Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Every community has worked with Health and Social Services to create community wellness plans that are available on their department website. These plans not only identify the strengths of communities but also identify service gaps that communities feel exist. What role does the department play to ensure that, once a priority is set by the community, the community has the resources to achieve these goals? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department employs three regional community development and wellness planners who work with communities throughout the year to support actions and priorities under those wellness plans the Member mentioned. Their level of involvement is really community-driven. It can be very involved to not involved, depending on what the community wants and needs. There are annual allotments of funding to communities to realize their community wellness plans, and this funding is provided through flexible multi-year agreements. It's possible to carry over funds and move money around between fiscal years to meet the goals that they have set for themselves in their wellness plan. The fact they have a wellness plan and funding through that does not preclude them from applying for other pots of money, such as the anti-poverty fund and the NWT on-the-land collaborative. Those are some specific ways in which they are supported. The other thing is that community wellness plans provide a wealth of information to the department for planning services and programs in the future, so, for example, I know that we have staff now going through those plans in some detail to help us with the run-up to an elders' strategy. Thank you.
The plans as they stand right now online, they do not have actions or targets associated with them, so I am wondering if the Department of Health and Social Services and the specific positions that the Minister identified are working with the communities to establish any types of target for actions to go with those plans so that they have something to measure against and can identify when they would like to achieve certain parts of the plan and how.
It's my understanding that, in fact, these wellness workers do work with communities on actions and priorities with the community and then set up with supports needed to realize them. I realize that information may not be available online, but this is an ongoing and iterative program of supporting communities to realize their own goals that they have set in their wellness plans.
One of the things that we heard identified by the Minister today was that 19 communities have access to community-based community counsellors. If a community decides, as part of achieving their action plan and to achieve their goals, that they would like to see a resident counsellor, is that something that they can work with this person to achieve? Is it something that they can work with the Department of Health and Social Services to achieve? Is there room within the Health and Social Services budget to provide additional resources to the community outside of the Anti-Poverty Fund, outside of the anti-suicide fund to be able to provide additional resources to the community?
These are separate programs. The wellness is funded by the federal government. The community counselling program is funded by the territorial government. That does not mean they do not work together, but they are funded in different ways is what I am saying. I am not aware that at this point a community wellness plan could activate the appointment of another Community Counselling Program staff, but that is something that I can certainly check into and respond to the Member with more detail.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. No. Just to add to that, I appreciate that, and I think that many of the Members who serve in this House would like information on that, based on what resources are available because I think, to achieve your community wellness plan, it does not matter to a community member what funding pot it comes from, just the fact that they have access to services that are needed for the wellness, the overall wellness, of their community. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that as a comment.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
