Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier Yellowknife North resident Ben Nind was here. Ben Nind is the executive director for the Giant Mine Oversight Board. He is certainly a well-respected community supporter and a big contributor to the creative arts community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Deh Cho.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize two pages from Deh Gah School from Fort Providence. Nyssa Mackenzie and Shannan Bonnetrouge, along with their chaperone Trisha Landry will be here this week from February 6 to 9. I'd like to encourage my colleagues in joining me and welcoming them to the Legislative Assembly. Mahsi.
Marci, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services on my Member's statement. When it comes to NWT's health performance, we publicly measure things like diabetes, immunization, school readiness, smoking, obesity, but we don't track poverty. My first question for the Minister is, pillar two of the action plan to reduce and eliminate poverty in NWT is healthy living and reaching our potential. Can the Minister expand on some of the department's achievements in this area during the 18th Assembly, and how these relate directly to poverty and poverty's health impact? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, addressing poverty, as the Member is aware, certainly is the responsibility of all departments, all boards and agencies, as well as NGOs and individuals themselves. The Department of Health and Social Services can do things to help individuals combat poverty here in the Northwest Territories. There's a large list, but I'll just touch on a couple of the things that we're doing.
Throughout the Northwest Territories, we've been holding community health fairs to help people understand the types of things we all need to be doing, making healthy choices to support healthy living, which ultimately can support them in their fight against poverty.
There has also been a significant amount of federal dollars that have flowed through the Department of Health and Social Services to the individual communities throughout the Northwest Territories to support community wellness, and different activities that are being undertaken by the different communities themselves, community-driven, to help address issues in the communities. Often, poverty is on that list.
Mr. Speaker, in this budget, this government has made commitments through the Department of Health and Social Services to help combat things around poverty, such as putting in a sobering centre here in the Northwest Territories. It's not just the Department of Health and Social Services, as I've said. This government is committing $3 million this year and ongoing to support small business opportunities in communities. JK is fully funded and will be fully funded as of September. This is supporting poverty reduction in the Northwest Territories. We have $22 million, up $2 million this year, being available in income support to help address poverty in the Northwest Territories, but I do take the Member's point on impacts on health, and we take those very seriously. We do have a territorial action plan that we refer to on a regular basis and, as we're making decisions on programs, we think about the impacts they will have on our residents to help reduce things like poverty. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I hope the Minister hasn't answered all my questions with the first response.
Laughter
Thank you. How does an understanding of poverty as a health determinant currently factor into the department's policies and planning?
The Member had a very comprehensive Member's statement today which I think addressed many of the issues that are being faced by residents across the Northwest Territories, and I appreciate the content of that statement.
Poverty, as I think the Member has clearly articulated, is a very complex issue with many contributing factors, and there is no single solution. I think that goes to MLA Green's comment about how I always respond to poverty questions. At its most fundamental level, Mr. Speaker, the department priorities and planning in the health and social services are grounded on a population health approach. A population health approach has as one of its fundamental considerations the fact that poverty is linked to health. So in our planning and design of programs and services, the consideration of poverty is built into the work that we are doing as a Department of Health and Social Services. It is also built into the work that Education, Culture and Employment is doing, as well as the Housing Corporation, so it is something that is being done by Health and Social Services and in cooperation with other departments in our government.
How can the department share povertyrelated health information with other GNWT departments and other Ministers to improve the whole government's approach to eliminating poverty?
In the last government, the government, in cooperation with NGOs, Aboriginal governments, community governments, and other stakeholders, put together an antipoverty framework. One of the things that has frustrated me about that important work, and it was important work and I appreciate all the work the stakeholders have put in, but it is something we hear time and time again. Number one, there is no evaluation criteria established for any of the work being done on addressing poverty in the Northwest Territories. Number two, there was no real agreedupon definition of what poverty is.
These are things that came up at the last antipoverty round table again. It's my belief, and we need to work together as an Assembly to figure out how to move forward on this, that we do need a definition of poverty in the Northwest Territories so that we have something that we can actually measure ourselves against. Also, we had discussions; we haven't established things that we need to evaluate that do need to be based on something, and a definition would go a long way to making that happen.
The bottom line is we aren't evaluating our programs against poverty, and I have no information to provide about success. I could tell you how many programs we have run. I could tell you from an education point of view how many people are on income support, but I cannot tell you the success rate in reducing poverty that our programs have. We have to continue to work with our stakeholders to identify and develop that criteria. Then we need to start tracking it so over the years we will be able to provide that information to tailor our programs to meet those outcomes.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about the Department of Justice doing an integrated case management approach that they have completed recently. I was wondering if the Minister could tell me: what does the Minister think about piloting an integrated case management approach to poverty and health in our small communities, maybe to start with, on the pilot? Thank you.
The Member is asking for the Minister's opinion, but I will allow the Minister to answer.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking for my opinion on something that I haven't actually had any discussion with the Member on. I'm not sure exactly what the Member means by an "integrated case management approach" to this particular challenge that we face across the Northwest Territories. I would be happy if the Member were to send me something from committee and himself outlining exactly what he's talking about so that I can get informed, so that I could therefore develop an opinion.
Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment answered our colleague from Kam Lake that he heard about the news from the college that the social work program was being cut. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please tell this House when he heard the social work program was going to be phased out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The college was provided a budget reduction target, and those discussions happened back in September. In cooperation and consultation with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, the college identified a number of proposed reductions to look at meeting this target, and that was known to me in November 2016 and was confirmed in December, and then they became part of the main estimates. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my address about the budget, communication is poor. Thursday was another example of why I say we have poor communication in this House. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise the House when we on this side will get a full briefing on why this program was phased out?
I would be pleased to sit down with committee and discuss some of these reductions within the college at the convenience of committee, whenever there is time. I would be more than happy to do that.
I would like to thank the Minister for his answer. That is encouraging. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about how the college communicated with its students via email. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister please advise this House if the college has a communication policy that they use when informing students about changes and if this policy was adhered to on Thursday?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aurora College does not have a specific communications policy in regards to informing students of changes in programming. Aurora College does operate on the principle that students should be provided as much notice as possible in regards to changes, and students are normally provided information via email. We feel at this time, in terms of the program and phasing out the program, plenty of time.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for his answer. I may disagree. Communication via email is probably not the process I would do, and I would actually encourage the staff at the college to work with the students and tell them face up and tell them what is going on.
As I said in my Member' statement today, the college has decided that this will be the last year for intake for Northerners wishing to take the social work program. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister advise this House what will happen to the students who are taking this access program presently to get ready for the social work program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Aurora College has met with each of the five access students who are going to be impacted. These private meetings were to discuss options, both at the Aurora College for other possible programming or other postsecondary institutions, depending on what the students' career path needs are, and interests, so they have met with them to move forward and helping them look at where they want to go in their career. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I spoke about mental health in Nunakput, and my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services about the NWT Help Line program. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: can the Minister provide any preliminary observations from the first night of group phone sessions, for instance, the number of people who called in and if this program has started to positively impact Northerners in need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I get into the details, I just would like to point out that this was the first delivery of this model. There was some advertising for it, but clearly there wasn't enough. At this point, we are not panicked, but we do have to do some more communication. Mr. Speaker, the first delivery was January 30th. We had two people registered. Neither of them called in. At the end of the day, we had nobody call in to that group help line. As I said, we are not panicked yet, but we recognize we have to do some better communication to get that information out there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I appreciate the response. My second question is: how are these new programs, including group phone sessions and confidential Facebook chat sessions, prepared to respond to unique cultural needs like those of Inuit Northerners?
To ensure that the care coaches -- those are the individuals who actually respond to the calls and are participating in the group counselling -- are ready to work with residents of the Northwest Territories, information is provided to them on a regular basis about the Northwest Territories; the realities, region by region, of the types of challenges that are being faced; the number of suicides; other mental health challenges; as well as some of the community realities so that they are aware of those realities. They also have a number of local resources that they can call in, the health and social services centres, as an example, in order to get additional information on the communities that they are talking to residents from. There are a number of ways that we are trying to make sure that those individuals have some cultural context, some northern context, and understand the realities that our residents are facing when they call in.
The Minister may have answered my next question, but just for clarity, my final question is: what other culturally-appropriate mental health supports are currently available for Northerners across the Northwest Territories?
There are a couple of different things that are happening. One, as an example, departmental staff attended an invitation-only event, We Belong, which is an international forum on life promotion to address Indigenous suicide, in November 2016, which was hosted by the Canadian Foundation for Health Care Improvement. We had an opportunity to go and learn and bring back some of the information from those and apply it to programs across the Northwest Territories.
Mr. Speaker, the department also continues to deliver on-the-land healing fund for mental health and addictions, which goes to different Aboriginal governments across the Northwest Territories. We are of the opinion that those Aboriginal governments and the Aboriginal people are far better positioned than we are to deliver on-the-land programming, so we are providing them support to do that. We have committed to providing technical expertise or resources, e.g. staff, when they request it. We want to be partners, but we accept that it is their design and their implementation.
Then the department has also recently released a report on building a culturally-respectful health and social services system, trying to improve some of the cultural competencies of staff throughout the Northwest Territories so that, when they are dealing with individuals from small, rural, and remote communities, or even larger communities, they understand the cultural context and are able to provide the best, most respectful care and service possible.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, monsieur le President. It was a difficult call today, but I guess I have to go with some questions on Mactung. These will be questions for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. When he was down in Vancouver for the Roundup Mining Conference, did he put all of his colleagues to work and have a big sign saying "Mactung for sale" on the GNWT booth down there? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
---Laughter
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, the sign said "unlock your potential; the NWT resources are for sale." All kidding aside, when we were down there, we had an opportunity, like I said last week in the House, to talk to a number of people, be it prospectors, finance companies, mining industry, potential mining companies. The Mactung property was also brought up in a conversation of where we are at with that property and what we are doing moving forward on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks for the response. Is there actually a plan to sell this property? The folks on this side of the House have not seen anything. Is there a plan? Is there a sale price? What is going on with this property? Can the Minister tell this side of the House what is going on?
At present, right now, the Department of ITI is working with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey and we are looking at expanding our geological knowledge on the Mactung property.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. During our review of the departmental budget in Committee of the Whole last year, I asked if we could have some folks go over there to take a look at the site for any potential environmental liabilities. Can the Minister tell this House whether, indeed, there was a visit to the site and what kind of environmental liabilities were found? Can he make that report public because it would have to be disclosed to any potential buyers?
The Department of Lands conducted a site assessment on the Mactung property in August 2016. Those results were actually shared with standing committee already.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Great that it has been shared with this House, but can he make this report public? It would obviously have to be disclosed to any potential buyers for the site. What are the actual financial liabilities associated with the environmental issues with the property? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to talk to my colleagues in the Department of Lands and see what information they can share. If it is possible, we will share that with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
