Unfortunately, I don't know where we are in the financial situation with respect to that program. I believe that program is being run by an NGO, and it has been a very valuable program. We did have an opportunity to meet with some of the Member's constituents early on, and they talked about how much cleaner the area out in front of Northern Heights had been over the last year that this program was under way.
I will certainly look at it, Mr. Speaker. I think the program has value. I don't want to, obviously, step on another funder's toes, but if there is an opportunity to work together, I would certainly be happy to explore it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Finally, as I noted in my statement, harm reduction is the motivating philosophy of the creation of this centre, and to increase services for people who are homeless and/or addicted. In the past, we've talked about the possibility of a managed alcohol program. I'm wondering if the Minister can comment on where this proposal stands? Will we see it in the life of this Assembly? Mahsi.
I've said it in the House before, and I'll say it again: I am committed to having the Department of Health and Social Services explore the possibility of implementing a managed alcohol program here in Yellowknife as a pilot or trial a year after the sobering centre, day shelter, has been opened. I'm still committed to that. I still think that's incredibly important. We have seen that the managed alcohol program does work in other jurisdictions. I had an opportunity to visit a managed alcohol program in Ottawa which is getting some really great results.
The challenge that I'm now faced with, and we'll certainly be looking for ways to remedy this, is: the sobering centre day shelter is not a residence. Many of the managed alcohol programs are residential programs, so we are going to have to explore how to do that. I've committed to doing that a year after the sobering centre opened, so we have some opportunity to learn about it, the clients, what they're looking for, what supports they would like to see; but I do believe there's definitely value in this initiative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as per my Member's statement, I have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. My first question is: other than Lutselk'e, are there other Indigenous communities in the NWT that have informed ENR of their interest to launch programs such as Ni Hat'ni Dene? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have not heard of any interest from any other communities; however, that could change. The Member mentioned in his Member statement that there was some federal funding that was announced, and I believe the 2017-2018 budget there was $25 million committed over five years to support a pilot national Indigenous guardianship program. That is for all of Canada. So we are in the process of putting some funding requests in to the Nature Fund to see if we can access some of that funding, and I am sure, as the Indigenous governments and the communities become more aware of the program and the existence of the program and possible funding pots, then there should be more interest in this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I agree with the Minister, that $25 million set aside for proposals, I do not know what the end result of that was, but at this point the larger amount of money that has been put forward by the federal government of $1.3 billion, I have had all kinds of ideas for it. I would like to ask the Minister if the Department of ENR is prepared and willing to support additional Indigenous guardianship programs should they become of interest in other regions across the territory?
Yes, absolutely, we would be prepared to support additional Indigenous guardianship programs in more regions. I should add that, the Sahtu, we have already offered assistance to the Sahtu region in their application for this sort of funding, as well. We believe that empowering the Indigenous guardianship program is empowering residents of the Northwest Territories. I think we are all of the opinion in this Chamber that who knows the North better than the folks who live in the North, so I think the guardianship program would be an excellent program for a lot of people in the Northwest Territories to provide their input and be, exactly as it says, a guardian the North.
I would like to ask the Minister if the department would consider supporting the launching of a territorial-wide Indigenous guardianship program. There are many reasons, positive reasons, to have guardianship programs in all regions across the territories, and maybe even a couple of guardianship programs in a particular region. So, again, would the Minister support the launching of a territorial-wide Indigenous guardianship program?
The guardianship programs, they are best championed, developed, and implemented by the Indigenous governments. The GNWT, we would be more than happy to play a supporting role, but programs such as these would work a lot better if they are planned and implemented by the Indigenous governments with support from the territorial government.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I heard what he just said, but will the Minister commit to engaging the federal government, I guess, in support of some of the proposals that may come forward? What I am asking is that we need some sort of coordination at some level, and I feel that the GNWT is in the best position to coordinate these type of programs. They have renewable resource officers, that I mentioned in there, who could work hand in hand with the guardians, who could assist in training the guardians. They could work with the rangers. They could work with the various groups in the community, all designed to make sure that they are protecting the land and waterways across the territory. So would the Minister engage with the federal government to assist the various guardianship programs that could potentially happen across the territory?
We would be more than happy to work in partnership with the Indigenous governments of the Northwest Territories as they put proposals together to try to access some of the federal funding. The Member is correct. The GNWT may be best-positioned sometimes to have those talks with the federal government, along with I think they have a couple of residents of the Northwest Territories who are part of a national organization or a national group. Again, the Member is absolutely correct. Working in partnership with the Indigenous governments, I think it's important that we, as a territorial government, in our meetings with our counterparts in Ottawa continue to advocate for additional funding for a lot of these guardianship programs. So that was a long answer just to say, yes, we will continue to support the Indigenous governments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. My statement earlier today dealt with wait times for audiology services, so I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Wait times of 70 weeks for children are simply unacceptable. Can the Minister explain how this acute problem of wait times for audiology, especially children, is being addressed? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, there are significant wait lists for audiology. We have actually done a number of things to try to reduce that wait list, and the Member has actually identified already that we have put in a third position in audiology. National levels are five audiologists per 100,000 people. We previously had two-and-a-half. Now, we have three, so we are slightly over that. Having said that, we still have significant wait lists.
I have asked the department to begin a review with the NWT Health and Social Services Authority, focusing on wait time and waiting list management within the audiology division. We are hoping to see the results of that review during this fiscal year so we can continue to work to make improvements and reduce some of the wait times for our residents seeking audiology. Mr. Speaker, I just want to be very clear on this: where there are urgent needs, priority needs, those individuals see the audiologist very quickly. It's where individuals are further down in the priority list or do not have needs that are very urgent where we are definitely having some difficulty getting them in within the timelines we have established.
I want to thank the Minister for that. I have characterized the audiology wait times as unacceptably high, especially for children. It's my understanding that long audiology wait times can correlate with loss of cognitive function. It's not clear whether there are any professional national or international standards for waiting times for audiology. Can the Minister tell us whether there are any standards for audiology wait times and how we compare to other jurisdictions?
While there has been some work conducted by national committees of volunteers established by the pan-Canadian alliance to establish some benchmarks, there are no published standards for audiology wait times in Canada. I do know a cross-jurisdiction comparison, as I have already indicated, shows that there are about five audiologists required per 100,000 people. In the Northwest Territories, we have three, which is slightly higher than that level, but one of those positions is new. I did hear the Member in his statement indicate some pessimism that it's going to make a difference, but we are trying to make those improvements by bringing in an additional position. We are optimistic that we will be able to see some results.
The NWT has established some standards for all of our rehabilitation services based on a scale of 1 to 5: priority 1, 72 hours; priority 2, 10 business days; priority 3, one month; priority 4, two months; priority 5, four months. I can say that, in the priority 1 and 2 areas, we are meeting those levels. I can't say the same for the other priority levels, and those are the areas we are trying to address, and I think those are the areas that the Member is asking about. So we are working to make improvements in those areas.
I want to thank the Minister for that response. I mentioned the obvious fact that vacant positions bring savings in salary expenditures. I also recommended that these unexpended funds should be devoted to locum positions, wherever possible, to reduce wait times. Can the Minister explain whether unexpended salary dollars for audiology can be used for locum positions, and whether this is common practice for other GNWT medical services?
We use locums throughout our system on many different occasions, and we fund those locums through vacancies and through other unexpended salary dollars. We have brought in some audiology staff to provide some locums. We have also had some incredible difficulty finding people to come in and provide some of that backfill for us. We went for an extended period of time last year where we were actually unable to find somebody to provide that backfill. So I think there are some challenges at a national level to find individuals, but, yes, we absolutely use some unexpended dollars to provide locums if and when we can find them.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks again to the Minister for that. We actually did take one of those locums in, and they did house-sit for us at one point, so just so you know. The Minister has often talked about the benefits of system transformation, including standardized information collection and analysis. Can the Minister tell us whether and when we can expect wait-time public reporting for audiology and indeed a comprehensive selection of medical services offered across the NWT?
The move to a single-authority model here in the Northwest Territories, recognizing that we still have two outside the system although they are working closely with the system, has really provided us with an opportunity to start having that discussion and actually do the work to develop some territorial standards and some abilities to track information on a consistent basis. Which is great because we have had information, but it's never been presented or collected in the same way, so it's never been able to be a comparator.
The NWT Health and Social Services Authority is working to standardize data collection in the territory, which is obviously the first step of being able to produce reliable performance data. The authority anticipates being able to publish performance data either late in this fiscal year or early in the next fiscal year. I think this will be important for us, both in the department, in the authority, but in this House, to help us start making some evidence-based decisions on where some of our resources need to go. It's incredibly important data. I want to see it, I know you want to see it, I know Members want to see it, so we will continue to work to get it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Member's statement on the issue of operational progress for the Sahtu health and long-term care facility, my question is: can the Minister of Health and Social Services provide an update on the employment positions created by this impressive building? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the creation of the new Norman Wells long-term care facility, which I had the honour of visiting with the Member opposite for the grand opening, 37 positions were created the for this long-term care facility. Currently, as of today, we have 35 of those positions filled. We have one nursing clinical coordinator, seven LPNs, 12 resident care aides, three relief resident care aides, one clerk, one activity rehab aide, six-and-a-half housekeepers -- I am not sure how we have half a housekeeper -- one-and-a-half cooks, and three cooks' assistants. There are still two positions for staff people, but we are confident that we now have enough staff in that facility to open the next wing, and we are anticipating the opening of that wing at the end of this month.
The Minister must have a mirror on the wall. That was leading to my next question on when can we expect the second wing to open up. Adding to that question: when can we see the elderly clients moving into the second wing once it's in operation?
Obviously, we are hoping to open the next wing by the end of the month, so we should start seeing some of our residents moving into that facility in early November. There are a couple of things we want to do over the remaining couple of weeks of this month. We want to make sure that all of our staff are getting the proper orientation, that they are getting the proper training, that they get an opportunity to get into the wing, into the facility, so they see how the facility operates, and getting the other local training or specific job training that they need in order to provide a safe environment, a safe home, for the residents of that incredible facility.
As I live in Norman Wells, I have seen the change and I have seen in particular the changed contributions created by this building, particularly with the staff and the employment and the incoming families that took the opportunity of employment. Now, adding to that: training, in general an important element for sound administration, what plans are in place or going to be in place for the staff created by the institution?
I am not 100 per cent sure I understand the question, but I will do my best. At a territorial level, we do have some standards and standard protocols that we are putting in place at a territorial level, which all of the regional operations have to adhere to when it comes to things like plans of care and different things like that. In-house, there will be some local training, there will be some local policies and procedures that are put together by the staff of that authority. They obviously have to be consistent with the territorial policy and standards, but there is an opportunity to do some custom design, as well. Every building has its own little unique features. This one is no exception. They will certainly ensure that they are providing the best services they can out of their facility.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Question 395-18(3):
Mr. Speaker, I continue to receive complaints about the service at the Hay River Regional Health Centre, and for the most part they are the same complaints I have been receiving since day one. Some are optimistic that the Minister of Health's recent appointment of a new public administrator for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority will spur positive change in service delivery, so I would like to ask the Minister: what changes does he hope to see with the new public administrator? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I answer that question, I want to take an opportunity to thank our previous public administrator for all of his years of service. He certainly helped carry us to a number of milestones in Hay River, including the amazing new facility, the work towards a single-authority approach, a single-system approach here in the Northwest Territories, as well as things like Woodland Manor. I think he was a valuable contributor to making those things happen.
However, having said that, a new set of eyes is always a good thing. I have had an opportunity to meet with the new public administrator to talk about Hay River, talk about the services being provided there. I have asked him to get oriented as quickly as possible, get an understanding of the lay of the land. He is also, you know, a city councillor, so he has a pretty good perspective of what's going on in the community. I have asked him to get oriented, and then we would have some further conversations about what he is seeing, what he thinks we need to be focusing on. Basically, we all want the same thing, Mr. Speaker. We want quality services for the residents of Hay River and the North.
Like Mr. McNeely, the Minister has answered a few of my questions already. So it's become clear that, during the life of this Assembly, the Hay River authority will not be brought into the territorial health authority. I mean, there just is not the political will to get it done from Cabinet, and so the Minister must work with the public administrator to address these recurring issues that I keep hearing about. Since the Minister said that the public administrator still needs to orient himself to this, I guess they have not made a plan. What I would like to see is the Minister and the new administrator, Mr. Willows, sit down and create a plan with clear goals and deliverables so that people can see whether or not progress is being made, because right now people are frustrated and they are giving up hope about the service of healthcare in Hay River. So will the Minister sit down with Mr. Willows and create a plan as I described?
I just want to correct one of the Member's statements. This Cabinet is committed to bringing Hay River into the public service. It is one of our mandate items, and we are doing a significant amount of work to make that happen. It is a big task. It may not happen in the life of this government, but that does not mean that we are not doing important work today that is going to help make that happen in the future.
I did have an opportunity to meet with Mr. Willows. We did talk about the authority, and I have provided Mr. Willows with a mandate letter outlining his role, responsibilities, and expectations as the public administrator in Hay River. The letter explained his scope of work as a public administrator and sort of articulates that, in the absence of the board of management, the public administrator is not involved in the day-to-day activities of the operation but provides guidance and oversight to ensure the compliance and objectives of legislation and policies and regulations are actually being met. He does also have the opportunity to provide advice to me as the Minister on things that we need to do or things that are not happening in the authority so we can make sure that they happen.
I understand that the public administrator isn't running the day-to-day operations. Like the Minister said, he can provide advice to the Minister about what needs to happen. So will the Minister commit to sit down with Mr. Willows and produce a document that identifies the problems in Hay River and ways to address them with clear goals and deliverables so that people can see progress is being made?
The public administrator will be required to do public meetings similar to board meetings. At which point, he will have an opportunity to explain and identify some of the things that he's seeing and witnessing in the community and hear from community residents on where their concerns are. I know the Member has been very good at helping articulate some of the challenges that people are seeing in Hay River, and he has shared those with me. We are certainly attempting to address some of those.
One of the things I think we can be happy about is there have been an awful lot of concerns about wait times and same-day appointments in Hay River. We have tasked the CEO, and the previous public administrator tasked the CEO with finding some solutions on that with some support from people throughout the community. As of September 1st, by way of example, clinics began providing some same-day appointments, and patients can call in or walk in in the mornings for appointments that day. So we are listening. We are making improvements. There are changes that are happening. I believe that the public administrator, with some fresh eyes, is going to be able to look at some of the challenges and offer some new and unique solutions.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reason I asked about getting together and creating a plan is because the public administrator isn't responsible to this House, whereas the Minister is. In the absence of Hay River being part of the territorial authority, I need some sort of way to convince my constituents that we are making progress. So further to the Minister's previous point, what progress is being made to bring Hay River into the territorial authority? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There are a couple of things that need to happen. Obviously, we need to determine and quantify the cost of bringing the individuals into the public service. Specifically, what I mean by that is the cost of the pensions and the cost of ensuring those who are already receiving pensions through Hay River who have worked there over the many years are not adversely affected, but that the individuals coming into the new system, our system, with superannuation are not adversely affected or penalized as a result of the pension that they provided in the past. We've had discussions in here about the pension in Hay River and how it's more of a Volkswagen than a GNWT Cadillac, and we have to figure how to roll those wins.
We're doing that work now. We're trying to quantify what that means. That is taking a partnership between Health and Social Services and Finance. We're getting closer to having some better numbers there, but some of it still depends on our negotiations with the UNW. We do need to have a long conversation with the UNW, because they are the bargaining unit for both the GNWT, but also Hay River and its two separate collective agreements. So once we have some of our financial certainty, we'll be able to have more informed conversations with the union, which will help us figure out what the ultimate costs of this transfer will be.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
