Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know I laughed, and it was funny, but just to be clear, the reason that we are not 100 per cent sure it is this section is because there is no budget for the work that we are doing. We are doing it with staff who actually cross a number of divisions and sections, but this seems as good a section as any, given that a number of the staff who are helping with this are in this division.
Mr. Chair, I will admit that I did not anticipate that Health and Social Services would be the first department up when it comes to budget discussions. We haven't usually been the first department, so I did intend to send a letter to committee. We are actually in the process of drafting it. We were supposed to be done the plan by the end of March, and in discussion with some of our stakeholders and our advisory panel; what has been suggested to me is that it is more important that we get this plan right as opposed to right now. We have struggled to sort of get agreement on some of the initial information that we have been pulling together.
I think it is going along well. It's just slower than anticipated. We won't be done on March 31st. I was going to come to committee and ask if we could have a briefing, just to give everybody an update, but we anticipate it will probably take a couple more months, probably three to four more months to get to the point where all the stakeholders are satisfied with the project and the product, before I'm prepared to come and have the discussion with committee on where we are, and where we go next. My apologies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister. Can he, though, provide some assurance that there have been consultations, particularly with the Council for the Disabled? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I can confirm that absolutely. The executive director is the chair of the reference panel for the NGOs that we have put together. The executive director is the chair. We have been working with them. They are one of the groups that suggested to us that we need to make sure we get this right as opposed to right now, so we are working with them and even more so as we move forward into the next step, which is going past the inventory and into the action plans.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is all I have for now. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up a discussion that we had during the business plan review about the status of the grant-inkind for the Rockhill Family Housing program. The department was to look at reinstating the accounting for the grantin-kind. It sounds like some paperwork needed to be done. Is it possible to get an update on the status of the grant-inkind to Rockhill Family Housing program? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if you turn to page 168, you will see the Rockhill apartments, which is the money I believe the Member is referring to. It is back in the budget. Just as a note, the lease does expire in 2018, and we are currently working with the YMCA to do a bit of an assessment of the space: is it still the right space? Does it still meet the needs? Will it continue to meet the needs?
Ultimately, though, just to be clear, we are committed to supporting the programs and services being delivered by Rockhill. We do have the option for a 10year lease extension. We just want to work with them to make sure that that building is still meeting their needs, but we are 100 per cent in, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, Rockhill is almost 50 years old. The plumbing system is going. The electrical system and fire suppression systems have been upgraded, but its lease on life is in fact coming to an end. Has the department started planning for where this program will be offered when Rockhill is finally declared dead? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have not done that work yet, but will be working with them. We are committed to working with them to look at the space to see what kind of life we have left and, if there is any life left, what needs to be done. Whether or not someday we do have to move from that building, we will work with them to find alternative solutions.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that response concerns me greatly because what I have heard the Minister say consistently today is that various projects are delayed and behind schedule. This is a place where people live, and so there can't be any delay in meeting their needs, so I am distressed that there is no planning under way for a replacement. I am not an engineer, but I can tell you that that building is clapped out unless somebody is willing to spend major money retrofitting the plumbing system and the heating system. I would feel better about the future of transitional housing for clients across the NWT but taking place here in Yellowknife if I knew that there was at least a plan to plan to replace Rockhill. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Would the Minister like to respond?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I am sorry that the Member is distressed. I don't know how to be more clear. We are committed to working with Rockhill. The Yellowknife regional office manages that contract. I understand that they are prepared to have some discussions with them and start looking at the building to see if there is any potential future there or whether or not it is absolute we have got to find another location, but we are committed to working with them.
We have no interest in seeing those people hit the street. We are interested in working with the organization to make sure those people continue to be housed, and we will do what we need to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. Green.
No further questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. We will open the discussion up to include pages 168 to 170, as well. Next, I have Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am looking at page 167, residential care for adults and children. I would like to first ask the Minister: on the expenditure category of this page, where are the expenditure categories that encompass residential care for adults and children? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Contracts and transfers to the authorities, so grants, contributions, and transfers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister, on the contract section, what type of term? I realize there is a lot of detail, but what type of term on the contracts for this care, the length of the contract? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you. I am not 100 per cent sure that I understand the question, but I will try to answer the question that I think I understand, if that makes any sense.
Laughter
Listen to everybody laughing over there. The contracts differ because every one of our residents who is going down for residential care in the south this is where people are often going for permanent stays or longterm stays really depends on the magnitude of services that they need as individuals, the care they are receiving, so the costs are different for every one of them. We continually, at least definitely on an annual basis, the department is looking to make sure that the level of care is appropriate, that more isn't needed, less isn't needed, and adjusting accordingly.
Every couple of years I ask the department to do an assessment of: do we have a group of individuals with similar conditions that we could look at repatriating? We have not been able to find that group of individuals at this point, but I will be asking them again if I am still here in a yearandahalf's time.
The contracts are all different. The terms different. The level of coverage and care is different. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Minister has anticipated my question well. My question was the whole idea of repatriating. I know that the department had gone through one repatriation and created a community living complex in Hay River, so the fact that the Minister has indicated that he is looking at that all the time is something that I am satisfied with. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond at all?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. This is something that has come up for a while, and I know the Member was raising this issue previously. I know that, as a Minister, this was an area that he was also very interested in. I would really, and I think everybody would really, prefer to have our residents home, receiving care as close to home as possible, but, unfortunately, some of these individuals we are talking about are really high-needs and we don't have the resources. We had professional staff in many cases to accommodate them.
It would be great at some point to be able to repatriate some of the individuals with similar conditions in a facility. We would be able to keep the money in the Northwest Territories, employ Northerners. There are so many advantages. We just have not found that group of individuals with similar conditions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, moving on to a different topic, I noticed that the homecare and support services has been decreased a bit. It actually has sort of decreased over the last three fiscal years. Also, that there had been some marginal increase to the mental health and addictions. Like I had indicated during my opening remarks on this department, that's a huge cost driver for the department and I think there should be more funding put into at least those two areas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Would the Minister like to respond?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on the homecare line you will see a slight reduction from 2015-16. What it was, was we were actually overspent and we had to seek a supp to cover some of the shortfall. In that fiscal year the budget has been basically the same. It's gone down a little bit this year because we reduced some of our duty travel in the programming to reduce the amount of travel to meet our similar reductions, but we're confident that we'll still be able to provide the same degree of services with that budgeting, with that reduction in travel.
There is a slight increase in community mental health and addiction services. Just for the record, that's the sobering centre and the extended hours. Once again, I agree 100 per cent with Members; we need to invest more in this area. This is our mandate; we're committed to doing so. We are doing the work that will be ready for all of us to review and talk about in great detail when we're doing our business planning to set some financial priorities and some target priorities and program priorities moving forward so that we can start making real differences in the lives of our people that are struggling and those that are looking for continuing care. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we had attended the Antipoverty Roundtable in Inuvik as a social development group. It was very interesting. The Minister was there, of course, and listening to the group there talking about their work. We felt also that there should be more funds targeted towards the anti-poverty group. So that's just something I would mention here, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the dollars for the Antipoverty Fund are in the health promotion and community wellness area. I hear the Members loud and clear. This is an area that is obviously really important to the Members, and we're always open to negotiations.
This year money went into different areas to support poverty or addressing poverty in the Northwest Territories. Addressing poverty is a responsibility of pretty much everybody, every organization, every NGO, every government. This year to help address things like poverty we did improve or increase the amount of money going to income support. With the guidance and wisdom of committee we have fully funded JK, and there are other areas that we've made investment and we're trying to get to utilize some of the programs that exist, like Child and Family Services, the VSAs.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's it for now. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Next, I have Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have three questions. The first question is in regards to community clinics and health centres. In my general comment I made the point of an established health cabin on the Hay River Reserve, and I think just recently there was an effort by a doctor to provide at least care on the reserve. I just wanted to have an understanding if my expectation may be consistent with the Minister's in terms of trying to bring more services from the town of Hay River through the Hay River Health Authority in terms of trying to bring services to residents of the Hay River Reserve, whether this section here maybe reflects within a year in terms of maybe making more advanced initiatives of trying to bring healthcare services to the residents of the reserve. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this is something that we're committed to, and I'm happy to say we've actually had some success in this area. Success that even I didn't actually anticipate that we would see this quickly. Although Hay River is technically not in the Health Authority because of the issues that have been discussed already, through memorandums of understanding and agreement we are acting and they are partnering as if they are.
One of the benefits we had out of that is, although K'atlodeeche was traditionally in the Deh Cho as far as health services, Hay River has been working really hard with K'atlodeeche and the Hay River Authority to make sure that they're extending some of their services in the community. We got really lucky; we had a doctor who was willing to leave the hospital and actually go across the river, across the river in wintertime and around the bridge in the summertime, and actually spend some time in the community providing services directly to the residents of the community.
In a single authority this was something we were never able to work out because of, you know, this is my employee and that's your employee, but under this model we were able to make it work, and I think that's the type of successes we need to continue to build on. There's always some concern it might be incumbent-related, but we've proved that we can think outside the box and find ways to work together to provide services.
We also have a member of the K'atlodeeche Reserve on our authority in Hay River, which means they're actually having some insight and advice on how to expand those services into their community.
There are some good aspects of our healthcare system, there are some bad aspects of our healthcare system, but I think we're moving in the right direction and we finally have tools in place that allow us to make these changes that I think you and others have wanted to see for years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The second part to this question is that -- I like the phrase in terms of bringing services to communities, building upon that relationship and bringing healthcare services at the community level.
My other question is that there are two small communities, Enterprise and Kakisa, and in some instances Enterprise, you know, by geography is closer to Hay River, Kakisa sometimes by geography is closer to Fort Providence. Is there within the plans to ensure that healthcare services in terms of nurse practitioners or even nurses could be maybe brought to the community in terms of bringing healthcare right to the community and within their community? Mahsi.
