Yes. No, I appreciate the Members, you know, putting the word out there on the regional wellness councils because one of the things that I do as the Minister is I work closely with the leadership council, and they are the governing body of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority and they are -- you know, they get the direction on, you know, what our priorities are as well, and they are the ones that are the administrators of all of the health programs. So it's really important that the Northwest Territories realize that those regional wellness councils are the voice of the regions, and those issues that they bring forward to the territorial leadership is what guides the governing council, which is made up of all the chairs, to direct the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority as well as direction from, you know, myself with, you know, with the chair. And coming from this House, you know, like, the priorities of this government, you know, that's what directs. And so I appreciate the -- this is a collaboration between -- and that model was very supported by Indigenous governments as it is the voice of the regions. And so it's very important that regions know that when people are being appointed to there how important their role is in the voice of the regions of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all I had at this point in time. Mahsi.
Thank you. Is there any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
I see in here community clinics and health centre, there's a decrease. So what programs and services are affected by this decrease?
Thank you. I'm going to go over to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is where the sunsetting is, so the labour market supplements and the COVID endemic funding. That is what is the decrease within this department. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. And the community mental wellness and addiction recovery, I think this is where that -- the transitional programs or for housing, for addiction recovery, I think you said it's under this community wellness. I just wanted to ask, I know that we've been talking for last two days the impacts of drugs that it has on our communities, on our people. And in Behchoko alone, you know, like, I mean, we have huge problems. And when our residents, they go for treatment, some of them they go back to the same old, everything's still the same, there's no change to the place that they're returning to, and there's nothing. There's no aftercare. So some of these people that we're talking about, they last a day after spending like two months. And I know that it's greatly needed. I'm glad that you guys identified that. But it's going to Inuvik and Yellowknife. But some of the people don't want to leave our community. So I know there's a great need for one in Tlicho region because we still have issues with -- because of there's no aftercare, some of these residents are going back to a place where, you know, all the activities is still happening and they're still homelessness, you know. We really do need a program similar to the one that's going to be in -- that's going to be allocated in -- or going into Inuvik and Yellowknife. We need that service in Tlicho region, probably in other regions as well, because for the last two days we've been talking about the impacts of drugs and alcohol, especially drugs, you know, that it has on our people. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if -- I know it's not in here in this budget but if they can -- I'm just wondering is that a pilot project?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what we -- I guess where to start is that the department, you know, working with -- as I mentioned, with housing and Infrastructure, did kind of a callout to and got some interest from different NGOs, and so we were able to come to an agreement with two within the funding agreements -- like, within the funding and the resources that we do currently have to be able to move forward on two. However, I hear the Member. I know this is a -- you know, we don't know how it's going to work but we know it's better than what we have. You know, there's nothing, right, for aftercare. So I think this is a great initiative, and I look forward to this initiative being able to support people in those two communities. And, you know, I've always -- you know, I will -- any Indigenous government, any NGO that, you know, I think would benefit from these in most of our communities but as right now, we're -- you know, our resources are tied into these two programs. That's what we have enough for. If there are Indigenous governments that want to work together and, you know, and they have idea of things like this, this is where I think we want to do things differently. We want to work with Indigenous governments. You know, if they can access funds -- like, there's new -- like within the 2024-2025 federal budget, there are different pots of funding that are specific for Indigenous governments under mental wellness, and I think that we will find out what those details are. We have stressed from the Northwest Territories to the federal Minister of health on what the needs are of the North. And so we're hoping that will help form their decisions and policy to be able to support us in the Northwest Territories for more programs like this. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you for that. And I'm sure our leaders are listening, so I guess, you know, I am glad that, you know, that you said -- well, that this government is working really hard to maintain a good working relationship with the Indigenous, which is good. So I know that something -- this kind of program, it's good for other regions as well. So hopefully we will keep it in mind for the next fiscal year, you know, because due to the resources we have.
So this program for -- the transition program that's going to Yellowknife and going to Inuvik, is that going to be operated -- the service provided by the health and social services or NGO? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the day-to-day operations are going to be -- of running the facility is going to be by the NGO; however, Health and Social Services' role is to support that NGO and the needs of those clients in whatever area that they need to be successful in their recovery. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Okay, thank you. And also I see here -- okay, the compensation and benefits, this fiscal year for 2023-2024 for the main estimate went down for 2024-2025. Do you know which region is impacted by this?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the reductions in this area was part of the sunsetting of the northern wellness agreement related to -- and then there was a reduction in COVID endemic. I don't have the details as to specific which region those were, but we can figure that out and get back to the Member.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Yeah, that's it.
I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I want to preface this question with the fact that I've had really good conversations with the Minister on this, and I think where she and I differ on the perspective of this issue is the how, not the why. The why being, of course, that we want to have midwifery services in our smaller communities, especially for our Indigenous folks who are giving birth. So my question, however, is, you know, given that the GNWT has made repeated public commitments to the expansion of midwifery in the NWT, how did it arrive at the decision to discontinue the establishment of midwifery services in Yellowknife and the surrounding communities without consulting the public, the midwives association, the NWT advisory committee for midwifery, or the Indigenous advisory board? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this was part of the restoring balance. And so those conversations happened and so we had to make some tough choices, as many Ministers will speak to some of the tough choices that we had to make as a government. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister elaborate a little bit further on why midwifery in Fort Smith and Hay River is considered adequate in her mind to base expansion to midwifery in the territory? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, midwifery began in Fort Smith, and midwifery in Fort Smith began with two midwives. And those two midwives did the majority of the births and if not all the births in Fort Smith, and ran the only midwifery program in the Northwest Territories. I don't have exact dates but we have expanded that program over the years. So midwifery expansion happened in Fort Smith to an additional nurse. Then it expanded into Hay River. And currently, they have expanded from Hay River into supporting Fort Resolution, Deninu Kue, and the Metis of that community. As of right now, we've had to suspend that service because of staffing in Hay River. There is a current vacancy there. We have just recently gotten Fort Smith, since February, back online to be able to provide births. Those two communities are very fragile, and we need to make sure that those expansions there are successful in the Northwest Territories before we can expand further. And so the choice was to put the efforts into supporting those two communities to ensuring that those communities that do not have any other choice, don't have any other options of birthing services, to ensure that those programs are stable. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that explanation. I deeply respect midwifery in both Hay River and Fort Smith as necessary and crucial to those communities; however, the arguments that have been presented to me from midwives here locally is that Yellowknife has a high number of births and the opportunity to be a place where midwives -- Indigenous midwives can learn and seek to become a midwife here in the territory, it's very difficult to get into midwifery school outside of the territory, and to build that capacity up and to cut off the program here at the knees is a little bit frustrating. I mean, I know the Minister knows it's frustrating for these folks. They're being very -- very vocal as is their desire. But I guess is there any desire to continue the Yellowknife program in some form? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want committee to know and I want, you know, the Members to know, and as well as the public to know, that there was actually no program because there was no positions. They're all vacant. They have been vacant. You know, the vision of, yes, making Yellowknife a training ground but, you know, those are just visions. And, you know, and I hear the Member, and, you know, if that was something that was happening, you know, it would be very hard. But with the positions -- this has gone back many, many, many years. It's gone back to -- that there's been, you know, sporadic -- we'll get a midwife and then, you know, it's not successful. We don't have enough. The positions, they're not being filled. And so, you know, here we are now and having to make decisions within this government knowing that, you know, there's areas where we could utilize different, you know, areas of funding. We've heard from the Members loud and clear all of the needs that they want and all the new things that they want and all the new things that I want to do as a Minister to make changes, and so this money has to come from somewhere and these positions that were vacant for many years, you know, this is just one of the areas that we had to seriously take a look at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I guess I'd just return the volley and say, you know, there are two student midwives who are here as summer students in the health work in town right now at this moment, and I guess I put back to the Minister, you know, where are you going to recruit from? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have vacancies in Hay River and Fort Smith. You know, when we look at midwifery and if we're looking at expanding those students, I mean there's jobs throughout the territory that are not always in Yellowknife and they're not always in Inuvik and they're not always in Hay River. And if those are the two areas that we want to train in, sometimes we have to go and move to where those are. And midwifery -- you know, when I look at midwifery, I do support midwifery because I do support it to be there in those communities that don't have any birthing services. So, you know, like I said, there's a vacancy in Fort Smith, and there's a vacancy in Hay River, and so there's always -- you know, there's ways that we can support those nursing students in those communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think we're both entrenched in our positions. I'll leave it at that.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to see the community mental health wellness and addictions recovery with an increase in this year's mains. I've always stated that, you know, community-based programs will work for our people who are hurting. This is no different. So my concern is funds going to the regional government versus the community. I can see funds going to the regional organization in terms of providing addictions counselling. And, for example, in the Beaufort Mackenzie Delta region, the Gwich'in wellness camp, there's -- I'm sure it's going to be funded because there's a lot of interest. There's a lot of individuals expressing interest and people who did go for counselling, but they had no aftercare. So it'll be good if some of these communities can access funds to set up a friendship centre because I've noticed when people do come back from addictions recovery programs, they have no place to go. They wander around the communities. And within a week, they're back with their old friends because they have no place to go. In the past, they had friendship centres where you can go and hang out or actually get counselling from qualified people who went through these traumas. So will there be more funding for communities to access funds to start up sort of a friendship centre or a service centre where clients can go and meet with counsellors? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, and I really appreciate the Member for bringing, you know, one of the things that I think -- when I looked at this fund last week before I went out to meet with an Indigenous organization and community, was that the community wellness and addiction recovery fund was opened in two regional governments until January 31st of this year to apply for multi-year funding. Only three organizations had reached out. And so now that those three organizations has reached out, there is a little over $3 million in that fund, and it can be used for mental health and addictions in very flexible, as I mentioned in the House too, as well that, you know, it could be used for on the land. It could be used for any Indigenous government and so in your communities can apply -- like, each one of your communities can apply on this fund. It's a first-come-first-serve basis. So I can provide more details. And I think am, actually got my department, because when I recognized that this wasn't being accessed I encouraged them to put together something that I can send out to all the MLAs so that they can let their Indigenous community governments -- because I think with this fund, it's for Indigenous governments. And then there's also -- not just under this fund, but the suicide prevention fund, there's another additional pot of money that can be accessed and is flexible to use towards suicide prevention in your communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Minister for providing that information. It's good to see that there is projects such as on-the-land-based programs. It'll be good to utilize some of these funds for that. So I will be informing members of my region that there is limited amount of money on a first-come-first-serve basis to help their community residents.
On another note, long term care and continuing care services. In the past in Aklavik, they had the Joe Greenland Centre, which was used very well by the whole region. There was people from Old Crow, people from Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Inuvik, that stayed in this facility because they were looked after well and they were looked after by Indigenous workers, so they felt comfortable. And right now that facility closed, and it's used in a different way. And what I've been hearing from members of the community of Aklavik is they require more community support services because elders who live at home, they don't -- they have to administer medication and sometimes they have multiple meds that they can't read or they don't know which ones they were supposed to take. So I wonder if there will be some increase in the community support services specifically for Aklavik where they've written the letter stating that they do need help in this area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that is in a different section that we haven't got to yet. But under this section, I know there is home care and home support work that does support communities. And so if you want to move on to the next section, or did you want me to wait to answer to that when we get to that section, Mr. Chair?
Thank you. I think we could wait until we get to that section. I'm going to go to the Member from Mackenzie Delta.
Oh, I'm good there. That's good. Thank you.
Thank you. Now next on the list I have is Member from Range Lake.
