Thank you, Minister. Further questions, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes?
Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. For an average of 170 people, we have $35 million of a total cost. Where in the plans are we to try to repatriate some of these clients back to? I understand there are complex needs for some who can't return, but the ones who we possibly could bring back, repatriate, and to decrease some of our costs or maybe to spend some of those dollars in territory, paying for our own staff, creating jobs in the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The department was planning a supportive living review so that we can look at all of our patients here in the Northwest Territories who we cannot provide care for and have a look at a review to determine how do we get some of our patients back. Patients do want to come back to the Northwest Territories, and sometimes we don't have either the facilities or any of the supports that can be provided here in the Northwest Territories. The supportive living review, I think that would be helpful to have so that we can have a picture of what it would look like. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Under this residential care cost, is there a cost to allow for family members to regularly visit these clients who are out of the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am going to turn it to Ms. Mathison to provide an answer. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Director of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's not included in this budget here, but the authorities each have a budget for travel, for visitation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Director of Finance. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to clarify, it's not under this budget. I guess I can ask that under the regional budget if it's not under here. Within the medical services, as well, I understand that this is the line item above. It hasn't changed. Are we just assuming that this is what we pay for hospital services outside of the territory and that, on average, there's no increase? In addition to that, we're limiting the amount of patients that are going out of the territory right now, for the last two months and possibly, who knows how long, with sending them out. Are we going to have a decrease in that? Have you talked about that within your department, with admissions outside of the territory? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The medical services includes the insured hospital physician services provided to the Northwest Territories residents outside the NWT care. The majority of these, our patients are in Alberta, and some of them are there already because of their complex needs. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you. The residential care, $35 million for 169 people, and then, on top of that, we have medical services for them in that other budget, just to clarify? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister, can you clarify that point, please?
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is correct. That includes the $35,997,000 and the $35,435,000. This is something, our department, we need to be able to do this review because that's a lot of money, and I hear the Member keep referring to the amount of patients that are outside versus how much money we spend. That is a lot of money, and that's why having a review to be able to look at that might help to reduce some of the costs, if there are ways that we can do things that helps the patient and helps services here in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm shocked. I didn't realize. There is no other care? This $73 million or $71 million is just for 169 people, or does that include all of our admissions that go down to outside of the territory who are admitted? Thank you. I just need clarification.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Further clarification, please, Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just going to get Ms. Mathison to clarify. Apparently, I've been using the wrong notes, so I'll just get her to clarify. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Director of Finance.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, that medical services line includes all costs associated with all NWT residents going down for physician or hospital services. The reason why the budget hasn't really increased there is because we tend to deal with increases in this budget on a supplementary appropriation basis because it's very difficult to project the demand on the services. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Director of Finance. Any further questions, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes?
The addictions treatment facility, we've got $2 million on this. We had that last year, and again, it was up for actuals 2018-2019, and then it was down a million, and now we're just kind of staying status quo this year. Do you have the numbers of how many addiction treatment facilities, how many clients this was for in the last year that we used to gauge this number? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The addictions treatment facilities includes facilities in the South, like Edgewood, Aventa, Poundmaker's and Fresh Start's. Ms. Mathison, director of finance, just mentioned about how we budget, and it's hard to budget a line item like this, so we bring it back to supplementary for the actuals. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Do you have numbers on how many clients were served in the last fiscal year in the addictions treatment centre?
One hundred and ninety-one.
Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, nothing further. Any further questions for this item of out-of-territory services? Mr. Bonnetrouge.
Just to follow up on the addictions treatment facilities, it's good that we're getting clients. You've noted that we get 191 clients, and I can only assume that they are all our residents from the Northwest Territories going south. Of course, there's always the issue of support services once they return to the communities. Do we provide any support services once they return home, considering that we do have social services and mental health workers in the communities? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. When we have clients go out for treatment and they come back, we have programs that are able to ensure that we keep them safe and that they just don't relapse back on their addictions or whatever the case may be. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you for that brief answer, and it wasn't specific enough. I am looking for something specific. We have programs. What programs are they afforded to, the people coming back, and if they are aware of them, if we can get a list of the programs that you have, the support services? Maybe an evaluation on the whole program would be very helpful. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do have community counselling services that are available for clients who come back. Also, we have aftercare community counselling. We have outreach services that are available when clients do go out for treatment and when they come back, and we have the services available for them. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Deh Cho.
No further questions.
Thank you. Are there any further questions on out-of-territory services? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks Madam Chair. We obviously want to take care of our citizens who are down south, and I understand that many of them have very complex needs and require specialized care that we can't provide here in the North. I am just wondering how often the cases, and treatment that's required for individuals, are reviewed. Is it on an annual basis, to see if those services might be available in the North? What's the process for reviewing all of this to see if any of those individuals can be moved back up to the Northwest Territories? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We do annual site visits, and we check on the clients at least annually. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Site visits, is it a team that goes? Is it just one individual? Is it a medical person who goes? With all due respect, I'm just trying to understand what the process looks like, if someone has a checklist or there's a medical assessment involved and so on. Can I get a bit more of an explanation? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to ask Deputy Minister Cooper to respond.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.
Thank you. The purpose of our visitation and its authority and departmental staff is to assess the types of services to ensure that the programs and how they're operating are aligned with the contract that we have with the organization. We would be asking questions, like, I guess, an accreditation team would ask about, you know, the types of training that they have in place, the different program changes that they've made and these sorts of things to ensure that quality is in place. I don't have detail beyond that level.
