As Members know, I have a track record of wanting to get into communities and discuss with community leaders how best to police communities. We’ve got community policing plans that we’ve got in place across the territory. We’re also moving forward with community safety plans. At the earliest opportunity I’d be happy to accompany the Member and also the RCMP to visit the community of Tsiigehtchic, to sit down with the community leaders and the MLA to discuss how we can move forward. I know the issue that we had last week is also an issue that we want to see overcome with the housing and having members overnight in the community of Tsiigehtchic. So yes, the answer to the Member’s question is: at the earliest opportunity. If there is a community tour we can get into Tsiigehtchic, the sooner the better. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the recent scathing report of the Auditor General of Canada and work done in the 16th Assembly on child and family services, and with over 100 combined recommendations between these two initiatives, we know the Minister and his department have their work cut out for them. Therefore, it’s important that we keep tabs on where this is going and their progress. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Following the Office of the Auditor General of Canada Report on Child and Family Services, the Minister indicated his intention of hiring two assistant directors, one for child and family services, a second for mental health and addictions.
Can the Minister indicate if this is indeed complete and in place? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have one of those individuals in place. We have been recruiting for the other one without any success at this point, but I will certainly keep the Members informed as to when we’re finally able to successfully fill that position. Thank you.
So, we’re at 50 percent on that question.
According to the department’s Building Stronger Families Action Plan, in response to the OAG report, it states on page 7 that a forum of directors of social programs will be responsible for implementation.
Can the Minister indicate why are not the assistant directors, in conjunction with the director, responsible for implementing the action plan? Why the watered down approach in response to such a serious issue? Thank you.
It’s hardly a watered down approach. The territorial director is involved in that working group as well as the directors of social services and all the authorities in the Northwest Territories. They meet on a regular basis – monthly at this point – to ensure that this progress, this initiative is rolled out as the timelines have outlined.
Mr. Speaker, on page 7 of the same action plan, the department’s senior officials are described as “risk adverse, where out of sight out of mind defines the optimal level when it comes to child protection services.”
Can the Minister inform the House, does this set the stage for further failures when there appears in a department’s own words a culture of complacency among its top officials? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t seem to be in the right order here. That was something that was occurring. That’s one of the main reasons we’re doing a fundamental change in how we provide child and family services in the Northwest Territories. According to the Auditor General, there wasn’t enough accountability, so we actually made all the CEOs in all the authorities associate directors under the legislation, which has brought this to the forefront and made it a priority in every authority.
To the Member’s point, this is a priority; it is being dealt with; we are moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Short, final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the Minister’s comments here, but it appears that we’re still moving very slowly on this serious issue.
We can only assume that hiring the Child Welfare League to help the GNWT with the action plan and the numerous and new enhanced activities that we’ve heard and been proposed will cost considerable money. Yet it appears that no new additional resources have been used or put forth in the budget, which suggests failure.
Can the Minister indicate how realistic is it that his department is able to accomplish all this with no new investment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, we’re conscious and aware of the fiscal realities of this government and we are doing the work that is necessary. We’ve got the team in place with the individuals who can do the work and we continue to move forward. We’ve already made significant progress. We’ll continue to make progress and this will happen.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My statement today celebrates the strength of the Metis people. Despite the presence of the colonial powers, the churches, governments and residential schools, the Sahtu Metis have stood strong and have stood for their rights. My questions today are for the Minister of Aboriginal and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Can the Premier describe this government’s efforts to further strengthen Metis economic development and participation in major development projects?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government endeavours to make sure that all Aboriginal governments can benefit from development in all parts of the region and we work very closely with the Metis governments and Metis locals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
One of the priorities of the Metis National Council is to develop the common standards for Metis Nation registers.
In his dialogue with the Harper government, has this government played a role in developing a common standards for Metis national registries?
We’ve left that up to the Metis governments to decide whether they want to participate nationally. At one time the Metis Nation was part of CAP; another time it was part of MNC. For the past 10 years or so, they haven’t been associated with any national Metis organizations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, some of the federal government’s responsibilities in jurisdictions do not include the Metis people, such as the University and College Entrance Program.
Is the Government of the Northwest Territories working with the federal government to ensure that the Metis are treated just as the Inuvialuit, Inuit or the First Nations people?
Certainly, within our own Government of the Northwest Territories programs, we treat all Aboriginal groups the same, especially when you look at Student Financial Assistance. I’ve had some discussions with the federal Metis interlocutor and I could raise Metis issues with him as well.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Premier report back to the House as to the specific issues that the Premier is going to raise with the Minister and report on an action plan, if there is one that is being developed, between the Minister and the Premier on Metis rights in the Northwest Territories?
As a government we provide $20,000 a year in core funding to Metis locals and there are a number of Metis issues that we would want to have clarified with the federal Metis interlocutor, and I would be pleased to report back.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow up, I have questions for the Minister of Health. My first question is: How is the GNWT planning to bring the Hay River Health Authority into the GNWT, especially in light of them creating a one health board system?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Bill 44 actually provides us with the flexibility to ensure the process for bringing Hay River health and social services staff into the public service can be coordinated in a manner that addresses the needs of both the GNWT, the UNW, Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and superann.
My next question is: What assurance does the Minister have and what consultation will the Minister do with the Hay River Health Authority seeing as they’re a special entity in the process of this new act?
Bringing Hay River into the one social services authority is an important element of the system transformation. We will absolutely work closely with Hay River Health Authority, the staff representatives, the union, but we also have to include superannuation, because one of the hanging points is what if, at all, the superann is willing to allow these individuals to leave or come into the GNWT, so a lot of negotiations. The GNWT currently has a mandate to begin those negotiations with the UNW, superann and Hay River Health and Social Services Authority.
My next question is: Would the staff’s seniority benefits be protected in this merger to go into the GNWT?
Any time the GNWT has worked with other governments or other bodies to bring staff into our employ, we have always been very, very conscious of these concerns and we’ve always worked really hard with those organizations, whether it’s the federal government or whether it was the Hay River Health Authority or five years ago or almost 10 years ago when we did the initial negotiations. We do our best and we will work with their union. Their union will want to protect their employees and we want to make sure the employees get a fair transition.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A while back the Minister was in Hay River and he committed to getting a cost associated to the pensions. Has the Minister come up with any of those numbers yet? It’s been some time.
There are so many numbers that are out there and we can estimate what some of those numbers will be, but until we actually get into the negotiation with the UNW, the employers’ rep, the employer as well as superann, we’re not going to know the full costs. We have been given the mandate by the FMB, Department of Health and Social Services and Human Resources to develop a mandate and begin those negotiations which will help us determine the actual cost of this transition.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I welcome the Minister back to the House. I have some questions for him, as well, today. I’d like to ask the Minister, in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier about seniors and programs that we do have for seniors, looking at the report, Our Elders, Our Communities document that was tabled in May 2014, some of the statistics show that elders who receive home care services vary from region to region. In some cases there are a lot of seniors who require that kind of service.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, what is our government doing to offset some of those high uses of home care, especially in the Beaufort-Delta where I think that’s one of the highest areas that access some of these home care services, and whether or not we have the resources to address those needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the large things we’re doing is actually the system transformation, which will allow us to focus our resources more appropriately than we have in the past. This will make an actual improvement in all areas of health and social services in the Northwest Territories, including the supports that we provide with home care. It will also ensure that we have a consistent approach for home care across the Northwest Territories. We also have partnerships with the NWT Seniors’ Society and we do provide them with a significant amount of money to run a number of different programs which we partner in as well.
One of the things that we’re partnering is the NWT network to prevent abuse of seniors, of which the NWT Seniors’ Society has run and we’re helping to fund that program. We’re helping to create awareness and other information around falls and elder abuse. Thank you.
I’m glad to hear the Minister speak towards elder abuse and creating some kind of awareness program.
There are all kinds of elder abuse, financial, physical, psychological, neglect, you could go on and on with the list. One thing that I’ve brought up in this House over the years is the duty to report and whether or not that’s something this government would like to implement as a policy for our senior care staff, or even the RCMP or anybody that works with seniors, that if they believe there’s abuse occurring that they have a duty to report that abuse.
Is there any update on that duty to report policy, or something that the government is looking at creating? Thank you.
There is no duty to report policy at this point in time, but if that’s something the committee is interested in, it certainly sounds like an interesting idea and I’d certainly be willing to have some discussions with committee on that topic. Thank you.
As we go through the budget, we understand that there are going to be some seniors homes that are being built in some of the communities across the Northwest Territories.
Is the Minister working with the communities to look at how we can train some of our local residents to take those jobs in those seniors’ homes when they’re up and ready to run? Is he starting now to get the proper training for our local residents so they can have the jobs in those homes? Thank you.
Thank you. We provide training or, rather, we partner in training for individuals that are taking or interested in resident care. Its primary focus right now is on the facilities, but that training is something that certainly we can look at expanding to other individuals to provide that type of support in communities throughout the Northwest Territories. So, resident care as well as home support workers. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned earlier in my Member’s statement, I did speak with some people in the airports that were here for some training last week. I’m not sure if it was in partnership with Health and the Seniors’ Society, but it’s a great support system that we have for people who do this job.
My last question is in terms of the Care Mobility Program that the Housing Corporation is putting out there in this upcoming budget where the Housing Corp goes out to the communities and they help build the homes for seniors.
I’d like to ask, has the Minister had any input or given any direction on how these houses could be more adapted to seniors so they can live a more independent lifestyle in their homes? Has he had any discussions with the Housing Corporation and the architects to make sure that these houses are more adaptable living for senior citizens? Thank you.
Thank you. The Department of Health and Social Services continuing care and health systems planning staff actually have worked closely with the NWT Housing Corporation infrastructure services staff in the development of independent living models to support the community’s ability to meet seniors’ needs in the areas of socialization, nutrition and hygiene. This includes ensuring that there is some public space or some program space in each of these independent living units that can be utilized by Health and Social Services staff when they come in to meet with the residents of those buildings. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
