Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. I appreciate the Minister’s answer and certainly the willingness to develop and work on something, and I’ll certainly get to work on it right away.
I’ve already been working on it, so frankly, I’m glad to hear the words “will be used.”
The last question is about priority. The Minister had talked about keeping traffic flowing. Actually, that’s interesting he said that, because I’ve got reports from industry that they’ve allowed non-perishable goods, things like lumber and whatnot, to travel through the highway system when convoys were allowed to travel through certain periods, but things like eggs and milk and perishable goods and food goods that are critical had been left on the side. Sort of the old when you show up, you get to go through.
All I’m getting at with this illustration here is there must be a way the Department of Transportation could probably work with the Enterprise weigh station or whatever the case may be, to come up with a priority system that if you’re bringing perishable goods through the system, you get to keep them moving along, as well, with people. It’s just, I’d hate to see skidoos come forward before eggs. Thank you.
When the highway is closed and we open up for our convoys, everyone that is at the convoy or waiting, we’ll use Fort Providence as an example, everyone that’s waiting there gets to go.
Now, I believe that we may have had situations where there were people en route with essential goods between Enterprise and Fort Providence and that we didn’t wait. We opened and closed the convoy before they were able to get to Fort Providence and, due to safety reasons, were unable to go further than that. What we’re going to do is we’re going to work with the people at the weigh scales and the industry that will be hauling, and if there is a situation where we know that there are some essential goods moving between Enterprise and Fort Providence and we’re ready to open a convoy, we’ll wait for them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I want to follow up on my statement. I asked a whole slew of questions in my statement and I’d like to ask some of those to the Minister now about the Early Childhood Program review, which the department has apparently been doing since sometime last fall, since September, October, I’m not exactly sure when it started.
My first question to the Minister would be to get an update on whether or not the work was done. Was the review done? There was a symposium that was supposed to be held. Can I get an update on the activities in regard to this review since last year? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the framework action plan has been in the works for quite some time now and we felt that it was necessary and important that we engaged the stakeholders, the operators, the early childhood workers, the front-line workers, the managers, and so we invited them to participate either by phone or interview or in person. So we’ve conducted those processes as well. The review also includes licensing processes and Healthy Children Initiative funding. There’s also Small Communities Initiative funding, child care subsidy funding. So the discussions, we’ve gotten feedback from a majority of the operators. I believe there’s 102 out of 113 licenced child care operators that returned the feedback. So we are currently reviewing those. The symposium that we had last year has been very successful to date. So, we wanted to have another one this year as well.
So, those are some of the processes that we are going through. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. He mentioned a lot of types of funding. My understanding was that this was a review of licenced daycare operations, governance and funding for daycare operators. I appreciate that they’re reviewing the information, but according to the terms of reference, which I found on the website, there was supposed to be a report as of the 31st of March of 2015.
So I’d like to ask the Minister, you’ve got answers from some 100-plus operators. Two things. Did it include the Montessori Children’s Centre here in Yellowknife? I don’t believe it did. Secondly, was there a report? I gather the report was not done March 31st. When is it going to be done? Thank you.
As I stated earlier, those operators in the Northwest Territories were invited for their input; and Montessori, I can’t really speak to that organization, but I’m pretty sure they were invited to provide input. If not, then they should be allowed to provide input into our Early Childhood Development Framework.
We want to hear from each and every operator in the Northwest Territories. Not only that but the terms of reference obviously stated that we needed to conclude by March 31, 2015.
The letter that I saw asking for input, there was a list of daycare operators on the back. It did not include the Montessori. I’d ask the Minister to specifically extend an invitation to the Montessori Centre to ask for input.
I thought I heard the Minister say that there are lots of things going on. I appreciate that. There’s the universal child care review that’s also being done, but I didn’t hear from the Minister when he expects that the results of this particular investigation will be coming forward. So, can I ask again, this particular looking at governance and funding of licenced daycare operators, when can we expect to see a report on this canvassing for information? Thank you.
As I stated earlier, we are compiling all of the program reviews. This Early Childhood Framework is one of them and the universal child care study, the review that’s been undertaken by my department, collecting all of the data, information and compiling all of the information within my department. We are currently reviewing those processes as well.
With respect to the dates, I won’t be able to give an answer today as to when it will be completed, but this will be a transitional document for the new government because it will deal with the new funding. The funding has been identified by the operators, what’s working, what’s not working. So, it will be a part of the transitional document that will be before this House. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister: I have to say that I am very dismayed. I am quite surprised. This is something that started last September, October, and now we have to wait until the 18th Assembly for any kind of change to take place. I’m very dismayed. I urge the Minister to get it done sooner. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. More of a comment. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to respite care. As I mentioned, when you look at it, respite care is actually more beneficial and could be less cost to government keeping the individuals in their homes rather than having to put them into institutional care, putting them into long-term centres or sending them down south into other institutions that provide services that we don’t have here in the Northwest Territories.
So, my first question to the Minister is: Can I get an update or see what the department is doing for in-home respite care? That’s where people go into the home, more like home care, but on more of a permanent basis. I’m not talking about the aging population, I’m talking about people who have disabilities, whether they’re mental, physical or have cognitive impairments, and every year we have 216 new cases of diabetes in the Northwest Territories. Those are people who need care, as well, who are not very mobile.
So, I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the department doing for in-home respite care for on more of a permanent basis, not just the home care visits? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start by just talking about some of the programs that we actually have with respect to respite. I did agree with the Member’s statement. Respite is an incredibly valuable service and I’ve been a supporter of respite services in the Northwest Territories for many years. We do have respite services provided through home care programs, and the NWT Home and Community Care Program provides respite services, mainly for caregivers of adults whose disability is a result of illness or a chronic health condition, while social respite for caregivers of children with complex care needs is often provided, when available, by NGOs in communities.
We do have a number of NGOs that we support. Two NGOs are receiving funding to provide community-based respite services for people living with disabilities. We provide $250,000 of federal funding that’s allocated to the Yellowknife Association for Community Living through the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority for community-based respite in Yellowknife, Detah and Ndilo.
We also provide $227,553 through the GNWT to the NWT Disabilities Council for community-based respite as well. That’s done in Aklavik, Fort Smith and Deline. On top of that, the NWT Disabilities Council does get some additional funding through some of the individual authorities to provide community-based respite service for people living with disabilities in communities like Hay River, Inuvik and Paulatuk. We also have some respite beds within our long-term care facilities that are available for families who need a bit of a break.
There are other things we are doing. I did speak earlier today about the companion booklet for caregivers being developed to provide information and assistance to families who are providing care for individuals in these situations.
This isn’t enough. We need to continue to do more. We need to continue to improve our services. To that end, we are going to be providing a pilot for a flexible respite model to do the exact thing the Member is talking about. This hasn’t yet been operationalized. We will maybe call to the authorities to see which authorities are interested in being part of that pilot. We pilot with one authority and we are hoping to get into one or two communities. This is a two-year pilot and it will help us inform how we provide respite services or how we support respite services moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m glad to hear of all the services that are provided. In particular to the question I was asking is what is the department doing for in-home respite services? If somebody has a cognitive impairment or has a physical disability where they’re not able to get out and they need that longer-term service and it’s putting a lot of stress on the family, what is the department doing for the person who is home all day and providing services for several hours of the day? Do we have a program set up and is the department looking at addressing that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There are a couple of different ways, as I articulated previously. There is the Home Care Program where we can have individuals go in, but it is limited and it’s not in all communities. We are looking through this pilot to find ways to expand that out to more communities, but we need more time to do the assessment.
There are also the NGOs. We should be incredibly proud of the work the NGOs are doing, whether it’s YACL or the NWT Disabilities Council. They can provide respite services exactly as the Member is describing for individuals in certain communities. They are always looking for ways to push out to the other communities and they have been working very closely with the authorities and the authorities continue to do what they can. I believe the pilot is going to give us the information we need and give us the opportunity to roll out this flexible respite model. I also strongly encourage the Member to promote the Caregivers Handbook, which provides people with a lot of resources on how they can have positive experiences, provide support to their family members and also take care of themselves. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have always been a strong supporter of the Disabilities Council and I’m glad there is funding that our government provides to do some of these services.
I want to ask the Minister, has he had any talks with these NGOs on how they are spending their dollars in terms of in-home respite for people who are stuck in the house with these disabilities? Has he talked to the NGOs and if they are providing those types of services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I have a fairly decent relationship with the NWT Disabilities Council. We meet on a fairly regular basis to talk about the different programming they are providing and how we can work together, and we have been able to work together on many fronts. I also know the department monitors and follows up on the contributions they are providing, to see if the services are being met. All this information is going to be important moving forward to enhance this pilot to see how we can actually move out to the communities where we aren’t getting the respite services the Member is describing. We do need the time to complete this pilot and we’re looking forward to moving forward with that pilot. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I mentioned we also need support for the support workers. I also mentioned in eight communities we don’t have nurses, which is a big challenge for elders and people living with disabilities.
So, I want to ask the Minister, what is his department doing in the recruitment and retention of home care staff that we have in the Northwest Territories right now? Is he looking to recruit more home care workers so they get a break as well? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
It’s no surprise we suffer some challenges around recruitment and retention of health professionals on all levels of the Northwest Territories. We’ve recently developed the NWT Health and Social Services Strategic Human Resource Plan to help us increase our effectiveness of recruitment and retention of health professionals.
We’re also supporting training of resident care aids and other positions for things like the Norman Wells long-term care facility so we can get more people into communities. This training is something that could be used for other positions as well. We wanted to continue to find ways to train local people, support local people, but in those communities where we don’t have nurses, we also do send nurses in on a fairly regular basis to do assessments on seniors and other people in the communities to ensure their needs are being met. We will continue to actively recruit and train, where appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement today with questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I would like to ask questions about new and innovative solutions for the recruitment and retention of employees for our civil service.
Is the Minister aware of the common interest in reduced work time and job sharing amongst many employees, such as interest in three-quarter time or two-thirds time, half-time, flex-time? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have a job share policy in the government. Currently, the boards and agencies and the departments are allowed to hire and put two persons into one position and they share the one job. That is currently allowed in our system. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. It’s that sort of straightjacketed model that I’m saying needs to be blown a little bit wide open with some innovation.
Currently, the vast majority of jobs in the NWT are traditional full-time, 8:30 to 5:00, five days a week model based on one PY. Many people would be happier seeking employment based on a different model. In fact, there is no reason in the world why a job should be one PY. Jobs vary highly. It’s how we categorize. Let’s put some imagination to that.
What proportion of our jobs would the Minister know vary from the typical 8:30 to 5:00 one PY model? He mentioned there is some job sharing. How many half or three-quarter positions do we have? How many jobs are job shared and are they simply half time or do they recognize actual job requirements, as I mentioned, recognizing what the job actually requires of a person in terms of time? Thank you.
I don’t have the information of how many of those jobs are shared, like how many positions in the GNWT are half time or three-quarter positions. However, we do try to accommodate most requests for a flexible work day, compressed work weeks and so on. So, we do try to accommodate individuals in the various ways with time, and I can get that information on the amount of positions that are actually advertised as a job sharing position, as a part-time position and a second job is advertised with that same PY as another job sharing position. I didn’t request that particular information. I just asked whether that was allowed at this time. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the commitment. The more flexible suite of job models would give people who would like to pursue local economic initiatives, for example seasonal land-based activities, more family time and opportunities for volunteer service in our communities and the freedom to do so. I can attest that, based on the number of people who are coming to me with this, that’s come up in our recent Local Economies Forum, people have a strong interest in this. Building stronger and more welcoming and nurturing communities, and retaining current residents and attracting newcomers would also be, obviously, a desirable result.
So, would the Minister survey our employees to measure interest in different employee time, such as he and I have discussed, and what benefits or disadvantages they would see in having these options? Mahsi.
We can do that survey of people to find out if what we are offering is something they would be interested in. That would be the various things like working flexible hours, job sharing and so on. We do employee satisfaction surveys across our government, so it is something that we could perhaps add to the survey. The next survey that is coming up, perhaps we could ask those key questions about whether the employees think that accommodating them with this option is something that they would be interested in and get a feel for how many employees might want to job share or take a differed leave year and so on. But we’ve never gotten into it. We can do that, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks again to the Minister. Given the benefits the new models will bring to our residents and communities, allowing people to pursue traditional seasonal land-based activities and so on and becoming more involved in community and family building, and if the results of the Minister’s survey indicate high interest, will the Minister commit to the pursuit of a more flexible range of job options within the civil service for the people of the Northwest Territories? I see this as a nicely contained thing that can be done before the end of this Assembly. Mahsi.
There are two things that we have to look at before we can make any commitments, before I can make any commitments on a forum that is operational requirements. Number one, the fact that the majority of our civil servants are in the union, so we would have to discuss this with the union, and also, it becomes very important for operational requirements that all the positions that are needed in the key times and areas are there, and I couldn’t make a commitment to do that without checking those two things first, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Justice under the Auditor General’s Report of the Correction Facility of 2015, recommendation 42: “The Department of Justice should identify the needs…of its inmate population.” More importantly, I want to underline, “assess its rehabilitation programs…ensure that inmates have access to rehabilitation programs that reflect their needs and their risks.”
I understand that the department is initiating reviews of the directive that guide programs access and delivery, to be completed by the fall of 2015.
I want to ask the Minister, are wilderness camps and on-the-land programs part of this initial review through the directives that would support the on-the-land programs by this department?
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister of Justice, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for his question. We remain committed, through the Department of Justice, to establishing the wilderness camps and the benefit to having those camps here in the Northwest Territories. I should state that in the budget, currently we have $787,000 earmarked. We’ve had some difficulty in trying to identify proponents that can deliver the on-the-land program that we envision. In the meantime, we continue to work with other departments that are involved and trying to find somebody in the Northwest Territories that we feel confident can deliver the type of programming that the Member talks about, and we fully intend on doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Also in the Auditor General’s report, under point 41 it talks about the closure of wilderness camps and it also talks about, at the same time, the expression of interest that Mr. Ramsay has indicated is provided as potential to reopen these camps in the Northwest Territories.
I want to ask the Minister, would he direct his department staff to try harder, with a winning attitude of yes, we will do what we can with our best capabilities to open these camps and look at the areas that need to be expanded to make sure that these camps are a success by providing the resources to these camps, rather than to say no, it won’t work here? Could I get that commitment from the Minister?
I’ve given that commitment in the past and I’ll give it again today, that we are committed to seeing the wilderness camps established here in the Northwest Territories. We’re going to continue to work with folks to ensure that that happens.
We had intended to issue an RFP this month, but after the expression of interest process and the discussions that we’ve had with respondents to that process, further changes to the design of the program is what are needed and what are required, and we’re currently working toward that. From the discussion with interested groups, we concluded that the Wilderness Program needs to be more flexible so that different community groups and organizations can be successful in providing that programming. Not everyone is in the same place or has the same interest when it comes to wilderness programming.
We also want to make changes to the approach in order to encourage more communities to become involved in this, recognizing that wilderness programming can help offenders prepare for a successful return to their home communities upon release. We will continue to work with the communities and leadership in those communities to build a program that reflects the needs of the participants and the program partners, taking the time to do this properly – and I’m a big proponent of that; if you’re going to do something, you have to make sure it’s done right – that we will have a successful program here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I want to ask the Minister if he would clearly state and entrench within this department that this is what needs to happen at his highest officials, to make the on-the-land programs a success and provide them with strong resources to make it, and look at the flexibility of having these programs, these camps in Fort Good Hope, Fort Smith, wherever their interests are.
I want to ask the Minister, as part of the review of these wilderness camps, is his department willing to look at providing training courses for these operators, because it certainly would be conducive to what they’re going to be doing in these wilderness camps.
We’ll continue to move on that path of getting a wilderness camp established here in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to work with partners, communities, leadership in the communities, as I mentioned earlier. I am committed. I know the department is committed to seeing this happen. We will find a proponent. The Member talks about training. We’ll work with somebody. We just have to find the right fit for the department. There are a number of safety and liability concerns, things of that nature. We have to ensure that it’s going to be done right, and we have to find the right fit for the department in a proponent.
We still are trying to make that fit and make that match, and hopefully soon we will have accomplished that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
The Auditor General’s report, again, states that point 41 of the recommendations…the department said they will review the records, and that’s their marching orders. So, I wanted to state clearly that the directive, that the Minister would, through his review, look at the cost of camp operators, camps that pay a daily rate for the inmates. It has to be reasonable. They have to eat, also. You know, they’re up against a facility that also covers… You know, it’s a different operation at the Yellowknife Correctional Centre. So, I want to make sure that the camp operators, if they’re going to go through this agreement, they need to be sure that it’s going to be a success and that there’s a strong commitment from this Minister to make it a success.
Will the Minister ensure that his officials strongly get the marching orders that these camp facilities would be a success?
Having served on the other side of the House for eight years, the department did get the message loud and clear about the Auditor General’s report and the steps that we need to take in the area of wilderness camps. We are moving forward; we’re going to get a fit; we’re going to make it happen; and I’ve impressed upon the department to do just that. Thank you.
