Debates of February 28, 2018 (day 18)

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going to move on now to the Anti-Poverty Fund. In this current fiscal year, the Minister had a study of the process of applying for the Anti-Poverty Fund money, and he committed to sharing the results of that review at the Anti-Poverty Round Table at the end of November. I don't recall seeing that social development. My question is: can the Minister share the results of the Anti-Poverty Fund process review with the standing committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I apologize. That document was discussed at that meeting. It was a public meeting. There is no reason the committee cannot have it. It is clear you do not have it. I thought it was taken care of, but clearly, it was not, so I will make that happen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

I love answers like that, so I am rushing onwards with the next thing in my list. Thank you to the Minister for that. The Minister in answering my colleague for Nunakput's question the other day on caregivers indicated that homecare or people who work in association with homecare were providing vision and hearing tests in the communities of the NWT. Could the Minister tell me when and where these tests are taking place? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am going to have to review Hansard. I don't recall actually discussing these types of positions providing audio or vision. Did the Member say vision testing? I'm not sure where that came from. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's not something that our home support workers or our resident care aides or our CHRs do at this point. CHRs do provide education. They do go out and meet residents and provide health education, health promotion, but they are not qualified to do hearing tests or visual tests. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will pursue this separately so that the Minister has the opportunity to see the relevant section of Hansard.

My next question has to do with the forthcoming mental health action plan. Is there money in this budget that is specifically designated for the implementation of this action plan? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the action plan isn't completed, so we didn't bring it through the business planning process. We do have money in the budget for existing services, and should the action plan direct us to make modifications or improvements, and work to get best value for money, we are prepared to move how the money is spent which I think is the appropriate thing to do of all things. We need to review and make sure we are getting back value for money. If we are not, we need to modify it. At this point, there is no new money in this initiative for that action plan, which has not yet been released, but we are hoping to come forward with that action plan and then move forward through business planning if additional resources are required. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister confirm, then, that this mental health action plan will be ready in time for the business planning cycle that begins in the fall? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

That is my hope and expectation, yes.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the country food strategy, is that a health and social services initiative? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

I'm not 100 per cent sure what the Member means. We are working through our public health office to create awareness of country foods. We have really cool materials like colouring books for kids, and some other resources that are available to promote healthy country foods, but I'm not sure what the Member is referring to, exactly what she is referring to, so I apologize.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this was an initiative announced in the budget address by the Finance Minister, that a country food strategy would be created. It didn't sound like a public education campaign as much as it was about accessing country foods. It doesn't say in the budget address which department this is attached to, so it's not Health.

Moving on to my next question, I would like to commend the Minister for finding a permanent home for the sobering centre, and I look forward to the day that that opens. I would like to pursue a point I made in my reply to the budget address, and that is the possibility of creating a Managed Alcohol Program in that new space. This would be a program where people who are chronic alcoholics are served a measure of alcohol as a way to help them control their addictions without resorting to negative behaviour of all kinds which may be criminal. It may be involving the hospital and so on. Can the Minister tell me what would need to happen for him to make a case for a Managed Alcohol Program in that space? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I already made a commitment to move forward with exploring a Managed Alcohol Program in the sobering centre, but I indicated that we wouldn't even explore that until the sobering centre had been open a year, which would give us an opportunity to sort of get our feet wet, figure out how things are working, maximize or make sure that we are as efficient as possible before we start exploring that. Now, I do know that we did open our first sobering centre in July, but we haven't really gotten into our sobering centre per se. It will still be a number of months before we get into that building. My commitment still stands. I have directed the department, a year after the sobering centre opens, to begin exploring the possibility of incorporating a Managed Alcohol Program into that facility. I stand by that commitment, but I'm not prepared to pull the plug on that one year until we have been in that new building for a year. It will be towards the end of this Assembly, assuming we get it in the next couple of months. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Ms. Green, your time has expired. Are there any further questions from committee? Seeing none, going once. I will call the page. Community health programs, operations expenditure summary, $177,198,000. Does committee agree?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Thank you. Next we have community social programs, operations expenditure summary, $28,765,000. Any questions? Mr. Thompson.

Child and youth mental health workers here. This is the section. Can the Minister provide us with an update on what's happening with these positions for the Deh Cho and the Tlicho please? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernathy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we did have, I think, a fairly detailed public presentation on this area with the standing committee. Basically we're in the same position we were then. We need to get this budget approved, at this point we will begin to establish positions, get the job descriptions written, get them evaluated, and then pursue staffing. We are reaching out to schools right now to try to find people. If the schools have people who are qualified who are doing similar work now, we are certainly absolutely open to equivalencies. Hopefully we will get some of the existing people to come over and work with us, and we're intending to have them in place prior to the next school year.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the Minister's answer. I understand, through this whole process, we haven't done the job descriptions. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.

We have a project team to pull together all of the relevant details and information to draft some job descriptions, but until such a time as the budgets are approved, we're not going to go ahead and draft job descriptions. Most of the information has been compiled; we still have to follow our process, job descriptions, submit them for job evaluation, get position numbers, go out for recruitment, but we're really targeting being up and running for the school year, so September 2018. I think we've got more than enough time to do that.

In the meantime, we still have been reaching out to schools and other groups to try to find -- you know, it's certainly created a level of interest in these positions so that, when we do recruit, hopefully we will have people with an interest out there already. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my concern is the job evaluation process. I've seen, in other departments, the process take up to a year, and that is a huge concern for me, especially with the need for these positions. In my riding especially, some of the challenges that we've been facing. So I guess my question is: does the Minister feel comfortable that these job evaluation processes are going to go smoothly? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we share the Member's concerns. We feel that these positions are similar to positions that already exist, the adult mental health and addictions, so much of the criteria, the knowledge, skills, and ability to do the jobs is similar. So we are hoping that, given that there are some reasonable comparators, that the evaluations proceed quickly.

Having said that, ultimately at the end of the day they have a tool that they use to evaluate and the evaluators will assess accordingly, but I do share the Member's concerns. We are doing everything we can in the department to keep that process on track and on time so we're ready for September. I do hear the Member and I share his concerns, but I'm not overly worried yet. We will keep monitoring it closely.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for that answer. Can the Minister commit to keep me informed, as well, on updates on what's happening? Especially with the Deh Cho positions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, but I will commit to keeping the chair of the committee informed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Thompson.

That was a good little humour, and I thank you very much. So what I'll do is I'll get the chair to give it to me; we'll work on that. In my final closing comment here, I have to applaud the department. I've said this before in my reply to the budget address, and I have to applaud the Department of Education, Culture and Employment for taking this unique way of doing things. I mean, I was a little skeptical or concerned with it. I had long conversations with the Minister and people back home on this, and I, again, thank the department. I thank them very much. It is muchly needed, and I'm just hoping that we can fill these positions and meet and help our residents as we move forward. So, again, I'd like to thank the Minister and the department for doing this and taking this initiative, and the Minister of ECE and their staff, too. At that point in time, thank you; that will be my last question in this area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, and we're looking forward to rolling this out. I mean, we know there are going to be a few challenges along the way, but we heard from the kids. We heard from the kids, and they indicated this is an important tool and resource they need. I'm happy to see the support we have from committee, and I'm happy to continue to push this forward over the next four years, this year starting in the Deh Cho. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Any further questions? Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when the standing committee reviewed the business plan, we made a recommendation that the department look at developing a safe house pilot project so that communities that don't have family violence shelters, which is most of the communities in the NWT, would have a place that women and children, primarily women and children, could flee in the event that they needed to for their safety. I'm wondering if the Minister has given any consideration to developing this idea along with the NWT Housing Corporation? We thought that it could be dual-purpose; it could provide shelter for family violence and emergency homelessness. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.