Thank you. Talking about money, I indicated in my Member’s statement that we have built a major highway and we’ve put money into it. We know that’s a federal responsibility, but we know that in order to get some of this stuff going we need to have the leverage.
So, has the Minister talked about us looking at putting some money in to leverage the federal government to get this dredging done?
No, we haven’t offered up any money to our share of any dredging. What we do know is that the federal government is not dredging the harbour in Hay River. They haven’t had a dredging program since the early ‘90s, late ‘80s. Since then we’ve had a little bit of money at one point. I think in 2012 there was $60,000 allocated to remove some of the silt from a key area. But aside from that, essentially the dredging program has been non-operational for the years. It would take some money, for sure, to get the dredging operational again. The dredging equipment that was being used previously at the Hay River Harbour was sold to the municipality. We’ve never been able to get that equipment operational again for the work that was needed on that harbour in Hay River. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These are answers I’ve heard before. I want to know what the Minister, just recently in Ottawa, did to have a conversation with the federal government to get dredging done.
What meetings did he hold in Ottawa to get this dredging issue dealt with?
Thank you. The responsible Minister is the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans that would have completed the dredging if there was dredging to be done. I didn’t meet with Fisheries and Oceans. I met with the Minister of Infrastructure, Minister of Transportation, Minister responsible for Northern Development. In one discussion I had with the Minister of Transportation I mentioned that dredging in Hay River is needed as part of the transportation out of there, but it’s not her responsibility. We need to engage the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans. If they were to look at dredging, it would be coming from that department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier in the day I spoke about the need to replace the school in Trout Lake. I know that the Department of Education is currently assessing the facility and I also spoke about the Premier and Minister of Transportation going to Trout Lake, but the Minister himself has been to Trout Lake and indeed seen the school for himself. I know that they’re doing an assessment as we speak.
So I would like to ask the Minister if there’s a current report completed for the assessment of the school in Trout Lake. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since we visited the community with Member Menicoche, also the district education council, we’ve toured the school facility and we know the condition of it. So we’ve been talking about how we can proceed with the planning study. The planning study is underway, 2014-15 year, and it will provide us with a needs analysis, operational plan and also recommend the scope of work.
At the same time, an education plan began in May 2014 and the report is now complete as of June 2014. That provides us more data on the particular analysis and operation plan as well. Mahsi.
Thank you very much. The Minister spoke about the completion of the planning study. Just for clarification, does he mean that will be completed by the end of March of this year? Thank you.
Mahsi. That is part of the plan. If we can get it done sooner than that, that will be our priority as well as the department, working with Member Menicoche, how we can expedite this process as well. Mahsi.
Thank you very much. I certainly look forward to the results of that study and sharing it with the community. I know that the community of Trout Lake and I have always advocated for a replacement stand-alone school.
I’d like to ask the Minister what his department can do to move forward with a new replacement school. Thank you.
That is in the works. I’ve touched on the planning study and also the educational plan. That will give us the data analysis that we need to move forward as part of the capital planning process. There is a capital planning process that every department is entitled to go through that, so we’re doing what we can to push the Trout Lake school as part of the capital planning process. This will give us more ammunition to move that forward as part of the process. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much. There were some repairs needed for that building that the school is currently in.
Are there any plans to ship any repair material up the winter road currently? Thank you.
Mahsi. Within the capital plan, ‘15-16, obviously there’s $423,000 that’s earmarked as part of the proposal for Charles Tetcho School as part of the renovation to existing building space to provide adequate instructional space. I’ve been working with the Member on this. So we’re moving forward on that.
Yes, we’re fully aware that the community wants a stand-alone school. So that is the overall long-term plan and I need to work with the community as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services today. During the last session I asked questions about the rollout of the Midwifery Program. At that time the Minister indicated that two positions in Hay River were filled and going live in early 2015, which I understand has happened, and the department was actively recruiting to refill a midwife position in Fort Smith. So my first question is about Fort Smith.
Can we get an update on whether that long-vacant position in Fort Smith has been filled? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the position in Fort Smith is still not filled. We’ve attempted to go out and recruit that position a number of times and every recruitment activity has proved unsuccessful. We are intending to fill the position and we continue to go out and recruit and we hope that we do find somebody to fill that position in short order.
At the same time, we have filled the two positions in Hay River. That program has started. They’ve already started meeting with clients and we anticipate that the midwives in Hay River could be facilitating a birth in the community as soon as this month. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister also indicated last session that the Department of Health and Social Services was consulting with the people in the Inuvik/Beaufort-Delta region, gathering their thoughts about the Midwifery Program. The Minister related that there were a number of challenges and concerns, but he was working through those with the Beau-Del authority.
Can he explain or tell the House when the Midwifery Program in the Beau-Del will be implemented? Mahsi.
We have had some preliminary meetings with staff in the Beaufort-Delta who have been involved in this type of program or who might be involved in birthing services at this time. As the Member has indicated, there have been some challenges raised with the delivery of midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta. To that end, we are looking at envisioning how we are approaching midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta.
Originally when we came forward, there was a multi-part plan which included set up midwifery services in Hay River, move midwifery services to Beaufort-Delta and then move forward with a territorial program here in Yellowknife. We’re looking at re-envisioning that model and tweaking it a little bit. I had sent the Standing Committee on Social Programs some details about moving forward with a modified plan so we could get a greater degree of midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks again to the Minister. On May 6, 2011, the Minister temporarily suspended the successful but understaffed Midwifery Program in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Detah. Rather than choosing to staff the program appropriately, the Minister of the day simply suspended the program, leaving half of our residents in the Northwest Territories with no Midwifery Program at all. After four years, this suspension seems to have become a permanent cancellation.
When will the Minister fulfill the promise and reinstate, in an improved format, the highly valued and much missed Midwifery Program for Yellowknife, Ndilo and Detah? Mahsi.
Just for clarity, the Midwifery Program that was in Yellowknife was never funded. It actually never had core dollars to fund that program. It was funding the authority had taken out of other programs in order to create midwifery services.
I’m still committed to midwifery services, I always have been, which is one of the reasons we are looking at re-envisioning how we roll out midwifery services over the next couple of years.
As I indicated, we had planned to move forward with Beaufort-Delta. Things look like they might be changing. There have been some alternate proposals submitted to us on how to deliver services to the Beaufort-Delta, including one position that could be a nurse practitioner to be an educator, mentor for community health nurses and support them as well as support the physicians who happen to be located in the community.
What we would like to do is move forward with a territorial model based out of Yellowknife beginning planning in 2015-16 so we could have a full rollout in 2016-17 and midwifery services. We envision it as being a multi-part program, the territorial program, and it would be reasonable to locate that program out of Yellowknife in order to enable a broader scope of services to the women who may utilize those services.
It would also be a program that could support all communities throughout the Northwest Territories by providing expertise, guidance to community health nurses who happen to be involved with the pre- and postnatal services throughout the Northwest Territories.
The second part would actually be supporting birthing in Yellowknife for individuals who wish to have midwifery support in Yellowknife. So, a multi-part program. I have sent a letter outlining this opportunity to the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and before we move in that direction I am looking forward to their feedback and support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. I look forward to that getting in place with the timing you’ve given us. Over the years, while this has been going on actual Midwifery Program positions have languished unfulfilled, as the Minister knows.
My final question is: What did we do with the hundreds of thousands of unspent midwifery salary dollars approved by this Assembly for the introduction and staffing of midwifery programs across the NWT? Mahsi.
We did actually create a midwifery coordinator position in the department that unfortunately has gone through the revolving door as well, been filled, then vacant, then filled, then vacant. That position is a key position and a lot of the funds have gone to support the planning and operational design as well as consultation in communities and whatnot. So a significant number of things were done.
There aren’t hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars that have lapsed, but we are in a position, changing direction and moving forward with this new model, we may have an opportunity to utilize funds in a different way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on Mr. Bromley’s questions about midwifery. There are communities in the Northwest Territories outside Yellowknife that have had no birthing options for parents. As a result of that, people have to leave their community at their own expense, or distance themselves from their spouse, from perhaps their other children to depart the communities, the regional centres at least three weeks in advance of having a child.
The midwifery services in Hay River, which now the chief positions are staffed which is wonderful news for Hay River because other than midwifery the only other option is to go to Yellowknife or go someplace down south to have a child or baby.
Would midwifery in those communities where there are no other options to have a baby born in the community, would those not be a priority for midwifery services before places like Yellowknife where there are actually existing options? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the challenges we face around midwifery and providing birthing services in communities outside of Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife and Beaufort-Delta, Inuvik in particular, is that we need to make sure the facilities are appropriate, that individuals can receive the proper diagnostic and specialist obstetric or services such as C-section. Most of our communities don’t have the capacity to provide that type of service. So we need to make sure we focus our attention where we can actually provide birthing services.
What we’re talking about now is pushing midwifery services out and supporting community health nurses in the communities so they can provide many aspects of what midwives do, which is a lot of the postnatal and prenatal services, which will actually lead to healthier babies, healthier births and healthier pregnancies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister indicated that the support and supervision and administration for the Midwifery Program across the Northwest Territories would be operated out of Yellowknife.
I’d like to ask the Minister what is the rationalization for having that located in Yellowknife and why could that not also be located in a regional centre where there are already midwifery services which that administrative position would be overseeing. Thank you.
No final decision has been made. We are open to any discussion, but I would say at this time it is envisioned that a territorial program will be based in Yellowknife as this will enable a broader scope of women with certain risk factors to assess midwifery care for at least a portion of their care through the easy access to diagnostic services, specialist obstetrics, as well as for ability for immediate access to C-sections and other emergency procedures if needed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Again I have to ask the question, if all of those services are already available in the territorial capital, the support of other physicians, the ability for emergency surgery, if those are already services available here in Yellowknife to women who are giving birth, does it not make sense and can there be, please, a rationalization for why the focus for midwifery as well needs to be in Yellowknife? Why could that not be outside of Yellowknife, the oversight for that program, where there are no options but to come to the capital?
You’ve already got it all concentrated here in the capital. I still haven’t heard what the rationalization is for having the oversight for this in the capital. Thank you.
As I indicated previously, the territorial model’s primary goal is to support the knowledge and skill capacity of community health nurses through continued interaction and direct clinical support with midwives. This will benefit all NWT communities by raising the standard of community maternity care. This is one of the primary goals of a territorial program. There’s also the secondary benefit of being able to provide some midwifery support to residents of Yellowknife who choose to access those types of services.
The fact is, at the end of the day, if a patient is at risk, if there are any severe concerns about the birth, they will be coming into a community like Yellowknife or Inuvik anyway, even if midwifery services are provided in a community like Fort Smith or Hay River. High-risk patients still come to those two centres. So we need to focus out of where these high-end services exist just in case we do have to bring individuals in. We also want to push out to communities and support community health nurses.
As a territorial program, I think there’s some value for it to be in Yellowknife. It does provide us the opportunity to provide some midwifery services to a large population in Yellowknife as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I talked about the present Energy Efficiency Incentive Program and it doesn’t have a rebate option for insulation, doors or windows, and many of these products can be made here in the North and certainly those types of things make a big difference in heating your home through the efficiencies that they bring.
Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources about looking at expanding the program to include things such as windows, exterior insulation and certainly doors. Would he be willing to do that, and how can we look at it being addressed? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will soon be before the House with our budget for the year, and we’d be happy to have that discussion in that forum if the Member would apply his fingers to the keyboard and lay out with clarity and detail the specifics of what he’s proposing. We will, of course, seriously take a look at it in that regard, as well, or through the appropriate committee of MLAs, special committees that are in place to deal with issues such as that. Either one of those forums, either or all would be where we’d be prepared to have that discussion with the Member. Thank you.
I think most of us can agree here that with the operation of a house, a lot of money is devoted to heating it. Heat loss is a major contributor to poor energy efficiency if a house isn’t well insulated, the doors aren’t good and the windows don’t withstand the needs for cold weather here.
Is there a reason why doors, windows and exterior insulation aren’t part of the energy efficiency rebate program, which could go a long way to help Northerners heat their houses in a more efficient way? We spend a lot of time worrying about wood stoves, boilers, furnaces, toilets and lightbulbs, but these would certainly give Northerners a bigger bang for their pocketbook in the sense of better quality and certainly help them along the way to do these types of things that are necessary.
The involvement of the territorial government in energy efficiency conservation, all the areas of retrofitting houses, making sure we’re using proper appliances, hot water heaters, wood stoves, LED lightbulbs, those types of things, are part of a process. We’d have to look at the money. If we’re going to be providing rebates or incentives, is it to renovations, is it going to be if you’re building a half-million dollar house? We’d have to put in a certain percentage to encourage you to go to R-40 in the walls, R-60 or 65 in the roof. There’s some discussion to be had, there’s costs to be looked at, is it needs based? So, there are a lot of things.
It’s a fairly potentially big-ticket item, but we’ve been working our way there because we’ve been spending a lot of money on developing biomass strategies, solar strategies, we’ve invested considerably in converting our own buildings and those types of things and putting in a significant amount of money to help people convert to biomass. So, capacity is one issue, the Member’s raised it now in this House, and maybe the time is now to have that discussion. Thank you.
Would the Minister be willing to take this initiative back to the department for a review on what would it take to establish this type of program to include the energy efficiency element of doors, windows and insulation? Thank you.
We look at and listen carefully to the debate in this House, and of course, we will be having discussions about the Member’s questions. We’ll also be here, as I indicated in the House, before the House with our budgets. There are committee processes that we could talk about, as well, and we’re going to have to make choices to see what resources are available and other discussions related to this. As soon as we conclude this budget, of course, we will be putting the pieces in place for the next business planning process in anticipation of the transition to the 18th Assembly where, as well, this issue may be targeted as one that needs attention. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s certainly well within the authority and the powers that the Minister can direct the department to start evaluating this rather than maybe pushing it off to a new Assembly and to sometimes get the decision by committee by saying, well, we’ll wait for committee to provide direction could take quite a bit of time. In short, the Minister is well within his ability to say this is something we could review and perhaps provide some input back to committee, and that’s what I’m looking for.
Northerners need an opportunity to help heat their houses more efficiently. This can help drive those results. This is the best way we can get people using our program in a way that makes the most sense. You can only buy so many toilets to be efficient. You can only buy so many freezer chests, et cetera. Let’s do something that has real meaningful results for people struggling to heat their houses. This makes a difference.
I as well am of the mind that when I built my own house that you can never have too much insulation. I’ve got R-45 in the walls, R-60-some in the roof. I never regretted it for a minute and it’s over 30 years. I don’t disagree with the Member. It’s an issue of capacity and timing, so we will have the discussions about it as the Member has asked us to. Will we be able to launch a full-blown program in the next number of weeks or days? I would suggest that there is going to be work needed to be done, resources found, and looking at our priority list to see where this would possibly fit.
