Agreed. Thank you. That brings us to community social programs, operations expenditure summary, 2019-2020 main estimates, $34,325,000, from pages 180 to 183. Any questions from committee? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am aware that the money for family violence has increased in this budget, and that will certainly be welcome to service providers. On what basis was this money increased? Does it tie to the shelter standards that have been discussed in years gone by? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have been working for a while with the shelters and the shelter network to develop a funding formula that makes sense. We are not a hundred percent done that work, but we figured we had made enough progress to build a solid business case that would allow us to start making valuable increases in this area, which is why you see the $500,000 increase, which represents about a 15-percent increase overall to the shelters.
What we do know is that a lot of other jurisdictions are only partially funded in this area and that they raise a lot of money on their own, which is true here as well. We are looking at finishing our work and making sure that starting this year, but in future years, we are getting the funding right for these important family-violence shelters here in the Northwest Territories. This is an important step.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is something the Minister and I can agree on. What is the status of the shelters standards work? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That work is ongoing. They are all embedded and sort of tied together and will be part of the formula, as well. Our expectation is to be completed before the end of this term. Hopefully, you know, summertime, late spring is kind of what we are hoping, but, recognizing that we do occasionally have human resource challenges, hopefully, it won't be delayed too far beyond then.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister just remind us what the purpose of the shelters standards is? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is to help us all and together to define the types of and scope of services that are provided in the shelters and what we are able to provide some financial support to so that we have some consistency across the territory and we are able to fund based on a consistent application. I think the Member knows, for many years, we have been funding the shelters, but there really hasn't been any sort of set criteria on why one shelter gets X dollars and the other one does not. So that is where we are working on, is finding something that will help us set sort of some consistency in application.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I understand correctly, this would also have a financial application so that there was consistency in how the shelters were funded. Is that correct?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
That is the plan. I will note that that wasn't applied this way in this particular round. We are funding all. We are increasing funds to all the shelters using the $500,000 this time, but, going forward, that is the expectation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Yes, thank you. Just finally in this area, when the standards are complete, is the Minister planning to come and discuss them with the Standing Committee on Social Development? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Certainly, I am planning to share them with standing committee. If standing committee wishes to have a meeting, I am always happy to do so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further on this page.
Thank you. Any further questions, committee? Seeing none, I will call the page. Community social programs, operations expenditure summary, 2019-2020 main estimates, $34,325,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. Thank you. That brings us to Health and Social Services, diagnostic and therapeutic services, operations expenditure summary, 2019-2020 main estimates, $28,280,000, from pages 184 to 186. Any questions from committee? Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, there have been some fairly healthy increases in therapeutic services here over the last couple of years, the same to a lesser degree with diagnostic services. Can someone explain what is happening? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the therapeutic services area, there have been some increases over the years. We've been doing a multi-year roll-out in this particular area. In phase one, we rolled out a speech-language pathologist and an occupational therapist and an audiologist in Inuvik, as well as one admin person to help with those services in Inuvik. Just as a note, I'd like to recognize that all of those positions are filled. I think the speech-language pathologist will be starting on March 3rd. Phase two is to roll out another speech-language pathologist in Yellowknife, an assistant in Yellowknife, an occupational therapist in Yellowknife, as well as admin support in Yellowknife to help support the hub-and-spoke model, to increase services across the Northwest Territories in these areas.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that information. The phase two increases, are they found in this budget, or are they spread out over a number of years? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Abernethy.
Phase two increases are 2019-2020 increases. They appear in this budget. Phase one [microphone turned off].
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Could you please repeat that? You kind of broke up there.
My apologies, Mr. Chair. Phase one was 2018-2019. Phase two is 2019-2020, so it appears in this budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Is there anywhere that the public or Regular MLAs can go to see waiting times? I know the information is tracked somehow, but is it actually publicly reported in any way? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Abernethy.
Mr. Chair, right now, the answer is no, but I, like the Member, believe it's important for people to know, and the department is working to getting to the point where we can report on some wait times. It is not here today, but it is work that is being done. I want to see it. The Member wants to see it. I think I've been asked in the House over the last couple of days a number of questions on wait times. People want to see it, so I will be directing the department to find a way to make that information public. Having said that, these investments we're making today will help us reduce the wait times, but we won't see them reduced until we bring people in and get them trained and start the work. We should start to see some improvements now, as a result of the Beaufort Delta investments, and we will see more improvements once we get Yellowknife staffed up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the passion of the Minister on this. Any idea as to when the waiting times might be available? Is there a plan in place to do this? With the system transformation and so on, I understand that there's probably still some work that needs to be done there to standardize reporting and so on, but is it the Minister's intention to try to have this work done, what quarter of, say, 2019-2020, where the public could expect to start to see some wait times maybe posted to a website or whatever? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. What has become clear over the last little while and I think it's something we may not have recognized had we not moved to a single authority is there really isn't a solid definition of how people determine wait lists across the Northwest Territories. Now, in moving forward, the department is working closely with the authority to come up with some solid definition on how to define wait times. That work is underway. Once that work is concluded, we'll be in a better position to figure out how to report in a consistent manner wait times for all of the different services that we provide. Then and only then we'll probably be in a position to figure out how to get it out into the public. I anticipate we will be able to get the work done around trying to figure out what a usable definition of wait times and how to assess it is, and, from there, we'll make the second step. I'm cautious to commit to a time at this point because there is a significant amount of work being done by these people in other areas, but the department is committed to getting it done, and we'll certainly keep committee up to date as we make progress.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Sorry. I don't want to flog a dead horse here, but could the Minister make a commitment to, I don't know, report to the standing committee maybe on a quarterly basis where the work stands, just so committee and Regular MLAs know the progress that's being made and when, say, a launch date might be scheduled? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not going to make that commitment, but what I will commit to is having the department sit down and quantify what it thinks it will take as far as timelines to determine and work with the authority to define how wait lists will be determined and, from there, how long it will take to find a mechanism to reasonably and responsibly make that information public on a regular basis. I will commit to having the department do the analysis on how long they think that will take, and share that with committee.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks. I appreciate the commitment made by the Minister, and I will look forward to getting that information. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further questions from committee? Seeing none, I'll call the page. Health and Social Services, diagnostic and therapeutic services, operations expenditure summary, 2019-2020 main estimates, $28,280,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
