Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Can the Minister offer an explanation for the wide discrepancy between the NWT’s self-reported health status, which scored an A plus, and their actual health status, which scored a D minus?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are large health disparities between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in residents across Canada. Poor health outcomes in the proportionately larger Aboriginal population here in the Northwest Territories, compared to other jurisdictions, is influencing the overall results in the NWT.
To be clear, the Conference Board of Canada’s report, How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada, measures health outcomes based on 10 indicators which evaluate health outcomes as opposed to health care systems. Health outcomes are primarily influenced by socio-economic conditions, such as education, housing, income or employment, which are the responsibilities of multiple departments here in the Government of the Northwest Territories. To that end, the government, in cooperation with the social programs as well as economic development, have been working on a number of action plans including the Mineral Development Action Plan, the Economic Development Action Plan, the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, the Action Plan on Anti-Poverty, following up on the NWT Anti-Poverty Framework as well as early childhood development. A number of things are being done in this area to help improve these outcomes over time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The only one that the Minister left off the table was devolution to help people’s health.
Can the Minister explain what areas under his responsibility, under health care indicators, why there is such a discrepancy between the report and the D minus received, rather than blaming other departments and referencing other proposals by departments? We’re talking about health care indicators and health.
Once again, to be clear, health outcomes are measured using 10 indicators that evaluate health outcomes, not health care systems. We are making improvements to the provision of health and social services here in the Northwest Territories. We’re moving forward with the health transformation with a focus on all residents of the Northwest Territories.
I just want to point out that the report from the Conference Board of Canada provided several recommendations for the NWT to improve health outcomes such as using a tailored approach including Aboriginal traditional knowledge and health policy, creative programs focused on Aboriginal youth, and developing culturally appropriate measurement tools and indicators to evaluate health and wellness programs. We’re evaluating and considering these recommendations and seeing how we can incorporate them to improve the health outcomes of residents of the Northwest Territories.
I would also just like to highlight that we have created the Aboriginal health and community wellness division which is working very closely with Aboriginal governments and partners throughout the territory to improve the outcomes of all residents of the Northwest Territories.
The Minister cites the MDS, that’s Mineral Development Strategy, and the EOS, the Economic Opportunities Strategy, as the solution for this. I’d like to actually hear what the Department of Health is doing when it comes to improving the outcomes of life expectancy, premature mortality, infant mortality and mortality due to cancer specific to health.
I understand the Member’s point but I do have to continually remind everybody that health outcomes are primarily influenced by socio-economic conditions and it’s going to take all of us working together, all of the departments working together.
With respect to the Department of Health and Social Services, we are the lead on the Anti-Poverty Action Plan; we are a partner on Early Childhood Development Action Plan; we’re the lead on Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. We’ve also got a number of different cancer strategies that we’re partnering with the Government of Canada to implement here in the Northwest Territories, and we’re working on the development of a cancer strategy. We also have focused programs on chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes and a number of things, and we’re working closely with our partners and the Aboriginal governments through our Aboriginal health and community wellness division, because many of the solutions, we recognize, are out in the communities and the people want to be involved in their solutions, which is something we heard very clearly during our Weaving our Wisdom Gathering here last week.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
My final question is I’m curious as to what the Minister’s briefing note will read as to engagement on a pan-territorial strategy as to improve the D minus across the three territories as we work towards a partnership for improving Aboriginal health and the health of all Northerners across the NWT and our two sister territories.
We already work with the other two territories on a number of initiatives. I had a conversation with the two Ministers last week and we’ve agreed to get together and have a tri-territorial meeting later this spring to discuss other areas where we can work together to improve the wellness and health outcomes of residents of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
