Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. I think that some of this is communities not seeing how this fits into the programming that they want to offer, and that's one of the reasons that the Indigenous governments asked for block funding so that they could have more money to devote to their priorities and that would include money from the mental wellness and addictions recovery program. Most of these programs end up with residual money. So the point of the block funding is to make sure that all the money goes out the door. If all of that money disappears very quickly, then we would be in a position to justify expanding these funds. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just looking at the grants and contributions to on page 199, health and social services authorities funding. So the mains for this year is $278,647. So how many authorities does that the funding allocated to, how many authorities? Does that include the Yellowknife authorities?
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The breakdown is NT there is no Yellowknife health authority. Yellowknife is part of the NWT Health and Social Services Authority. The total amount to NTHSSA is $236,100,000. Hay River Health and Social Services Authority $25,282,000. TCSA, $14,574,000. Physician maternity/paternity leave $250,000. Collective kitchens $188,000. Mental health association bilateral allocation for training and counselling $139,000. Referred laboratory allocation $872,000. Incremental recruitment bonus $204,000. Mental health first aid and assist training $100,000. CHIRPP coordinator funding $138,000. Indigenous patient advocates $550,000. Healthy family program $250,000.
So there is no line item in there that relates to a specific region, such as Yellowknife or the Sahtu. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
So maybe I should go to page 198 then regarding, Madam Chair, community clinics and health centres. The locations like, I'd like to know how much is allocated to the Fort Smith Health Centre? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you. This budget is the budget for the Department of Health and Social Services. It's not the budget for NTHSSA. They develop their own budget and report it in their annual report. So we don't have line items in here that are specific to a region such as Fort Smith. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Well, that is kind of not very clear. For clarity, I would like to know how much money is allocated to the Fort Smith Health Centre, Madam Chair. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. We don't have that information in this budget. It's a budget for the department, not a budget for the authority.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
I don't know how else to put it, but the thing that I'm trying to get is, you know, with the NWT board now having the full authority and the advisory boards that there's only a couple authorities three authorities the left in the Northwest Territories. Two in Yellowknife, I think it is, and one in Hay River. And maybe I don't know if Inuvik has an authority. But the rest are all advisory and they all belong to this NWT board. And since that happened, I'm told by the members of the advisory board in Fort Smith that they don't get monthly financial statements exactly where they stand. So I'm just wondering if the Minister could please be clear on how even an advisory board could ask for different financial statements on a monthly basis at their regular meetings if they're not entitled to know what's going on in those health centres? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there are three health and social services authorities in the NWT. There is the NT Health and Social Services authority, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, and the Tlicho Community Services Agency. Each of those entities has its own administration, its own budgeting function, its own finance. And so I believe that the Regional Wellness Council, which exists in each of the regions, would have information specific to the region that they could obtain through their local their local management. But this is not something that is in this budget.
What you see on page 212 is the block funding that is transferred to each of the health authorities that they use to pay for their expenses. And that's all their expenses. Social services, primary care, doctors, utilities, everything would be in would be part of their budget. So it's not in here because it is not part of the department's function. It's up to the health and social services authority. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Well I guess, Madam Chair, it is a concern to the advisory council in Fort Smith that they don't get financial monthly reports on exactly where the health centre stands. I mean, if I sat on any board or any kind of even if it was advisory or whatever, I would be very concerned if I did not get monthly financial statements when they have their meetings. And I think that should be should be I'd really appreciate if the department would look and make sure that the people that are sitting around the table have access to these kind this kind of information. They're not going to be sharing it with the whole community because most of their board meetings are incamera because of the delicate situations that they're discussing. And so I'm just wondering if that's possible. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the different entities of the health authorities report quarterly on where they stand visavie their budget with variance reports. And so that means that Fort Smith would need to contribute its information to create the variance report. So my recommendation is that the Regional Wellness Council speak with the COO about obtaining that information on a quarterly basis. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
The other thing I want to talk about is, you know, a lot of the services seem to be more centralized now that we have Stanton. I'm just wondering if the specialists' visits to the regional centres will increase. It's much easier for a lot of our especially the large senior population that we have like in the community of Fort Smith. It'll be much easier if a specialist was able to come to the community on a regular basis rather than everybody travelling to Stanton here in Yellowknife. And I just want to see how the Minister feels about that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I recognize that it does present some hardship for elders to travel to Yellowknife for specialist care. But specialist care sometimes requires equipment, exam rooms, specialized nurses to assist in the exam rooms, administration to make the appointments and remind people of them, and so on. And so Stanton is set up to do that. So it's not just a matter of parachuting one person in. It really is a team effort. And so that's the reason that it's offered at Stanton. That's where the resources are. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
I also thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to also just talk about aftercare and a detox centre. You know, we have I think it's just over a million in aftercare. And it's going to recovery and support communitybased addictions recovery. But we really do not have a proper detox centre and aftercare facility in the Northwest Territories. And with all the things that are happening in this past year and during the COVID and afterwards, I think that, you know, the Northwest Territories really requires an aftercare and detox centre. And I just want to see how how the Minister feels about this whole situation because it's it's not getting any better. It's getting worse. We've had so many suicides and attempted suicides in the South Slave especially, and I'm sure up north too because I you know, my area is in South Slave. That's why I'm talking about it. And I'd just like to see something more concrete done with that because it's a major, major problem within our communities, and it's a major problem for all of us here in this House. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. I know the Member has heard what I have to say about this so this time I'm going to ask her if she will listen to the deputy minister talk about what's offered for detox and where. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Member for the question. So currently we do have the ability to provide detox in a medical detox, I would say, on a oneonone basis in our hospitals in our facilities. And the health authority is working towards expanding and coming up with a model for medical detox, and that also includes communitybased detox. That work is underway. Some of it did get waylaid of course with COVID and other things but that work is underway. And we don't have currently what I would consider to be dedicated beds for detox. As I mentioned, it is on a casebycase basis. So that is our current approach in the territory with the hope that in time we would have a program that has structures and standards and processes that are established, and that is the work that is happening between the department and our health authority staff currently.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. No, just in regards to page 198 in regards to program detail child and family services. I do have issues with that in regards to, I guess, I think that the department should be looking at Madam Minister in regards to how do we give our children back to the parents once they're taken into custody? Like, a plan to work with the family instead of them being taken away and the next thing you know they're in longterm care for until their 18 years old and then they're forgot about. You know, they're put back out in the public and all the care that they put into them, you know, we failed them that way, that one year of grace in that 18-time period. And I think that we should be really looking at that. But is there a plan in place or to work with the local community governments or not local community governments but the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation or the Gwich'in Tribal Council for our youth that's been taken into custody through the social system, and is there a plan to work them back into the community? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. There was a big change in the way child and family services was delivered following the 2018 Office of the Auditor General report, with an emphasis on keeping children with their families and in their communities if at all possible. And in our last annual report, we reported that 92 percent of children stayed in their communities and/or with their family or extended family. So last year, we only had eight percent of children in care who are in the permanent custody of the director. The real advancement in this area is that the IRC has passed its own child and family services law, the Maligaksat, and we have been working with them on an implementation agreement. And it's my understanding that one of the things that will happen with this law is that the IRC itself will administer the voluntary service agreements, which are the agreements that about half of the population of children are covered by. And they cover let me just say the basics. So this is a family where the social determinants of health are not very robust and so the voluntary support agreements are the way to support those families. And it'll be the IRC in charge of this program when the implementation agreement is finished.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. What time is that agreement going to be signed off on? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. I expect it to be signed this summer.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just in regards to community clinics and health centres in my riding, you know, my nursing staff are really run ragged. They're tired. And I'm really hoping that we could, you know, not only compensate them, I guess, but try to get them a little bit of help for the communities of Tuk and Paulatuk, Ulu and Sachs, because they're really been they've took the brunt of this over the last two years, and I'm hoping that there's a way that we could try to help them out and, you know, put relief nurses in there to help them out so they could have a little bit of rest too. That's just a comment on that, Madam Chair.
Community mental wellness and addictions recovery plan. You know, we've been in my riding over the last year, I had a lot of suicides and mental health is the biggest thing. We've been having mental health issues since COVID, and it's only been getting worse in the communities. So people need help. We need to see people coming in, like, motivational speakers and like stuff I've been working on to try to get our youth engaged and our middle aged and our elders. Like, you know, they've been really put in a tough position because mental health, and it only leads to addiction. The addiction part, you know, of alcohol and the drugs, and we're getting new drugs in the communities. Like, we're getting crack cocaine and cocaine in my riding. And that's going to stop. And I think I think what we do have to do is we really have to try to work together in holding working with the GNWT, working with our side of the House, and working with the IRC, I guess, to try to provide something like that because I you know, again, thank you for this past year for the assistance that you give the mayor of Tuk and the community of Tuktoyaktuk and what we've been through there. But thank you for that. And I just want to work with you, Madam Minister, in regards to doing something like that, again, because it's starting to come like, sun's back now. It's not as bad. But still it's still bad in regards to people need help. That's a comment for that.
But so under contributions, the antipoverty fund, the child and family service fund, the communitybased suicide prevention fund, the healthy family program, the mental wellness and addictions recovery fund, in regards to all of that under contributions, how do we hold the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation or the funds that we have available, how do we hold them accountable in regards to showing us our bang for our buck what we're getting; how do we do that? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. So the IRC I know has used mental wellness and addictions recovery funding to fund Project Jewel. And I believe that they report on that annually. I don't know if they've done their own evaluation of that program but we would certainly welcome them doing that because it is a program that's been around for quite a while.
I think it's fair to say that the mental health needs of the population of the planet have escalated since the pandemic began, and people are struggling to keep up with the demands for counselling and other kind of supports. We have community counselling. We have apps for people who have connectivity and the interest in that and so on. We're trying to develop an approach that has a lot of different pieces to it.
With respect to the IRC in particular, they've developed their own suicide prevention strategy, and officials at the Department of Health and Social Services have met with the IRC to talk about how we can help them implement their suicide strategy. And I'm very impressed with that strategy, and I encourage other Indigenous governments to look at it and use it as a template for creating a regional response to mental health and suicide needs in their communities. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, thank the Minister for that. In regards to the communitybased suicide prevention, is our government looking at making our own in regards to, like when something like that happens, like, putting in making a how we're getting doctors or psychiatrists to come into the community for the impacts that happened for the like, for a short term, you know, to help alleviate the pressure on the families and individuals. Is there a plan in place like, you know, for the Beaufort Delta for something like that? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. When there's a suicide in a community, obviously it affects the whole community, and I personally reach out to community leadership and ask how they want to be supported. And in the case of Tuktoyaktuk last fall, they told me that they wanted to bring in Jordan Tootoo as a speaker and to launch the House of Hope in Kitty Hall to provide things for the youth to do. It is youth mostly involved. And also to provide them with inspiration to fend off the darkness and depression. So this fund is about money that communities can apply for. The interventions that happen after a suicide, or potentially even an attempted suicide, those are in the operational budget of the NTHSSA. There is a team. They can be called into operation on short notice to go in and support a community, provide extra counsellors, spell off people who are exhausted, and so on. So we kind of have a number of different approaches to this. Some of it comes directly from our staff and some of it goes to the communities to develop their own responses.
Thank you. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just one last quick question. The mental health wellness recovery capacity and in regards to sending out people in for treatment, we need to be working more of that with the smaller communities that people are asking for treatment and being able to have make it easier for them to get to treatment. I think that we have to really try to get this one sorted out because the mental illness in regards to, you know, anxiety and depression and all this, it has to be we have to take it on full steam ahead in regards to try to help the people. So I think if we if the Minister's okay with that, I mean we could start we're working on community tours with Jordan Tootoo again and for doing the whole Delta and getting everybody motivated and happy. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.
