Debates of March 6, 2023 (day 146)

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, does the Minister have a breakdown of the percent or amount within this $44 million that serves youth aging out of care? That might be a little bit too specific for here today but if possible, I'm wondering if the Minister does have that breakdown. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think there's a misunderstanding about what this figure is for. So I'll ask the deputy minister if she can clarify this.

Deputy minister.

Speaker: MS. CECCHETTO

Thank you, Madam Chair. This budget line is specific to a compensation and benefits and physicians that staff within the department that are providing the services versus I believe the Member's question is about the number of clients that are actually in care.

So to clarify, if that's the line item, then would that information be under what section then? Yes, Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you. So we're spending $44 million then, what I'm hearing, on compensation and benefits? I thought this $44 million was to actually pay for the child and family services programming that happens. So I'm wondering if I gain clarity on that, please.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll ask the deputy minister to answer, please.

Thank you. Deputy minister.

Speaker: MS. CECCHETTO

So just to clarify, the budget line that I spoke to, the $44 million, $2 million of that is for compensation and benefits within the Department of Health and Social Services. The remaining $40 million is split between the three health authorities. And it is ultimately about the staff and the programs and the services itself.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, and I appreciate that. So the reason I'm bringing up youth aging out of care and how much of that breakdown, so if the $40 million was dedicated towards youth aging out of care, is when we went out and spoke with youth, there was a lot of confusion about what youth were entitled to, what they could apply for and ask for services when they are aging out of care, whether or not it was kind of an, you know, one and done as soon as they become of age. And so I'm wondering if there is a breakdown of how much of that actually goes to youth who are aging out of care. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We don't have that information. We'll have to return with it.

All right. Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm wondering if the Minister and staff would have the resources within this budget to dedicate some of these dollars to creating like, whether it's a booklet or a portal or something where youth who are currently in care can see what supports they will get and/or could get when they are aging out of care because there's not a lot of transparency right now as far as what supports they are entitled to and can help them in their transition from care to independent living. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I would say that if there are youth who have questions in this line, they could start with the child and youth care counsellor in their school to get some direction about what's available to them, or failing that, a social worker that is available to them through Yellowknife Health and Social Services or through the regional health and social services authority. So I'm not sure that putting a whole bunch of stuff online is going to make a lot of clarity. I think it may result in more result in more questions. And I think that the social workers and counsellors are better positioned to explain the nuances of the funding available and how the youth can access that. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I was hoping to get to three other things, but I might send some questions to colleagues if they're willing to sneak them in because I think that's going to take the rest of my time. But it's youth in care that have come to us and have said this. And sorry, youth who have also aged out of care who have come to us and have said this. And, you know, I was sent an email recently by a parent that was originated from a youth care counsellor because youth care counsellors are very much overtaxed in the territory right now, and so they don't always have the time to get everybody in. And in addition to that, our social workers are in the same position where they don't always have the time to get in and sit down with everyone. And sometimes people who are advocating for youth aren't a social worker or aren't a youth care counsellor. We have the also the Foster Family Coalition who does a lot of work on behalf of youth in the territory. We have the YWCA who sits with our youth. And sometimes it is somebody from down the street. And so I'm wondering if Health will put together a resource that youth aging out of care can use so that they can find out more information and have some autonomy over the choices that they want to be able to make. Thank you.

Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you. I'd like to take a look at what's available now and how that can be used, and if it seems to present a lot of gaps to consider how we can reenforce that message for youth. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have any more questions under health and social programs? Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, when I look at the contributions funding in this section, there's a lot of really good pots of funding here that are helpful to communities, Indigenous organizations, etcetera, to get money into the communities and help their people. When I look at the numbers, a lot of that is remaining fairly stagnant. The antipoverty fund, which I know we've done, has increased over the terms of this Assembly, which is great. However, you know, there's things like the family violence prevention fund, which has only gone up slightly; the communitybased suicide prevention fund, all things that we've called on to have more money put into.

So can the Minister or his department speak to why given the, you know, alarming rate of suicide and other mental health and wellness issues in the territory that we're not putting more money into these programs that put money into communities? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you. There are a lot of different funds here, and some of them deal with mental health and some of them deal with the need for food. There's quite a bit of variety here. Some funds are taken up and spent wholly while others languish and so there isn't a current need to increase them. So it's really a line by line exercise.

The other thing that I would say is that we have been asked by the financial management board to manage our money so that we don't increase the deficit any quicker than we are. So that figures into arbitrary increases to any of these areas. We need to know that there's value for money in increasing these different contribution agreements before we increase them. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would argue that we well know that increasing money into community pots of funding that work with mental wellness and health and just generally wellness, including nutrition, is always going to be good money invested. Just because a pot of money has not been spent doesn't mean that the need does not exist, and I think that when we talk to any of the NGOs and small community organizations, they often speak about the red tape and the hurdles that they have to jump through, the hoops, the reporting. They're not going to go to all this extra work just to get $10,000. So given that I don't necessarily agree then that the reason is that this money is not needed. So what is the department doing to streamline and make more efficient the process for getting this money that's not been spent into the hands of community governments? I can guarantee you if you go to any community government, they're not going to say no to an extra $25,000 from the department of health for ontheland funding. So saying that it's not needed I think is disingenuous. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, for the record, most of these funds have a onepage application and the reporting on it is as simple. But what I've heard at the bilateral tables with Indigenous governments is that they often even lack the capacity to come up with a proposal. So the paperwork is not really the problem. It's once they get the money how are they going to spend it.

One thing that the NWT Council of Leaders asked the Department of Health and Social Services for was to create block funding with some of these funds, particularly mental wellness and addictions recovery, peer support, and on the land. So starting in April of this year, those three funds will be combined and available in a block funding format to Indigenous governments. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm really glad to hear that. It does speak to a lot of the issues that we have heard from many of the smaller communities and the NGOs, and I appreciate that the department has been listening to that.

Given that block funding that's going to be created and I'm sorry, I missed and I'll have to go back and listen to which of those three pots it was that were getting combined will it be available to other organizations within a community, not just the Indigenous governments but, for example, even if just an individual wanted to get together and put an ontheland program together that they would be able to access that funding? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. All of these funds are prioritized for Indigenous governments. They have five months to put in their application from the beginning of the fiscal year. And if they haven't applied at that point, then the fund is available to other organizations that have a partnership with the Indigenous government. So there is no scope here for an individual to apply. But there is the scope for the partnership between a community organization and an Indigenous government to apply. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So if there is an individual because I do hear this often that someone would like to just you know, they've got their own equipment, things like that, and they do want to organize something but perhaps they just don't have that formalized partnership with a band, is there a pot of funding anywhere here where they could apply, or is it all going to be structured in partnership with Indigenous governments? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes, thank you. If there was that kind of a person, I would suggest they apply to the United Way to obtain funding to deliver their service. I'll just say again that this is prioritized to Indigenous governments and Indigenous governments in partnership with community organizations. So they have a lot of leeway in deciding who they hire, what kind of services they want to offer with the pot of money, where they're going to offer them and so on. So it may be that if there's a person who's interested in working with an Indigenous government, they could find a way in that way. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking as well at the family violence prevention fund which has had a small increase of about just under $10,000. I do note that we have seen a lot of an increase since 20212022 but I have to wonder if that has to do with the COVID or the lingering pandemic effects.

Can the Minister or the department speak to whether that fund is being completely subscribed and whether or not we feel that we need to be offering more money here. Is this a way that we could get monies into the shelters or communities to do shelter work? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this money the $211,000 was for the last fiscal year that ended a year ago. This year there was the fiscal year that's going to end in a few weeks, $395,000 allocated. Some of it went to FOXY and SMASH; some went to the Status of Women who usually have a Family Violence Awareness Month event. The Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and the YWCA in Yellowknife both offer programs to children who witness violence. And we also fund "What Will It Take?" too. This is a series of artistic posters/videos that speak to family violence. So the unallocated portion of that budget at this point is $88,000. So just to say this doesn't fund shelters, this funds NGOs to provide programming that supports the prevention of family violence.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The reason I ask that is in the note it does say "and shelter families affected by violence."

My last question I guess, or that I would like to ask about is around men and men's supports. I note that we don't have the men's healing fund here, and I'm just curious to know if there is any of these funds that are directly targeted towards men and men's mental health and wellness given that it is known and shown that men do not access services the same way that others will. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.