Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried. Consideration of the Department of Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, administrative and support services deferred.
---Carried
We will now move to the next key activity. Moving on to health and social services program, beginning on page 201 with information items on page 206. Are there any questions? No further questions -- oh sorry, I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, just to clarify here, in the announcement -- or the opening remarks for -- from the Minister, one of the big -- the higher profile items was the new initiative for the Transitional Housing Addictions Recovering Program. And can the Minister explain where that funding is located in our budget here? I'm assuming it's probably somewhere on this page 203 under the health and social programs operations expenditure. But can you clarify where we would see that funding and what exactly HSS's role will be in that initiative?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is -- yes, it is under this department and it is under the -- sorry, under the other community wellness and addiction recovery. So the new initiatives transition housing and addiction recovery, there's $1.417 million right there. And the role of the department's going to be in that is -- this is a collaboration between housing and Infrastructure as well as partnering with an Indigenous partner, and we are there to be the -- to support the program in our capacity. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Will HSS be hiring additional staff to support the Transitional Housing Addictions Recovery Program?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
We will be working with the Indigenous governments, and the Indigenous governments are going to be the one that are being to be hiring the staff. We will be supporting those staff with our program. So kind of working together and supporting them in whatever capacity that we need to support those residents that will be living in that facility. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll move to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to clarify, the idea -- will any HSS - you know, mental health workers, counsellors, social workers, outreach nurses, etcetera, etcetera - be, like, going into these facilities and, like, actually supporting them on the ground or all that work is to be managed and overseen by Indigenous governments or partners and HSS is just in the background sort of providing administrative support or something? Can the Minister clarify.
Thank you. I'm going to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, all of the above. I think the way that it's supposed to -- I guess the intent of that program is is that the Indigenous governments will support the workers that work there. Housing will -- you know, there will be a housing building or Infrastructure will maintain it, and we will provide services as needed as, you know, required by -- through our partnership with that Indigenous that will be running the program. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you for clarifying that. And I'm sure we'll get lots more details soon about that specific program. It's certainly one that I support. It's been a long time coming, to be able to have that aftercare that people have been talking about is a huge gap, and people are -- especially, you know, returning from addictions treatment or programming and need somewhere safe to stay and get back on their feet. I also think there's much scope for more transitional housing/supportive living facilities beyond those needing aftercare, including those just needing stabilization and harm reduction. But that conversation will be to come still, I think.
Another question I have is the budget for the community -- or child and youth counsellor program -- HSS is part of it -- is that also located somewhere in this list of health and social programs? And if so, what is it under and how much is allocated for the child and youth counsellors at this point? Thank you.
I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you. Just give us a minute to find that level of detail. Mr. Chair, if the Member would like, we can commit to giving that information back --
-- to the committee. Thanks.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
That's fine. The exact details, I'd be happy to get in writing later. Does the Minister know, though, are there child and youth counsellor positions that have been reduced from 2023-2024 to 2024-2025? Have we lost positions between last year's budget and this year's budget?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With the transition of the way that the program merged, like, works with ECE now, there was a reduction in the amount of CYCs available to -- in the program under health but that those dollars were transferred -- that's the operating dollars for ECE to use for their program. So, yes, there has been. They just been moved to ECE, the funding for those positions that have been discontinued. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you. And if the Minister doesn't know off of the top of her head, I'd appreciate getting that in writing too, just the number of positions within HSS that have been reduced in terms of the child and youth counsellor program.
Next, I wanted to ask about the line item community clinics in health centres, which I understand are the ones providing primary care services which, as we know, is to be the focus of this Assembly. You know, according to our business plans, our mandate document, we're focusing on primary care. So I was puzzled to see the main estimates of $82.5 million is less than last year's main estimates and considerably less than the 2022-2023 estimates. Can you explain why this line item has gone down so dramatically?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the area where there is some sunsetting funding, so from some federal funding. There were a number of programs -- a number of sunsetting funding that's equivalent to that, which was $6.5 million. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister or deputy or ADM provide any explanation of are we losing services related to primary care because of the sunsetting of those federal funds, or what's the impact on frontline services there to the public? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, under this area, what the -- the bigger piece of the deduction was the COVID endemic funding. So the sunsetting of this funding for the transition from COVID-19 to pandemic to endemic. So that's what a lot of that money is that's changed. So that's gone. There is the labour market supplement for NTHSSA and TCSA, sunsetting of the one-time funding approved to support recruitment and retention of health care professionals, and the labour market supplement HRHSSA sunset of one-time funding approved to support recruitment and retention of health professionals. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So thanks for that additional detail. But I'm still interested in knowing how is that going to impact services from the public's point of view. Can the Minister give any more detail on that?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you. So the labour market supplements, those ended March 31st and I think to the Member, you know, there's only so much I can talk about those because we're in collective bargaining right now and so that's a reduction that will, you know -- what comes out of collective bargaining. As per the COVID endemic funding, that sunset funding, I can turn it over to the deputy minister to fill you in with more details in that area. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. So it's very odd hearing yourself speak, so apologies. What we can say about the COVID -- the reduction of the COVID funding was primarily to support activities directly related to COVID. So things such as testing centres, things such as vaccine efforts.
Hang on a second. Just wait a couple minutes, and we'll try to get it sorted out. Testing, one, two, three. We're going to take a five-minute break until we get this sorted out.
---SHORT RECESS
Okay, we'll continue on. We've got that issued resolved. We'll continue on with the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we were just in the middle of an explanation as to possible impacts to public services of the reductions to the line of community clinics in health centres for primary care.
I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So going back to the COVID endemic funding. So when that sunseted, we also -- and I announced -- remember, I did that long list of all of the different funding pots that we just recently -- so the shared health priorities that we got funding from Health Canada for activities under the new bilateral agreement and the Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians, which includes family health services, health workforce and mental wellness, substance abuse, that was an increase of $4.382 million to this budget. There was an increase with the collective agreement. So that offsetted -- so those positions that we had -- that long list of positions that ended with the sunset funding of COVID, we tried to mitigate that with a lot of the new positions that -- and it also covered some of the positions that were -- you know, where we were keeping with that funding. So it's kind of more of a math thing in here. We've sunsetted this much, and then there was an increase of the $4.382 million to offset some of those costs in that area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The time has ended on the ten-minute mark. I could put your name back down if you wanted to go further. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad to see that the -- there's an increase of 6 percent. Hopefully it's going into the right programs, being as efficient as it could be. And when we hear a lot of the news on lack of nurses, so we got to rely on agency nurses, and we hear the ongoing delivery problems with medical travel, pre-assessments, so when I hear that and I look at the business plan and the supported financial documents to that plan and I look at the list of programs and -- or health and social programs that this department's offering and services and so on, so taking a real wholistic approach to this, knowing there is some weaknesses out there, is the department going to entertain or going to pursue an outside management evaluation of this department? Is it part of that goal to see -- to seek an outside opinion on where can we improve, what policies need to be changed, what funding has to be moved to be more efficient because of the demand? So I just ask that question, if there's going to be an outside evaluation to help improve our system of delivery, including staff retention? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there has been a number of reviews within this department, and one of the most recent -- you know, we have the governance review. And I have mentioned it in this House, and we're finalizing reviewing that. It was an outside independent review of the governing structure of the NTHSSA. And within programs and policies, I think that's one of the things where when I look at with programs and policies, this is where the direction of the mandate, the direction of the business plans, you know, this is our job as the -- as the Legislative Assembly and, you know, the direction of our priorities to put the -- put that focus on where we want to see this department going. And I think when we look at our business plans as one of the areas that -- you know, when we talk about putting those high level in the business plans to our departments to give that direction, that is where that -- you know, that leads what policy work and things that are going to be reviewed and followed up and held by this House to make sure that that's what's happening. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member of Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, it was more of a suggestion on how to improve our management system. The management system is really the governing organization of this department, and if we have collectively identified various weaknesses how do we fix that. So it was just a suggestion. We do have a co-management structure in place called our territorial wellness and regional wellness councils. So I've been telling some leaders back at the Sahtu, we have this joint venture, or whatever you want to call it -- in this case co-management system -- to deliver and improve our services because our people are coming to us for assistance to mitigate through that. So that vehicle or that wellness council could be used in our headquarters to see how we can improve out there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Did the Minister want to respond to that?
