Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 549-19(2): Frontier Lodge;" and "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 554-19(2): Funding for Bus Service in Reindeer Point." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table this article from the International Journal of Indigenous Health entitled "Urban Land-Based Healing: A Northern Intervention Strategy." Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Tabling of documents. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I wish to table the following document. It's a letter from the Giant Mine Oversight Board dated February 23, 2021, to the Minister of Lands,with regard to Giant Mine land use planning. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I feel nervous with Ms. Semmler watching me. I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Norn.
Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 286-19(2), Main Estimates 2021-2022, Department of Health and Social Services. Marsi cho, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will take a short recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will call Committee of the Whole to order. We will continue on with health and social programs. Minister, do you have witnesses to bring back in?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do.
Sergeant-at-Arms, will you escort the witnesses in, please? Minister, would you like to reintroduce your witnesses?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With us today is Deputy Minister Bruce Cooper and Director of Finance Jeannie Mathison.
Thank you. Committee, we will continue on with health and social programs, beginning on page 179 with information on page 183. Questions? Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My questions are regarding the line item under Child and Family Services. There is an increase of $4 million. I know that it is probably due to the increased staffing that we see, but is there any work being done in that department for collaboration with Aboriginal governments on them taking over, or assuming parts, or a planning process, to children in care, assuming that part of the department? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make sure I am on the right page. Could the Member please say which page she is referring to?
Member.
One-eighty.
One-eighty?
Thank you. As the Member said, we have hired a number of additional staff in Child and Family Services to improve services to families who need additional support. That is reflected in the budget here. With respect to Indigenous governments creating their own regime for taking care of Child and Family Services, we are very supportive of that. We are prepared to collaborate with Indigenous government organizations and the federal government to make that happen. It's federal legislation that enables this to happen, and the federal government has announced funding available to Indigenous government organizations to pay for the cost of engaging in this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question was: is there dedicated staff within this funding to have that engagement in this budget with Indigenous governments, especially the ones who are saying they want to do this? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we have expressions of interest from two Indigenous government organizations, and the lead on that is the territorial director of Child and Family Services. It's my understanding that, at this point, there isn't a need for additional staff, but we certainly don't want to hold up the process. The legislation provides timing for coming up with agreements once the negotiations officially start. If it turns out that we are not adequately staffed, we would certainly address that with a supplementary, if necessary. Thank you.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Going on to the next area, I am going to go into is the hospital services. It's more so within the whole hospital wellness, mental health, addictions. In this budget here, I'm looking at community mental health. I'm looking at all of these different areas. Hospital services, $142 million. I know this has been raised in the House over and over again. There are issues with medical travel navigation. There are issues with Indigenous patients not trusting the service. They are not getting the answers. They are not getting the direction that they need. They are not getting the support that they need to navigate through our healthcare system. Is there any place in this budget to have Indigenous patient advocates or people in the department to navigate our residents through? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. I will just say that the hospital services budget is spread through several different categories in this budget, and this particular one is about in-patients. That is what the Minister is referring to in terms of Indigenous navigators. We do have people in navigator positions at this point. There is a question about whether it would be a good idea to have more people in this position, and that is something that we are interested in exploring further.
That may or may not be connected to medical travel. What I mean by that is that, in a separate review of medical travel, which is in a different section, we are looking at the escort policy. The patient navigator may supplement that or assist patients as they come to all of the hospitals, no matter where they come from, but we are not really at a stage yet to say exactly what is going to be offered and where. This is one of the areas that the department is working on. Mr. Chair, I would like the deputy minister to continue on with this answer, please.
Thank you. Mr. Cooper.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of things that we are doing to ensure that we remove barriers to access. There are services that we provide in terms of interpretation. As the Minister referenced, there are some navigation services. We are in the process of rolling out a fairly significant reform to how primary healthcare services are delivered, and very much that is happening because we have heard stories from people who believe they are not being properly understood by their provider; they don't feel safe in the way that services are being provided. We are working to reform primary healthcare very much to improve patient experience and improve access to services. There is a fair bit of resource in this budget that is designed to solve the problem that navigation would be designed to address. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know I have raised it in the House, and I know we have health navigators who know where, if you need an application, you go here; if you need this, you go here; and you phone them and you know that. However, a lot of our elders and a lot of people who are coming into our hospitals from the small communities, Indigenous people, even within Yellowknife facility, that's a scary facility; even for somebody coming out of Inuvik, that's a scary facility. It's a big facility. You can get lost in there. That's more of a comment.
We keep talking about how, in order to bridge this gap between cultural safety and cultural awareness by having Indigenous nurses trained and hired; we talk about it for the teachers. This is not happening. There must be a way that we bridge that gap to have Indigenous nurses as pathfinders in these hospitals, as somewhere where people can feel safe and trust that they will help them. Indigenous people, I have found, even with my time, is that they don't like to ask questions. They don't want to push people. They don't want to bother anybody, and then you wonder why a lot of our people have cancer, and they wait too long and these types of things. Like I said, that's more of a comment.
I want to move down into the family violence prevention. I'm looking here, since 2019-2020, there is $4.020 million, and then, in the 2020-2021, there was $4.174 million; it hasn't really changed much. It's $4.178 in this main estimates. I know we just recently got the intimate violence report. I am just wondering if there is a response within this department, if there's money or there's staffing allocated, in this family violence prevention, or if it's mixed between different departments. I guess it's up to the Minister to explain that, to address this issue within the territory. We know it's one of the highest in Canada, in the Northwest Territories, of family violence, and these are the ones that are reported. There are many that go unreported. I'm just wondering, in this budget, how are they planning on addressing that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. I am going to give two kinds of answers here. The first is specifically to family violence shelters. That's what this line item is for. In 2019-2020, there were new standards adopted for family violence shelters and a new funding model. While it looks like it hasn't gone up much, it actually did go up just right before the numbers that are in this budget. This pot of money is spent on the five shelters that we have in the NWT.
In terms of family violence prevention, that issue is really a whole-of-government issue. Health and Social Services has started to have conversations with Executive and Indigenous Affairs, where the women's secretariat is, and with Justice and other departments that deal with family violence, to talk about a whole-of-government approach to reducing those numbers. That would be a more strategic approach. What you are looking at in the budget here is the frontline approach. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. We will now go to Mr. Norn.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at page 180 on Child and Family Services, just in regards to my riding, I know that social workers, child protection workers, have a very, very tough job. I commend those guys because I understand there are very high turnover rates on that just because of the mere stress of the job. I know that, in one of my communities, in Deninu Kue, there was recently a change in staffing that left a position open. I am just wondering if that position was going to be filled in Deninu Kue. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Norn. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This budget is at a very high level. It represents spending in big categories and not at the regional or health centre level. I don't have a specific answer to the Member's question. I will say that we do not contemplate eliminating any positions anywhere, so if there is a vacancy, then I am going to say that it will be filled. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. That was good to hear. I mentioned in my Member's statement earlier that there are a lot of service gaps, and we try to make sure that we are always keeping on top of it and making sure that we don't have vacancies for extended periods of time because that means that our residents will go without some valuable services. Forgive me, too, that I have kind of inserted myself here right in the middle of this. If I am being repetitive here, my apologies. The other part of my question here: is the Department of Health and Social Services, in terms of mental health supports, are they working with the department of education and schools to promote mental health services and helping get mental health supports for students? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The child and youth care counsellors program is a joint initiative of Education, Culture and Employment and the Department of Health and Social Services. It's a four-year phased-in project. In the next fiscal year, the one that starts April 1st, these positions will be available in the South Slave. That's the last year of the four-year implementation in the South Slave, is the target there. That means that there will be counselling positions that are trained to a different standard than the current school counsellors, who will be available to help children and youth, whether they are in school or not in school, and they are available year-round. They're only tied to the school schedule. That is a program that we have on the go right now, and I'll just, through you, Mr. Chair, ask the deputy minister if he wants to add anything further to that. Thank you.
