Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to get the ADM Mathison to explain that section. Thank you, Madam Chair.
ADM Mathison.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The increases there are -- they are for physician services within the Northwest Territories, yes. The increases are made up of a couple things. One is because we negotiated a new agreement with the NWTMA for the -- you know, the compensation for the physicians, so there's a big piece there.
Another piece is there was forced growth funding that was allocated to physician services to fund all those ologies that have been costing our system for a long time and contributing to deficits for which we are now allocating dollars and resources to those existing ologies that were already in place. So it's not new ologies. Same ologies, just now funding them at the level of service delivery. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you for that. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm super happy that we have all these ologies that we provide to our residents.
I'm not sure if you have this number, but can you kind of out of that -- you know, it's a fairly significant increase obviously to that line item, and you mentioned forced growth and you mentioned the medical association new contract. Does the Minister have kind of a breakdown of what kind of made up the majority of that increase? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. ADM Mathison.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the majority of the increase was us funding the historical shortfall in the ologies which is about $6.5 million. There was $1.6 million associated with the ratification of the new contract with the NWT Medical Association. And there was another 1.6, coincidentally, that was tied to the ratification of the collective agreement with the GNWT because in that line item, in addition to the physicians, there are also the supporting staff in the offices that are, you know, supporting the physicians in those offices. So that's the majority of the increase in that line item. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for that answer. And I'll do one more, and then I'll -- I'm sure others would like to ask some questions on this.
The community clinics and health centres, likely the same answer. I'm not going to assume anything, but likely there was contracts in there. It did go from 88. I note the actuals 88 to 93 to now they're 114. I'm hoping, I'm liken to -- I hope that this means that our community clinics and health centres are getting more staff and getting more services. But can the Minister kind of talk about the increase to 114,930 in the community clinics and health centres, please.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to pass that on to the ADM Mathison.
Thank you. ADM Mathison.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, and it's similar rationale. So in this line item, we would have physicians that were impacted by the negotiated contract that were family physicians. We would also have collective agreement increases for staff supporting, you know, the work that happens in the clinics and the health centres through the ratification of the collective agreement with the UNW as well as we were able to allocate funding for some of those existing services that had been delivered in the health centres and the clinics that were contributing to the historical deficit in the authorities for a number of years. Specifically, we were working -- we've added a budget in this area to address increases for relocation, for supplies, for accommodations, for temporary staff and, yeah, that's the majority of it. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for those answers, and I'm good for right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Next I have Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is on page 206 on the northern wellness initiative. I understand it expires at the end of this fiscal year. Is there any work being done on a renewal? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is -- the work is being done, yes, on that new agreement.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
Mahsi, I'm glad to hear that. I'm looking at -- and being mindful, I'm being mindful of the Restoring Balance, and looking at the programs our government, through this department, is offering, and is it a practice of the department to do a mid-year surplus review? I'll give you an example.
After six months, doing a review if this program is really not being accessed or delivered, it seems to go on a priority 2 or 3. Is it a practice of the department to take the surplus and move it over to a more important accessible oversubscribed program? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is one thing that the health doesn't have is problems with surpluses so we do not have money to move around. Normally we don't -- you know, any money that we do -- I have yet to see any surpluses, sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for the Sahtu.
Yeah, this is more of a comment, Madam Chair. Yes, I understand the challenges of our government providing health care, particularly to the smaller remote communities, but I'm just curious on the financial practices of surplus reviews from programs. I particularly look at this one here on page 206. Let's see what it is. A healthy family program, actuals came in at 292 and our mains are expected 292. So if it's remaining the same, it tells me is anybody accessing that program? If not, can we move it to -- move the funds to a more oversubscribed program? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, that contribution actually goes to the Tlicho government as a contribution. Thank you. And it's fully subscribed.
Thank you. Next, I have Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, I have a number of different questions under lots of different items here so I'm not sure if I'll get through it in ten minutes, but maybe I'll get a second chance.
I wanted to delve into child and family services to start. So it's my understanding from reviewing the annual reports from child and family services that about 25 percent of CFS staff positions are vacant and that number is even higher when we're looking at frontline staff. Can the Minister comment on whether there's a plan to try to address those vacancies which appear to be sort of a longstanding, chronic problem. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this year we're hoping that because of the negotiated contract with the labour market supplement that applies now to child and family services workers, and there's different areas in that. I don't have the collective agreement in front of me to all of the different parts of child and family services. But that would -- you know, I would hope that that would help to encourage that. I know that within the department, it is a challenging department and, you know -- and I think that working, you know -- many people working in that area, it is a difficult area, department, to work on, so supporting those staff, and I think that's part of, like, the plan, you know, and then supporting with our recruitment and retention, is to making sure that we're reaching out to them as well to know within the next -- you know, for the plan is to how to support those staff so that they feel -- you know, stay in their positions. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you. And just quickly following up on that, does the Minister happen to know or is it published, the turnover rates amongst CFS staff? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
I don't have that detail in front of me, but I do believe that it was in their annual -- their public annual report on child and family services, so it is a public document. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So in the business planning documents, it appears that HSS is promising or working on a new approach to child and family services programming. Can the Minister explain what direction that's going or what exactly we can expect to see from this new approach. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the direction that the child and family services is going in is -- it's kind of set into seven priorities:
To serve children, youth, families, so working collaboratively with Indigenous governments and organizations;
Care rooted in Indigenous practices;
Support to care providers and caregivers;
Strengthen youth supports and transition to adulthood;
Specialized services closer to home;
Strengthening human resource recruitment and
Retention efforts for an inclusive and representative workforce; and,
Reducing administrative demands for increased opportunities to connect with families.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm curious to know whether there's consideration within this new approach. I know that there's a much more emphasis on family preservation which is, of course, necessary and long overdue. But my understanding is that family preservation workers are sort of part and parcel working within the same office as case workers or those who might be involved in, say, child apprehensions, that kind of thing, and so this might create some fear or barriers in families trying to seek those supports, family preservation, knowing that it's all sort of one office.
As part of this approach, is there any consideration being given to putting a bit more separation between the family preservation work that CFS is putting an increased emphasis on and child protection work? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I really appreciate that question because I think this is something that we had discussed many times in the last government, and I think that is the change that we need to look at, is family preservation workers are not a new -- like, they're new in the system that child and family services has -- you know, as Indigenous population is prominent in child and family services, there is that distrust, and so I appreciate the Member bringing this forward. But the change that is going on through the system is that the focus is on prevention. From the family preservation worker to the child and family services worker, it is to focus on supporting that child with their family and within their communities. You know, I can -- with the work that is being done and the trust that needs to be built, that is going to take some time and I think that what the public needs to know is that the direction of child and family services, even within the new -- like, the legislation that we are working -- currently working on is to making sure that the residents that need services feel safe when they go into this department and that they know that they can be supported even when they're at their lowest and most risk. And so that is the mindset change that we need to continue, and I think it's important that our staff are working to support each other because if we start splitting up our staff -- they're their support networks right now. And so however I do appreciate, but I need to know that the public needs to know that this department is to support families. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I do hope to continue the conversation with the Minister and in this House about this really important topic because it does seem like a system that is perpetually, you know, struggling and in crisis, and we're talking about the -- probably the most vulnerable people in our communities which is children who are experiencing problems in their families.
So it also says in the business plan that part of the work in this area is to redesign the foster care and respite services delivery programs. Can the Minister explain what that is intended to do, what's the intention of that redesign? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. With that detail, I'll pass it on to the deputy minister.
Deputy minister Cecchetto.
Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the examples that I would give is our foster rates. Foster care rates have been the same for many, many years so one of the ways that we want to be able to redesign this work is to ensure that those families that are supporting our children in care are actually being compensated and providing the resources -- necessary resources. So we've recently -- those foster care rates were recently increased. And just also working very closely with our partners such as the Foster Family Coalition and just making sure that those families have the supports that they need. So that's just one example of the way in which we are wanting to redesign and prioritize the foster care system.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
