Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. I do appreciate that there is a huge chunk of employment in this department that is not in Yellowknife. However, as we have adapted to COVID, we've seen we've been able to move to a more virtual and online world, so 82 positions that all sit in headquarters. Perhaps at some point, there could be a look to see if any of those could be moved out to communities, to give opportunities to people in other locations to rise up through this program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
I'll take that as a comment. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm good.
Questions? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of the department's business plan under this section, one of our goals was to increase local residency and implement our residency full-time. I always support increasing residency, and I believe the goal is to go from two residencies a year to four. Can I just get an update on when we expect to accomplish that, or whether we already have? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Member please expand on what he means by "residencies"? Thank you.
Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The medical residency pilot, I believe, is about allowing doctors to do their residency in the North. Right now, we do two placements, I believe, a year, and the department's goal is to have four doctors completing their residency. That's my understanding of what the pilot program initially was and its intentions. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thanks for that detail. Yes, I am aware that there is a plan to increase that, but I am not sure about the timing. I will turn to the deputy minister for that detail, please.
Mr. Cooper.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are early in the process with the two residents, and certainly, we will be evaluating this. We don't have a firm date for expansion, but certainly, we are seeing lots of interest in coming here and anxious to do so in the coming years. We don't have a firm date for when that will happen.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you. I would encourage the department to get a firm date. I know there are more and more people looking to do their residencies in the North. We actually offer quite a great practice experience for doctors. There are more and more benefits, such as student loan remissions available for doctors willing to come north. Another area in the department's business plan in this section is to increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Part of that work was to do staff surveys of all of the people in the department. Can I get an update on whether that was work we were already doing or when we will begin that work? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I note these aren't really budgetary questions, but we are prepared to answer any and all questions about the work of the department. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this, please.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of the work in developing a comprehensive human resource strategy, there is engagement planned with staff. There are some surveys that have been completed. There is some data that already exists from program evaluations, which is being reviewed by the staff at the health authority. In addition to that, there is a group being compiled which is made up of frontline staff, and we are looking for deep representation throughout the authority. That will help guide us through other engagements that we will do to ensure that the strategy, once developed, is representative of the issues that staff have identified.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that the human resources function for the health authority actually lies within the Department of Finance, and there is a goal to kind of create a few units that work together. I am looking at the $6 million a year we plan to pay to human resources. I see last year that it has gone down $400,000, and it was gone down $700,000 from the actuals. To me, if one of our mandate items is to work on recruitment and retention, there are quite a lot of priorities under the human resourcing of health for this department. Why has that budget decreased? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. I think that there are a number of things that are happening in here. They don't actually relate to that HR unit that you are speaking of, to the best of my knowledge. My knowledge is not as great as the deputy minister's knowledge, so let's ask him.
Thank you. Deputy Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The question is in terms of what's happening with, I believe, a revised amount of $400,000, if I'm understanding the question correctly. There was a supplementary appropriation of $400,000 in order for us to engage in work force planning. This was, if I recall correctly, funding that was being made available to support Aurora College in the establishment of programs to ensure we have staff to serve our elders in long-term care and the community. That explains that swing. In this budget, you'll see both the occurrence of some of the money that we got through the supplementary process in the summer appearing at the same time as an increase. Some of that is what is captured here for this work force planning that we are doing with Aurora College as a flowthrough. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that this is the unit that is kind of responsible for updating our long-term care projections. I know, in the capital budget, we passed a number, but the department is looking at adjusting some of the numbers. Also, I believe there are some lessons, perhaps, to be learned from COVID-19.
Every time we bring on a long-term care bed, obviously, there is more funding needed within the operations budget. Do we have increased funding for long-term care in this? Sorry if I'm wrong about where we would find that. Due to the capital budget requirements to build more long-term care beds, we increased the funding for the actual in operations budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. Long-term care is its own activity area. Could we return to that question when we get to that activity area?
We can. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard the deputy minister say that we are just starting to conduct some of that staff survey work, and we are starting to roll out staff satisfaction. Do we have current staff satisfaction measures right now for the department? Thank you.
Minister.
Thank you. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this.
Mr. Cooper.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not have that information with me. I would have to inquire.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you. The human resources function here, which actually lies in the Department of Finance, is being asked to do a lot of very specific health information, including recruiting nurses, travelling, staff satisfaction surveys across the department. We plan to measure the decreased caregiver distress. There are a lot of metrics to be done in human resources. It's very specialized work for health. To date, I have been concerned that, perhaps, the general HR function is not up to that, and it really should be in the Department of Health and Social Services. I want to be confident that the $6 million here being sent over to Finance is the right amount. Can I get a commitment from the Minister that whatever current information we have on staff satisfaction can be provided to committee? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. We are looking to the expertise of the Department of Finance to assist us in recruiting and retaining staff, per our mandate commitment to increase the resident work force by 20 percent within the life of this Assembly. That is a collaborative enterprise led by the Department of Finance but including people from Health and Social Services. I can't make a commitment to provide you with the information you're asking for because I have no concept of whether I'm going to give you a page or a library. I need to understand that level of detail before I make that commitment. Once again, not to belabour the point, this is not a budget item. We came prepared to answer budget items. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
I'll try again. When I look at the department's business plan in here, there are service level metrics to be devolved. There are employee engagement and satisfaction to be devolved. There is employee turnover to measure. There is long-term care to be measured. There is employment engagement service. Fifty percent of the department is supposed to be surveyed. I have no sense of whether that work has been done or is done. I have no sense of whether this is the adequate money to do it. Perhaps, as a start, if I could get the Minister to commit to what is being done by the Department of Finance in regards to, I'll call it, the priority to improve work force engagement and develop strategies aimed at improving hiring practices and retention. What is being done by Finance versus health? If we could get a commitment of the breakdown of who is doing what work, that would be helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will work with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, to provide a very high-level overview of what tasks are being undertaken at this time. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. If committee can keep the questions to the budget itself, it would be appreciated, even though the Minister has somewhat committed to answering other questions, as well. Thank you. Are there any further questions on this section? No further questions. Please turn to page 173. Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $53,007,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Health and social programs, beginning on page 179, with information item on page 183. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'll come back to my questions, I guess to start off, about languages. I am wondering: how much is spent on translations for Indigenous languages within NWT hospitals and health centres on an annual basis? Thank you.
