Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, actually, a report was prepared late in the life of the, or halfway through the life of the last government. It was certainly, I believe we tabled it here, in the Legislature. Following up with the recommendations under that, we are still providing dollars for things like Mental Health First Aid, ASSIST, and other suicide prevention and support programs for youth across the Northwest Territories. To that end, we’re also taking what we learned through that report as well as the Minister’s Forum on Mental Health and Addiction to develop a new framework for mental health and addictions here, in the Northwest Territories, which is going to certainly address some components of the challenges that we’re facing around suicide. We’ll keep moving forward with things like ASSIST and Mental Health First Aid. I’d strongly encourage all Members to attend one of the Mental Health First Aid training courses here, in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Does the department provide funding or operate a crisis intervention hotline with frontline staff who are prepared to assist people experiencing a mental health crisis? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have the NWT Helpline. It’s available 247 for individuals who are struggling, regardless of where you are in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note that under contributions we find the on-the-land healing fund. That’s at $1 million. I’m more familiar with the ontheland programs through the Department of Justice, but I know there are some difficulties with rolling those programs out. What is the department’s experience with the on-the-land healing fund? Is most of that money accessed and spent on these programs? How successful are those programs, based on feedback from clients? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Can I ask, Mr. Testart, this on-the-land healing fund is actually on page 184. We haven’t closed page 182 yet. This is one of those chapters where you started your summary and you had to go back to your previous page, so it gets a little confusing, then, moving back to the righthand side., Moving on and maintaining continuity, we’ll move on to page 184. Then I will give the courtesy to Mr. Testart to carry on to the on-the-land healing fund.
Same question, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. After you turned the page, I clearly forget everything I was discussing on the previous page… No. I’m just kidding. I totally remember the question. The government, as a result of the Minister’s Forum on Addictions, we actually came forward with funding to support ontheland programs. We provide that money to the different Aboriginal governments, regional governments here, in the Northwest Territories. We recognize that, although we have some clinical expertise, when it comes to ontheland programming, those programs should really be delivered by the people in the regions where they’re being delivered.. We actually flow money to the different Aboriginal governments, Inuvialuit and Sahtu, Tlicho, who actually design their programs. Occasionally, they ask us to be involved as far as providing some of our clinical expertise, but they actually design and run the programs. It’s really great, actually. We have a wide range of different programs. We have some regions who have decided to do more aftercaretype programs. We’ve got some regions who have decided to do more preventiontype programs. We have some regions that are doing more of a real ontheland sort of healing program and some where they’ve really focused on bringing youth and adults together.. We’ve got a wide variety, and we’re getting huge uptake. We’re spending the dollars. The communities or the regions are running these different programs, encouraging people to attend. We are finalizing some evaluation of them. It’s been two years since we’ve put them in, put these dollars in.. We’re currently evaluating some of the successes so that we can share those successes across the different communities and regions so that good ideas can be stolen from one region and utilized in another. We have some pretty significant uptake on these, and they are out there, and they’re running, and they’re working.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The evaluation, can the Minister speak briefly about the evaluation criteria and whether or not we’re going to clients on their experiences with the program and the successes of the program directly and how they had an effect on clients’ lives in treating some of these issues? I appreciate that it’s a success in terms of rolling the funding out and getting the programs offered, but I’m looking to see if the department is taking a very critical eye to how effective these programs are and then can share those successes with our own Indigenous governments and governments across Canada. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Deputy Minister DeLancey.
Thanks, Mr. Chair.. One of the key points about the design of this fund, as the Minister noted, is that we don’t try to run programs that will work for regions across the territories. We give the money to the experts, which is the Aboriginal governments. They often top it up, and they design what works and is needed in their region. This makes it a challenge to come up with an evaluation framework, so we’ve tackled this in two stages. We have, of course, reporting requirements. We get information from the Aboriginal governments, what programs they ran, how many people participated. We get some client satisfaction feedback. We’re then, for phase two, we have started working with two of the Aboriginal governments to look at how do we develop an evaluation framework that has enough flexibility that it allows us to do the things the Member is talking about, which is tracking those longerterm outcomes, also allows the Aboriginal government or Aboriginal sponsor to track the things they care about. It becomes quite complex. You overlay that with the complexity of: what is an effective treatment program? Sometimes it’s just helping somebody take that first step. it’s not a straightforward outcome evaluation, so, as I say, we’ve addressed it in two parts. We do get activity reports. We do get all the information we’ve asked for. We’re trying to work in partnership to take it to that next level. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister DeLancey. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When does the department anticipate that they’ll have some results to share with the public and Members of this House or a complete… Or, if we’re not ready for results, then perhaps that final piece, the evaluation framework?
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we can share some of the outputs right now, actually, as far as, like, how many people attended, some of the results from the satisfaction surveys, those types of things. It’s the deeper sort of evaluation that the deputy was talking about that we’re developing the evaluation framework now. That one is going to take a little bit more time, but I’m happy to provide the Members with some of the more immediate output stuff. I can provide that to committee. I probably just need a couple of days to get it sort of put together in a format that will be good.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister. I am interested in kind of that deeper dig into seeing the… I didn’t hear a date on when we can expect the work to be completed. I know these things take time, but I can only assume that the department has a timeline it’s working on; it’s not just an infinite date. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I missed that part of the question, obviously. The evaluation framework is going to be developed and finalized this fiscal year, and then data will flow over time. The evaluation framework will be done this fiscal year, so we should have some initial data. With this type of analysis, we need a couple of years of data to really be able to make informed decisions and opinions about what’s happening. I can provide the more immediate stuff to Members, up to date, from what we have.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
I just had some quick questions on the Mental Health and Addictions funding. As a contribution, how does that differ from the community mental health and addictions, the bulk of the funding? Who is currently receiving it, and what kind of programs are being operated? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to confirm that the Member is talking about the mental health and addictions line that’s $450,000, just because there are multiple lines here where it falls under.
Mr. Testart, if you can, add clarity to that question.
Yes, that’s correct. The mental health and addictions contribution in the amount of $450,000, and it’s described as “funding to support organizations in the delivery of mental health and additions programming.” I note that it is in the 201415 Actuals. It was $277,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of it, $100,000, is going to Mental Health First Aid and ASSIST. $300,000 is going to addictions, aftercare, youth addictions prevention, youth detox models, mental health, and some into the Akaitcho health curriculum. To break it down into more detail, $17,000 is going to Beaufort Delta, $25,000 to Deh Cho, $5,000 to Fort Smith, $13,000 to Hay River. Now the lines are starting to blur. Sorry, those were last year actuals, so that sort of shows how it breaks out across the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Testart.
Nothing further, Mr. Chair.
Recognizing Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Similar questions but a little different on the On-the-Land Healing Fund. I know there’s a few programs that went on in Aklavik, but there’s a couple… I think it was a year or two ago they had sort of a regional ontheland program. It was sort of tied to residential school, but I know it was, I believe it was, down at Reindeer Station. A lot of elders really, really enjoyed that. You know, it really helped them a lot, and they’d like to see more programs like this, whether it’s down at Reindeer Station or, you know, at the Gwich’in Healing Camp which isn’t being used. You know, it’s a shame. They have this facility set up out there for ontheland programs, but there’s just no funding to go. I know that you say you’re giving funds to the land claim organizations, but I’d like to know: what is the breakdown by region for funding out of this million dollars? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Member’s point, I mean, I agree. We provide these dollars. We don’t dictate what program they design. In some cases, regions have actually pooled it with other money to do bigger initiatives. We offer every region $125,000 of the $1 million. Some have better uptake than others. I can give you some breakdown of the 201516 Actuals.
The Akaitcho Territory Government utilized the entire $125,000. The Deh Cho Friendship Centre took $40,000. The Gwich’in Tribal Council got $144,000. The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation got $325,000. The Inuvik Community Corp got $39,000. The Sahtu Dene Council got $125,000. Sambaa K’e Dene Band got $62,000. The TCSA got $125,000. That was our million dollars. There’s a lot of different groups working on ontheland programming. I mean, Justice has done some. I think Education has funded some different aspects of ontheland programming. It’s going on at the different regions. The Government of the Northwest Territories is participating in an ontheland collaborative to bring different stakeholders together so that we can lobby other stakeholders for money that might be able to be used for more ontheland programming. I’d like the deputy minister to go into just a bit of detail on the ontheland collaborative.
Thank you, Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing Deputy Minister DeLancey.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Just as the Member said, there’s great demand for on-the-land programming and we know that our funding in GNWT is not enough to meet the demand.. We’ve worked with Tides Canada, our department, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; we have partnered with Tides Canada to look at a model that’s been used elsewhere where we set up a collaborative and invite other agencies to put money on the table. That collaborative is in its early stages and this year, just earlier this year, the first funding pot of $300,000 was rolled out to applications from across the Territories. That’s not a lot of money, but what we’re hoping is by GNWT putting in a little bit of seed money and we put in about $200,000 this year, we can get the big foundations to come to the table and start growing that pot. I believe the Minister will be tabling a report on that initiative during this session. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister DeLancey. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know it’s been two years since this program has been sort of going in this direction from having the treatment centre here in the NWT, and you know I can appreciate, you know, us sending people to the south. With what the department is saying they want to sort of move towards more on-the-land healing programs. It’s pretty clear we need to fund this more here. Mr. Chair, a million dollars just… It’s not doing enough for our people that have a lot of needs in the territory, you know. We have to have better programming in place here. As I’ve said before, we have to have some sort of template that the communities could follow because it seems like they’re developing their own programs here. You know, we need some sort of template for people to follow and more funding because in my riding a lot of people are telling me the elders want more programs at the Gwich’in Wellness Camp, but we’re just not getting the proper funding here. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we were out discussing this with the different Aboriginal governments we heard that they didn’t want a cookie cutter approach. They wanted to be able to do things their way based on the realities in the different regions. However, we recognize that, you know, there are great things happening in different regions, so we’ve been pulling together the best practices and highlighting, and demonstrating, and showing the different regions what’s happening in the other regions so that they could steal good ideas and things that work. We were also making clinical staff available should the regions request it during some of their on-the-land programming.. We are able to participate as asked and as wished by the different groups that are pulling together. This isn’t the only thing that’s happening in the Northwest Territories. What we heard clearly during the Minister’s Forum on Addictions is that people wanted options and they wanted to be able to make choices in the Northwest Territories and on-the-land program is an important one that people were asking for. But we were also providing community counsellors in every region, most communities in the Northwest Territories. We’ve got different programs like ASSIST, we’ve got the Matrix Program which is outpatient community-based treatment as an option for individuals. We’re able to do some things by Telehealth. We’ve got contracts with four facilities in the south. Now, that we have an expedited process, we finally started to see some increased usage of those southern facilities, more so than we ever had in the Northwest Territories when we had a local facility here in the Northwest Territories, so we’re starting to get more people going to these facilities because the facilities offer a wide-range of programs and options that never existed in the Northwest Territories before. We’re providing on-the-land programming, we’re working with Tides Canada to see if we can get, you know, more interest, help invest in more programs. We have more services available today for individuals that are struggling with mental health and addictions than we ever have. I’m not saying that it’s perfect. I’m not saying we’re meeting all the needs. A lot of work still needs to be done. We’re doing that work through our new Mental Health and Addictions Framework, but today we have more options available than we have before. I think we’re on the right path. More clearly needs to be done. I take the Member’s point. Beyond the land program, it is proving to be popular and we’re getting really positive, you know, anecdotal feedback that it’s helping people.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. There’s still time for another question, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just under the Community Wellness Initiatives Fund, you know during my last visit to Aklavik a constituent thought it’d be a good idea, and I’m not sure if this is proposal driven whether, you know, the department would be open to a proposal that the community could put into –a… You know, work with a lot of the elders that have arthritis. There doesn’t seem to be much programs to help them exercise or you know to… Right now the only solution they have is to give the elders Tylenol it seems. You know, there has to be something more in place to help the elders, whether it’s exercising or finding other ways to help our elders cope with their arthritis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean without seeing the details, we can’t say sure, but that sounds like that meets the criteria for this particular fund, and obviously we’d love to see a proposal, but I mean until we see the detail it’d be impossible to say whether it met the criteria or not. We could share the criteria with the Member, he could share it with the community and I mean we’d be happy to see a proposal.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Blake. None? Recognizing Mr. O’Reilly.
