that came out of all the work on this in the 16th Assembly, so I’m surprised that it’s not higher on the agenda here, because I don’t think there’s much cost to that but the benefits are potentially substantial. I appreciate the Minister committing himself to look into it and I hope that it gets some action as well as looking into it. Thank you.
I’ve committed to having the department look at this and we’ll get back to the Members with some additional detail.
Okay, committee, we are on 8-27, activity summary, supplementary health programs, operations expenditure summary, $27.3 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, 8-28, activity summary, supplementary health programs, grants and contributions, $16.829 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, 8-31. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have two questions here and I mentioned it in my general comments, opening comments on this department and I don’t think I got an answer from the Minister. I’m not surprised; there were lots of comments for him to respond to. But I did want to know, I did want to get an update on the efforts to establish child and family service committees. I know the department worked very hard on it over the last two years or so and I know they were struggling to get any kind of uptake from communities. I would like to know from the Minister, do we still have somebody that’s working on establishing those committees or is it something that has fallen by the wayside and maybe try a different tack at a different time. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was an issue that came up in the 16th Assembly and I think additional money was put in so that it established committees throughout the Northwest Territories. I know the department has been eager to establish these starting late in the 16th Assembly and certainly into the beginning of the 17th Assembly, but at the end of the day we don’t have any and there seems to be very little interest or uptake at the community level.
In principle, by intent, the reason these committees were put into the act is absolutely sound, but there’s obviously a disconnect somewhere in our inability to convince or encourage people to be involved. We have heard from some of the communities what some of the barriers are. Chief, council members and community members are concerned about the financial legal requirements that communities may have to undertake. Many people are related in smaller communities and potential conflicts of interest exist. We have continual turnover in electoral leadership impacting communities’ priority areas and investments, limited personal and community knowledge and understanding of the current child and family services system. People are nervous and that seems to be the feedback that we’re getting.
I think people believe in the intent but don’t necessarily believe in the structure. I think it’s time that all of us sat down and had a conversation about how do we get back to the intent – maybe the model we’ve chosen is not appropriate – and how do we get back to where we wanted to be, which is that communities have involvement in ensuring that children from their communities stay in their communities as far as is reasonable and safe to do so. Maybe we should start looking at interagency committees as one option.
I think it’s time that we need to rethink this particular structure that we’ve created by legislation because it does not seem to be meeting the need, although the intent is sound. I’d like to get back to the intent and find a new model that works.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. I’d just like to advise witnesses if they could just tighten up their responses just a little bit. Thank you. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to thank the Minister for that open response. I was asking because that’s where I kind of thought we were. I think the Standing Committee on Social Programs would be quite open to trying to get together and figure out what will work, because we have to do something.
My other question has to do with the increase in contract services on this page. It’s about $6 million, $5.5 million. Could I get an explanation as to what increases in contracts we’re talking about? Thank you.
I believe I mentioned these in my response to opening comments. Every year we come forward with significant supps for adult and children southern placements. In fact, this year again the Minister of Finance just tabled the supps and those supps include significant asks for actual costs related to adult and children placements. So we are asking for, in this budget, $2.8 million to be added to the budget for adult southern placements and $2.4 million for children southern placements. We recognize that the cost of southern placements is incredibly high and the director of social services has initiated a client-by-client audit so we could start digging into what are the needs of these people that are going south, if there’s a like contingent of individuals, is there an opportunity to find a way to repatriate them, a block of individuals with similar needs. A person-by-person audit is well over 100 files and it’s going to take a bit of time, but this is an expensive area and if we can find any way to repatriate some of those dollars and people, we’d be better off in doing that review.
In the mean… [Microphone turned off]
Sorry, Mr. Abernethy. I’ll let you finish up for the record. I don’t think they caught you. Go ahead.
I don’t remember what I said.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Moving on with questions on activity 8-31, I have Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a few issues within the community programs here, but rather than get into back and forth questioning, I think what I’ll do is begin with reading in a motion regarding the child and family resources programs and services, please.
Go ahead, Mr. Moses.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the government allocate an additional $1.2 million to extend the child and family resource programs and services to at least six small communities in the 2014-15 fiscal year; and further, that the Department of Health and Social Services collaborate with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to utilize school facilities for the child and family resource programs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Just give us a second and we’ll circulate that motion.
Committee, the motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee recommends this amount of money specifically for child and family resource programs and services to be rolled out in at least six small communities, building on the success of the pilots in Tulita and Ndilo. Members favour these programs and services because it will provide meaningful support to at-risk families. We also strongly believe that the Department of Health should work with the Department of ECE.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the Minister did table a good report earlier this week and I just want to refer to some statistics that were brought out of that, one of them being percentage of children receiving services in their home community under the Child and Family Services Act. They set a baseline for 80 percent and they did a lot better than that, they had 87.5 percent, which is great, but looking at those numbers it also tells me that we’re putting more stress and more pressure and more workload on our social service workers and those that provide similar work.
Just below that they talk about the percentage of children receiving services in the their home or with a relative under the Child and Family Services Act, and that number is 59 percent. I know we all come from small communities that we talk about, and we see this firsthand where grandparents could be in the statistics where we’re putting stress on grandparents who are taking care of their grandchildren, or siblings or aunts and uncles who take care of children on behalf of families who can’t, that the number of communities with a child and family services committee initiated.
In 2012-13 the department set a target for six. The actual numbers that they had were zero, and the Minister alluded to that earlier. The number of foster families in the NWT that comes from this report is 132, and we do know that there is a shortage of foster families in the Northwest Territories. As a result, the committee does recommend that this money goes towards programs and services that would affect the child and family resources in the communities.
I just want to make note, as well, that come March, I believe March 5th it is, the Government of the Northwest Territories and the department are going to receive a report back from the Office of the Auditor General specifically on the Child and Family Services Act and it’s going to have a lot of recommendations, it’s going to have a lot of concerns that were brought up that were audited. I believe this committee wants to take an approach in addressing some of these concerns and how they can be addressed sooner than later. Although we don’t have the Auditor General’s report in front of us with any of the actions that need to be taking place, committee recognizes that there’s going to be some dollars that are needed to address these concerns and try to deal with it in a fashion where we can address it at a sooner date.
Mr. Chair, that’s all the comments I have for this, but I believe there is some strong content in there. Speaking with some of the social workers back home and throughout the Beaufort-Delta and Sahtu regions, I do know there is a need for added resources to address some of the needs with child and family resources that we have in the communities and, in some cases, lack.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just want to highlight the second part of the motion that encourages the Department of Health and Social Services to work with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to house child and family resource centres in the schools.
Interestingly enough, some Members attended a presentation the other morning by a couple of early childhood development experts and one of the points that they raised was that putting early childhood development programs in a school encourages the family to accept school as a good place to be, encourages kids to accept school as a good place to be. They learn from an early age that the school is a good place, that it’s a safe place, that it’s a fun place, and it may help us in terms of our attendance.
That’s the second part of the motion that wasn’t referenced by Mr. Moses, and I think it’s really important that this can be a really valid program particularly for our small communities, any community, but the motion references small communities in particular. I think the initial results from the pilot programs from this year for the child and family resource centres was that they were pretty positive, so committee felt very strongly that this is something that needs to be expanded, and I think it fits in with the goals of the Assembly in terms of early childhood and also prevention and promotion.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to committee for putting forward this motion. The particular pilots that were mentioned are actually pilots that are being run by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, but recognizing that there’s a lot of similarity in some of the things that we’re trying to do with respect to early childhood development and the communities. We do have our Healthy Family programs, and we do have those currently in 15 communities throughout the Northwest Territories, and some of those communities are providing supports to other communities. We have put money in the budget this year to enhance and provide some stabilization funding for those Healthy Family programs so that we can continue to be effective, but until we finish those pilots and we have an idea of what those programs are doing, it might be premature to identify a $1.2 million ask in this particular area. Also, we have a fiscal strategy and we do have some limited funds moving forward and we have to find $30 million over the next two budgets in order to continue to meet our fiscal framework, so there are certainly some challenges.
With respect to the second part of the budget, absolutely, the two departments need to continue to work together, and we will continue to work together. There is clearly some overlap around the early childhood development and we are partnering significantly in moving forward on the ECD.
We will not be supporting this motion at this time even though we will continue to do the second part of this motion.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is defeated.
---Defeated
Committee, we’re on 8-31. I can go back to Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I said, there are some concerns that I have with this section of the budget and rather than get into detail I would like to just come right out and I’d just like to read another motion into the House.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. We’re just going to circulate that motion.
Committee, the motion is in order. To the motion. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee is in strong support of the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan; however, Members do feel that the portion allocated to this initiative and recommended the additional allocation of funding for the priorities in the action plan, and as I mentioned earlier, including but not limited to the detox facilities, after-care and enhanced mental health services. Also, to gain the judiciary’s confidence in the wellness courts, enhancements to existing mental health services will likely be required. Furthermore, this has been a big initiative of mine since joining the Assembly, and I’ve worked on it down to the point where we’re looking at addressing the Mental Health Act.
In the updated action plan for the addictions on mental health, 2014-2016, this committee, once again, is in strong support. We just want to make sure that there are sufficient funds available to address some of the needs of our mental health issues that we see in our communities across the Northwest Territories, and that is strongly supported by me and some of the committee members.
At this time, I would also just like to thank Members here for listening to recommendations made from the Standing Committee on Social Programs. We’ve been working on this ever since the beginning of the 17th Legislative Assembly, and we’ve always looked at supporting initiatives and supporting work that government has done through motions and through questions and how we deal with things in the House. I’d just like to thank the Members here today for at least acknowledging that committee is making recommendations for allocations within this budget to some of our biggest issues across the Northwest Territories. I just want to say thank you to all the Members for allowing us to bring these up in the House today. I’m not sure if any other Members will speak to the motion.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. To the motion. I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to thank Mr. Moses for bringing this motion up, and I also wanted to say to government, you have come a long way in the different areas of how we deal with mental health, addictions, drugs and alcohol and moving away from the residential treatment programs and now to listening to people on-the-land treatment programs, mobile treatment and just new initiatives that we’re taking on. It’s been a while since we’ve had this type of new shift in the making of healthy communities as to our priorities and goals. This motion here speaks to support this. We’re looking for money inside.
Last year the Northwest Territories Liquor Commission made $24 million profit off of liquor in the Northwest Territories. They bought about $47 million, $45 million worth of booze, and after all the expenses they have a profit sitting there of $24 million. We have, through Bill 24, had some quite intensive, emotional, strong statements of people in the Sahtu just on the effects of alcohol and the things that they needed to do in the community to deal with the evils of alcohol abuse. The motion speaks to maybe looking at the Liquor Commission. I know there’s money that goes into general revenue and then goes to all the departments. We passed a motion last year to have a percentage of the profits from the liquor sales go directly to a program in the communities to fight alcohol abuse, and that motion hasn’t even been acknowledged or been responded to looking at what we want on this side here. I would say that if the government could look at finding the additional dollars using the Liquor Revolving Fund as a means to say yes, we could look at something like this, other than to say, well, it goes into general revenues and it cuts right across the whole board.
Let’s do something symbolic, something that says we’re buying $47 million of liquor. We could at least put some money, 10 percent of that percentage directly into the communities and in support of community members. Let’s change some things. Let’s do things differently. Otherwise, you’re going to hear we had money, $86 million. This is a specific area of profit we want to go into even though alcohol touches many other areas. I would strongly urge Cabinet to think about this and to look at this and really consider when you’re looking at this motion, give us a good reason why you’re going to be voting against this and not supporting this motion. If you’re not going to support this, give us a good reason as to why you’re not supporting this motion of $2 million. We buy $47 million worth of booze for the Northwest Territories people. We make a profit of $24 million. At least a percentage should go back to the communities. We have heard from the Sahtu, five communities, through Social Programs. We know of the pain they spoke of and the alcohol abuse and addiction. I do applaud them on the new direction we’re going in, but we need to ensure that this type of funding gets into the communities. We’ve lost enough young ones and enough people through this addiction and we’re looking for something challenging.
I want to thank Mr. Moses for bringing this up and for the Members for listening to our people in the Sahtu on the recommendations we had on Bill 24, which is outside the legislation we’re going through. I want to leave it at that, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Menicoche.
