Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Health confirm what is the purpose and cost attributed to substance abuse and what does it comprise of? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to a government news release from November of 2020, the NWT spends $2,329 per person on substance abuse treatment and aftercare versus the Canadian average of about half that amount.
I want to say that the total budget for facilitybased treatment, aftercare, and related supports is $20 million a year, and that accommodates in the facilitybased treatment a high of 270 people in the 20182019 year and a low of 73 people in this fiscal year, obviously lower because of COVID.
And I also just want to note in closing, there is no limit on the amount of money we'll spend on southernbased treatment. The more people apply and who are accepted into the program, the more we'll pay for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm what aftercare supports for substance abuse are available for those returning from treatment in southern Canada? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. The process of welcoming someone home from southernbased treatment begins with a discharge plan that's created collaboratively with the person receiving treatment and with his or her supports in the NWT. So that person would be connected with community counselling for ongoing support. And there are, of course, a number of AA groups that are available in the larger centres. We have been working on aftercare support in the smaller communities by offering a peer support fund which communities can apply for specifically to assist people who are returning from treatment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister confirm if her department has considered the need for transitional housing supports to those clients returning home after receiving treatment in the South? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. Yes, indeed, we have considered that and, in December, we issued an expression of interest to Indigenous governments seeking communities who would be interested in operating a transitional housing program, which would be safe and sober housing closer to home for people who are returning from treatment. We got an uptake of four organizations who submitted an expression of interest, and the department is now working with them on the development of their applications. The budget for this fiscal year was $750,000, and for next year is just over $1 million. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'm pleased to hear that. You know, it's time that we move ahead and we try and provide the support to those that are, you know, battling and fighting addictions.
So I'd ask the Minister what strategies and action plans are in place to address how this government will support those returning from treatment in the south as we go forward? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you. I mentioned the peer support program. There's also an addictions aftercare fund which communities are using to hire counsellors to provide ongoing support for people who are coming back and establishing themselves in a new and sober lifestyle.
We have an app for those who have the tools and the connectivity called Wagon, which was developed by Edgewood Institution in Nanaimo, and that's another possibility for people. Of course, we have the community counselling program for which no appointment is necessary. People can access on the same day. So we have a variety of ways of reaching out to people to help them with their journey to stay sober. Clearly, Mr. Speaker, I'm aware from my own life that staying sober, having invested the 30 days or 60 days in the program, is the biggest challenge, and we're here for people who are trying to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, is the Minister of Justice at all concerned with the increasing cost of policing services in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Thebacha. Minister responsible for Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it's my job to be concerned about the budget of the Department of Justice and so, of course, I am concerned about these increasing costs.
The increasing costs are due to increasing demands, service demands on the RCMP, and I hear requests all the time from communities, from Indigenous governments, that they want more RCMP. I've never once heard in the territory that someone wants less RCMP.
There is an acknowledgement that perhaps RCMP aren't best suited to do everything, and they would agree with that, and so where we can we need to find ways to supplement those services so that the RCMP aren't focused on doing things that other entities or organizations could be. So because of that, we are piloting a community safety officer program and the hope is that that can expand and then reduce the demands on the RCMP.
Here in Yellowknife, there's been a number of services that have started up over the past number of years, primarily through nonprofits, which have reduced the demand on the RCMP. So we are taking steps to address the rising costs.
Each year, the Minister of Justice provides policing priorities to the RCMP. There's four of them. And innovation, fiscal, and operational and fiscal innovation is one of those priorities that I put forward to the RCMP this year. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he believes policing in the NWT is conducted with the highest levels of transparency and accountability? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's varying levels of accountability. I know in jurisdictions in the United States, they elect their sheriffs and you could say that's the ultimate accountability. So we don't have a system like that but we are focusing on ensuring that the RCMP are taking steps to become more transparent and accountable to the public. And I mentioned my policing priorities. One of the other four is accountability and transparency. So I am focusing on this in response to, you know, concerns I've been hearing from people like the Member. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he believes policing transparency and accountability should be improved in the NWT; and if so, are there any specific tools at the Minister's disposal that he can utilize to do so? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And you can always get better at being more accountable and more transparent. I think that's true for every entity.
One of the tools that I have are those policing priorities which I mentioned. In addition, there are new initiatives that are likely rolling out in the coming year, such as bodyworn cameras. And of course, and I mentioned this before, the Territorial Police Service Agreement has a number of checks and balances and a number of ways to ensure that the RCMP are accountable to the department. And as well, there's countless working groups, meetings, locallevel meetings, nationalregional meetings, that the government is involved with with the RCMP to ensure that we know what the RCMP is doing and that they are accountable to us and their operations are transparent. But there's the other aspect where the RCMP need to be more transparent to the public, just like we all do. And so to that end, I've had discussions with the commanding officer about taking steps to ensure that the public is more aware of what the RCMP are doing. That said, the RCMP are busy, and I think that, you know, that's reflected in the concerns I hear from around the territory, that they want the communities want more RCMP. So while I would like for the RCMP to go out and do a lot more community engagement and meet with people and, you know, hold meetings, the fact is they're busy doing what we pay them to do. So yes, we are working on it, and yes, there are tools, and yes, we are utilizing them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell us if he has had any significant discussions with the federal minister of public safety about potential solutions to improve transparency and accountability of the RCMP and policing services in general? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have significant concerns about the transparency and accountability of the RCMP so I haven't had those types of conversations. That said, I do have regular conversations with the commanding officer of Gdivision; the department has regular conversations as well. So those conversations are ongoing. And noting the your comments earlier, I will keep this last remark brief. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions, as I said, are for the Minister of Finance for whom human resources I guess falls underneath her.
How many GNWTs are working outside of the territory? Because according to my Member's statement, in the news article there were 29, and I just want to know if the Minister can confirm if this is accurate? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as of January 31st, there are 31 employees on active duty working outside of the territory. That represents about .4 percent of the total work force. The majority the vast majority of those, of course, would have been approved by their supervisors prior to this policy taking effect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the concerns that I brought forward in my Member's statement is that if these positions are, you know, outside the territory, they could be taking away from residents that are in the Northwest Territories. So of these now 31 positions, can the Minister confirm have they moved away or are they just temporarily away, or is this a precedent that we're setting that could potentially lead to more people leaving the Northwest Territories to work remotely and become residents in other territories and provinces? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the ability to work outside of the territory is meant to be for exceptional purposes only, and "exceptional" is really just that. It's, for example, if you have a child who has to get medical care, specialized medical care for a period of time that is not available here and you need to go care for your child, well, that's pretty exceptional. It is not for people who simply prefer to live somewhere else, who might have family that they'd like to see. It's not a matter of convenience. It is for exceptional purposes only.
And you know, I don't want to preempt where the Member might be going, Mr. Speaker, but I would also note that with respect to being outside of a community other than Yellowknife, the policy's actually quite express that this is not a that people are not being authorized to have a worm out work arrangement if they live if they want to live in Yellowknife and their position is located outside of Yellowknife, that is not authorized under this policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So thank you to the Minister for her answer and yes, she's reading my mind because she has my questions, but. So I know the intent of this is not to fill GNWT positions with nonNWT residents. It was pretty predominantly, you know, a recommendation made by the government OPs committee too to establish this remote work policy for instances of a pandemic where everybody gets sent home, because we didn't have it.
But what steps are being taken to put in place that, you know that people aren't moving out of the territory and that employees that are in positions and getting approval that they haven't taken up residence and they actually live and their primary residence is the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, the Member's quite right. This certainly speaks to the experience we've all had during COVID19. But this was something that was considered even before that. It's a direction that a lot of the public service sorry, the human resources experts are starting to look at across Canada. We want to be a workplace that is keeping up with the direction of human resources approaches. We want to be a workplace that is considered attractive to bring people here and not so that people will leave and want to have that flexibility for folks who may be outside of a headquarters region or a regional position and who can now work in their home positions. It's the policy and the guidelines that go with it are structured to do just that. People have to be providing their addresses of where they're going to be living, providing photographs of their work site for as much to ensure that they're in a safe position to work with in that position, and that is going to be monitored. If anything, by putting the policy in place like this now, now there actually is some guidelines. It's not a matter of one person or a another who prefers to work down south might get a oneoff approval. That's not going to fly anymore because now you have to actually be applying whether or not you fit within this policy as being directed from human resources. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the potential impacts of this policy, I believe there needs to be more transparency and oversight.
Will the Minister commit to publishing statistics on remote work policy in the public service annual reports? I'd like to see the reporting on the number of jobs done in a different community and the reasons for it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public service annual report certainly is one place that we might be able to report on this. I have no concern in saying that we will definitely be able to report back, just as we are today, about the total number of residents who might be working either outside of the territory or who are working in some sort of remote arrangement and whether that is in the public service report or whether somewhere on our website. I will see that it does get published somewhere and inform the Members when we've made that decision as to what's the best place to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Sorry, I'm not operating off of paper today.
My first question for the Minister, Mr. Speaker, is what type of data about the prevalence of FASD in the NWT and people parenting with FASD does Health and Social Services collect? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member's question. FASD is a common concern in the NWT, unfortunately.
We have the statistics that she quoted about people who have been to the diagnostic clinics. But for the population as a whole, we don't have data that tells us what the incidence of FASD is per thousand population. It's been estimated by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that it's eight per one thousand population. But it is more prevalent in some populations than others. So we don't really have a firm grip of the number of people who have FASD at any age. Much of the difficulty here has to do with diagnosis. Sometimes people choose not to be diagnosed, or the parents choose not to have their children diagnosed, and so this is really a selfreporting metric. And for reasons that have to do with shame and fear of intervention by child and family services, people may choose not to go that route. Thank you.
Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The NWT is definitely not alone in that. When looking for data and research worldwide, it's definitely the stigma around FASD is definitely shared and by having these conversations, I think we can do our part to try and strip away that stigma.
I'm wondering if part of the adult FASD clinic identifies whether or not the person taking part in the clinic is a parent? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. That's a very interesting question, whether that is something that's acknowledged, and I don't have that information off the top of my head. I know that they they're concerned with the person himself or herself, but I'm not sure if they take their family circumstances into consideration but, of course, it would be useful to know that. So I appreciate the question. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. One of the things that the Minister said is absolutely true, is that it's a selfreporting mechanism. But part of being able to have the opportunity to selfreport is having access to that clinic. And so I'm wondering how many communities will the adult diagnostic clinic travel to in 2022 and how many NWT residents do they plan to assess? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the difficulty here is that the FASD the adult FASD clinic was launched in 2020 which was not a year in which there was a lot of travelling around. That said, last year the program was able to visit Behchoko and Fort Providence, and I think that generally they committed to travelling to four different locations a year.
So based on what's happened to date, 25 people have been to the adult FASD diagnostic clinic, and 133 children and youth went to the FASD diagnostic and support program. So we would want to see those numbers as good or better in the year to come if the COVID restrictions remain the way they are; that is to say, it's much easier to travel. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final short supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if Health and Social Services will commit to establishing navigator or case worker positions within the adult diagnostic clinic to provide that individualized personal and centered supports that their clients need? Thank you.
Yes, thank you. I was under the impression that that was in fact being done now by people who work at the FASD clinic, who provide services to people who have a confirmed diagnosis, that there was some pathway navigation going on in that situation. But I can certainly confirm that and provide the Member with that detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the Minister of Health and Social Services Minister's statement today, she mentioned that the gap between what we pay our nurses and what other jurisdiction are paying is closing, and we are one of the only jurisdictions in Canada that, during COVID19, did not give recruitment and retention bonuses. But one line jumped out at me is that we she went to FMB and got approval to give those bonuses and then in consultation with the union there was not agreement to provide that money.
My question is for the Minister of Finance, who is responsible for that relationship, can I just get an explanation of what is going on here; why we can't pay our nurses more money? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Finance.
