Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’ve been raising concerns on several matters, but this matter is regarding breast cancer.
Cancer is kind of a personal mission of mine and I want to ensure that the public is educated and has the information to understand that cancer can be beaten.
So my question is as follows: The evidence clearly shows that screening is critical for preventing and effectively treating breast cancer. What is the department doing to increase the number of Dene, Inuit and Metis women to receive proper breast screening? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do thank the Member for the question. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death here in the Northwest Territories and breast cancer is certainly a huge problem here.
Experience has shown that the best means to improve breast cancer screening is to have an organized program of systematic recall. We have put in breast cancer screening services in the Northwest Territories and those programs are located in Hay River, Yellowknife and Inuvik. As of this summer, June 2014, the Stanton Breast Cancer Screening Program added Behchoko to their organized Breast Cancer Screening Program. We’re hoping that this will help improve screening results for communities, which has been traditionally quite low.
I would say to the Member and I would say to all residents of the Northwest Territories, especially those living in small communities, early detection is key here. The earlier someone is detected the better. We do have well man and well woman clinics in all of the health centres throughout the Northwest Territories.
I would like to take this opportunity to encourage residents of the Northwest Territories to take advantage of those well man and well woman clinics and get in on a regular basis and get screened as early as possible. Thank you.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his reply. One thing I notice is that lifestyle factors play a huge role in the development of so many chronic diseases, factors such as eating, poor diet, heavy fat, sugar and processed foods, smoking, not getting enough exercise and consuming too much alcohol. In the North our Aboriginal populations have a lot of trouble in these areas. What is the government doing about it? Mahsi.
The Member is exactly right; it’s important to live healthy lifestyles. It’s important to eat healthy and be active, and that would help you, obviously, reduce your risk of getting cancer, including breast cancer.
Right now we’re currently working on the development of a Cancer Strategy here in Northwest Territories. The five key areas of that strategy will be: primary prevention and health promotion, so finding ways to encourage people to live a healthy and active lifestyle; emotional and cultural safety and delivery of diagnosis, getting people diagnosed early and making sure that when they are diagnosed there are supports throughout the Northwest Territories that they can utilize in their journey; we’ll talk about integrating patient supports and services along that journey; promotion of screening and early detection services; and empower patients to be effective self-advocates.
But this is going to take more than just the Government of the Northwest Territories. This is going to take partnerships. We have been working with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and we’ve been working on a number of different fronts, including things to reduce childhood obesity through education, reducing chronic disease by improving lifestyle choices, enhance relationships between care providers and Aboriginal cancer patients, strengthen the provision of high-quality continuous treatment, and survivorship care to Aboriginal care patients. So there are a number of things we’re doing. We’re doing that in partnership with different groups and we have been working with residents who have had or gone through the cancer journey to share their stories and talk about healthy eating, healthy living and getting diagnosed early. Thank you.
The Minister makes reference to the development of a Cancer Strategy. I understand that’s been in the making for some time.
Can he tell the House the process and timeline of when that strategy will be developed and when it could be perhaps made available to this side of the House? Plus, at the same time, will that be part of a public campaign? Mahsi.
Thank you. We intend to have the strategy ready by June 2015, but at the same time, we’re not actually waiting for the strategy to be done. The work that I mentioned, we’re already in the process of doing. This is something that can’t wait.
We continue to work on the healthy choices, we continue to work on improving methods of getting people in and screened as early as possible. The strategy will help inform the things that we’re already doing and improve even more, but we are definitely not waiting for that strategy to be done.
I’d be happy to meet with committee and provide them with that strategy in June 2015, when it’s ready to roll out, for any additional input and guidance from committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does the department have specific measurable long-term targets for reducing the number of new cancer patients? Mahsi.
Thank you. Due to the changes in the NWT Public Health Act in 2009, we were able to actually start collecting information on things like breast cancer and we have been collecting that data and reporting that data. That’s going to help us set targets. The longer that data continues, the better the information will be to help us make that evidence-based decision. So the answer is yes, we’re working with the statistics we have to improve our results here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
QUESTION 469-17(5):
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the recent tabling of the 2013-2014 Public Accounts, I find myself asking some preliminary questions of valid transparent government spending. The sharing of information within consensus government is critical to the implementation of risk-free services.
That said, in the context of corporate risk management, programs and services are continually being reviewed, evaluated and, especially, audited. I wish to discuss on a very high level those departments that deal with problematic and inherent risk. With that, my questions today will be for the Minister of Finance.
The Department of Finance apparently does an annual audit work plan that targets high-risk audits approved by an audit committee.
Can the Minister indicate to the House how many approved audits were planned for the 2013-2014 fiscal year and what percentages of these project audits were completed? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The audit committee approved 12 audit projects in 2013-14 based on the audit risk assessment methodology which is used to identify or determine systemic risks inherent in government programs and services associated with governance framework, internal audits and…(inaudible)… independent oversights. Eight of the approved 12 projects were assessed as being ready for audit by the Audit Bureau in 2013. Four of the proposed 12 projects were deferred based on management feedback. In some cases, new business processes were being designed and that required time to be implemented. In 2013-14 a total of seven audit projects were completed by the Audit Bureau. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we did get some information here, but I do have another question to gather a little bit more statistics.
Another important measure of success of the implementation of audit recommendations by management is addressing these so-called outstanding high risks.
Can the Minister indicate to the House how many of these recommendations were reported in the 2013-2014 fiscal year and what percentage of these recommendations were actually implemented? Thank you.
In the seven audit projects concluded, the audit reports completed in 2013-14 made 46 recommendations. Twenty-two of the 46 audit recommendations have been implemented to date. Thank you.
So that number is about half. So what we’ve been able to piece together today is that the government has a corporate risk management framework, it follows some of its audit recommendations that we heard, about half of them and, again, it’s if they choose, it doesn’t report any of these findings publicly and it doesn’t share this information with Regular Members.
Can the Minister of Finance agree this is a correct summation? Thank you.
I’d like to add a bit more information before we get to that conclusion the Member has made.
It takes time for departments to address issues that arise from an audit. For example, all the recommendations from 2011-12 audits are now complete, while only 62 percent of the recommendations of the 2012-13 audits are currently considered complete. These things take time. Some of them are more complex and stretch out a little bit longer.
Audit reports, recommendations and follow-up are internal management documents. In that regard, the GNWT follows a standard set out by the Institute of Internal Auditors. The audit reports are not shared with MLAs, standing committee or the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is at the root of my problem here today. As I said earlier, the sharing of information within a consensus government is critical, yet it appears that we have a division of this government which apparently acts above such law of the land when it comes to transparency and accountability to its people.
Will the Minister commit to the sharing, with committee, and hopefully with the public someday, the current findings and past audit findings within the context of corporate risk management? Thank you.
We, of course, whenever possible, share as fully as we can as a matter of practice with internal audits. There is sometimes highly sensitive, sometimes personnel information, sometimes information that may form the basis for a criminal investigation, so I am unable to commit to the request by the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
