Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, further to my Member's statement, there was a prominent case of cultural bias in the Northwest Territories, in the death of Hugh Papik, an elder in Aklavik. A subsequent report made 16 recommendations to improve services delivery. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services give an update to this House on the progress the department has made in implementing those recommendations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's completely inappropriate for any Member in this House to be talking about an individual.
I can say that there was a review done of a situation a number of years ago that resulted in some suggestions and recommendations on how to move forward to address systemic racism that exists here, in the Northwest Territories. The Member should be aware because I am pretty sure he was in the House when we tabled, in November 2016, Building a Culturally Respectful Health and Social Services System, which is our commitment to building a Health and Social Services system that is culturally safe and respectful of all patients and clients across the Northwest Territories.
A key component of that document was the requirement for an action plan, which we intend to release this fall, with a number of recommendations and programs to move forward with training our staff here, in the Northwest Territories. We have cultural safety programs and training that have basically been developed. We're looking at piloting here before the end of the calendar year. We'll make revisions based on what we hear, and we will roll out on a territorial level for all Health and Social Services staff starting in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. We have made significant progress in this area.
That case and other cases are well-canvassed in the media, including the case of my constituent that I mentioned earlier. I think they are subject to discussion in this House. The cultural safety and training piece is probably the largest part of these recommendations. Can the Minister speak to some of the details of the cultural training program that is being developed by the department?
I appreciate the Member's comment, but, because other people breach those confidentiality and talk about things, it doesn't mean we in this Assembly should. I appreciate that the Member is ultimately talking about cultural safety, and I appreciate that conversation, but it's inappropriate to use people's names in this House.
We have done a significant amount of work to develop cultural safety training here, in the Department of Health and Social Services. We have an Indigenous Health and Community Wellness division who have actually worked with different Indigenous governments and individuals across the Northwest Territories to develop this meaningful training. We are about to pilot that. We are intending to pilot it between now and the end of the calendar year.
From there, we anticipate that we will have to make some tweaks here and there, based on what we hear from the staff who are going through it. Our intention is to finalize this fiscal year and begin rolling out for all staff over the next couple of years. It will be training that's available for new staff as they come in, as part of their orientation. Refreshers will be available, as well. It is probably going to take us a bit of time to ensure that all Health and Social Services staff have the training because we also have to keep providing services while we're getting this training done. This is well on its way. The action plan will be out in the next couple of weeks. Training is happening, and we are moving forward.
Thank you to the Minister. I would like to know: what is the total budget allocation to this training? Do we have those details yet for the pilot program?
In 2017-2018, the department allocated about $970,000 which came from the federal government under the Health Services Integration Fund. This included about $476,000 in carry-over funding from the previous year to help us actually develop these programs, test these programs, reach out to other people throughout the Northwest Territories to make sure we are getting a proper cultural component, to make sure that it's relevant to the people in the Northwest Territories, recognizing that it may be slightly different in Fort Smith than it might be in Paulatuk.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, finally, one of the issues is ensuring there's a process to respond to patient and family concerns related to issues that they hear from front-line medical services is a process to register those complaints and deal with them. Has that been established in the health authority?
Yes, we have put in some quality assurance mechanisms within the territorial authority, Hay River as well as Tlicho. Where individuals have concern with the care they are provided or anything, any of their engagement with the authority, they should reach out to our quality-assurance staff. They will be best to investigate the situation, find out what happened, and, where appropriate, make recommendations so that we can fix those challenges in future so future people don't experience them, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
