This is page numbers 429 - 457 of the Hansard for the 12th Assembly, 6th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was ---agreed.

Topics

Supplementary To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

Madam Speaker, I realize the pilot project may not be fully complete, but it has been up and running for some time now. I would like to ask the Minister, is the pilot project in Rankin Inlet demonstrating that midwifery could be successfully used in the Northwest Territories as an alternative to sending mothers away for childbirth in remote locations. Thank you.

Supplementary To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Minister of Health, Madam Premier.

Further Return To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

Nellie Cournoyea Nunakput

Madam Speaker, it is my understanding to a certain degree, up to what we know about the pilot project, that there are certain successes. But, in terms of a total program, which we envisaged it would become, there are some elements of the pilot project that weren't realized.

But, Madam Speaker, I am doing an evaluation very soon on that, and I would be pleased to share that information with the honourable Members. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Further Return To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. Item 7, written questions. The House will recess for 15 minutes.

---SHORT RECESS

Further Return To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

The honourable Member for High Arctic, Mr. Pudluk.

Further Return To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

Ludy Pudluk High Arctic

Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 7, written questions.

Further Return To Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Question 224-12(6): Statutory Recognition Of Midwifery Practices
Item 6: Oral Questions

Page 440

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. The honourable Member is seeking unanimous consent to return to item 7, written

questions. Are there any nays? There are no nays. Proceed, Mr. Pudluk.

Written Question 13-12(6): GNWT Policy On Recovery Of Monies Owed
Revert To Item 7: Written Questions

October 20th, 1994

Page 441

Ludy Pudluk High Arctic

Thank you, Madam Speaker. One of my constituents in Nanisivik is a heavy equipment operator for the Government of the Northwest Territories who has been sick for quite a while. He has a claim for disability insurance which is not yet resolved. The government is charging rent. I understand my constituent was not paid a salary at all by the government for three pay periods in a row.

Would the Minister responsible for the Financial Management Secretariat please advise this House whether it is the GNWT's policy to recover all of a person's wages for money the government claims it is owed? Thank you.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 7, written questions. Item 8, returns to written questions. Item 9, replies to open address. Item 10, petitions. Item 11, reports of standing and special committees. Item 12, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 13, tabling of documents. Madam Premier.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

Nellie Cournoyea Nunakput

Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Tabled Document 36-12(6), Action Plan, Consolidation of Health and Social Services. Thank you.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Nerysoo.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

Richard Nerysoo Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wish to table the following document: Tabled Document 37-12(6), news release from Human Resources Development Canada, dated October 5, 1994, concerning the federal discussion paper on improving social security programs, signals change.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 13, tabling of documents. The honourable Member for Hay River, Mr. Pollard.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

John Pollard Hay River

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Tabled Document 38-12(6), Efficiency of the Federation Agreement, Canada/Northwest Territories, August 24, 1994. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Item 13: Tabling Of Documents
Item 13: Tabling Of Documents

Page 441

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 13, tabling of documents. Item 14, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Yellowknife Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, October 24th, I will move the following motion.

I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Iqaluit, that Tabled Document 36-12(6), Action Plan, Health and Social Services Consolidation, be moved into committee of the whole for consideration.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. Item 14, notices of motion. Item 15, notices of motions for first reading of bills. Item 16, motions. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

WHEREAS, family violence will only be contained and reduced if northern society refuses to continue to tolerate its occurrence;

AND WHEREAS, the Legislative Assembly and the Government of the Northwest Territories have adopted the principle of "zero tolerance" of violence against all people;

AND WHEREAS, there is a desperate and urgent need to offer programs such as shelters and support services across the Northwest Territories;

AND WHEREAS, family violence prevention workers, under very challenging fiscal conditions, continue to provide a variety of quality services to a number of families and individuals that seem to grow dramatically each year;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded the honourable Member for Iqaluit, that the Government of the Northwest Territories begin to live up to its adopted commitment to zero tolerance by providing an increased salaries and benefit package to family violence prevention workers, comparable to those salaries and benefits being equivalent to positions within the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Gargan.

Samuel Gargan Deh Cho

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I have a letter dated August 30th from an Anna Bouvier. She is the chairman of the Zhati Koe Friendship Centre. I think a lot of other Members got the same types of letters about a territorial-wide campaign to increase wages and provide benefits to family violence prevention workers and also to encourage the government to do something about the issues that face agencies dealing with family violence

.

For example, Madam Speaker, in my home town of Fort Providence, the Zhati Koe Friendship Centre does an excellent job of administrating a family violence program, despite the fact they have not received an increase in their core funding for over 10 years. As a point of interest, Madam Speaker, I'm aware of one employee who has not had a raise in 10 years.

She has not complained in the past, Madam Speaker, because of how strongly she believes in the importance of her work.

However, Madam Speaker, when this individual heard that a first-year family violence worker in other communities receives more money for the same work, she understandably became upset and discouraged. Madam Speaker, when the executive director of the Zhati Koe Friendship Centre tried to right the wrong by diverting some money for the operational budget to the employee benefit budget, she was shut down by the program administrator in Yellowknife and consequently had to take back the wage increase she had given. This went a long way in improving staff morale among family violence prevention workers in Fort Providence.

Madam Speaker, one of the primary recommendations that came out of the report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services was that we, as a government, must give front-line workers in the field more support. Family violence workers in the Northwest Territories are on the front lines, Madam Speaker. They are providing options and hope for many women and children who have no place else to turn. The full and part-time workers are on call 24 hours a day, ready to respond to the requests of the RCMP and Social Services.

The vast majority of family violence workers receive no housing or settlement allowance and are paid at a rate which is 40 to 50 per cent less than people doing comparable work with the territorial government. Madam Speaker, it strikes me that a lot of the arguments I am using to speak to this motion are the same ones that we used last year to support the alcohol and drug workers in their successful struggle for wage parity.

Madam Speaker, not only do I believe that we, as a government, have a responsibility to these family violence prevention workers to ensure we can attract and keep good people in these positions, I also believe we have a responsibility to women and children who usually, through no fault of their own, are forced to use these facilities or resources.

Madam Speaker, at this moment, there is a conference taking place in Hay River for all the leaders in the Deh Cho area to work towards the inherent right to self-government. One of the directions that the leaders have taken is that they have to start with the healing process of their people and their leaders. I think it is a positive step to reduce the issue of family violence.

The other thing I would like to say, Madam Speaker, is that most family violence workers are women. The government has also taken steps to ensure wage equity between women and men. I think the motion also addresses that issue and the direction the government would like to go. The other thing is, although family violence workers take in abused women, they also take in women to prevent abuse.

I don't think family violence workers should only help assist victims, they should go beyond that to try to deal with the offenders and to play a role in intervention in the courts, too. I believe those are the things that need to be addressed. I think in most cases where there is family violence, the victims are always taken care of but the offenders are left on their own to face their charges and pay the consequences. Families are split up, women are in shelters and that is where it ends. I think family violence workers should not only talk to the wives, but also to the husband to try to address the issue when it starts, not after the fact.

Yesterday we had a workshop and one of the things that came out of the workshop was the importance of coordination between organizations, between RCMP, nurses, educators, and even alcohol and drug counsellors in the community. I think there are a variety of ways to deal with the issue when it happens. I don't think we should continue to think the issue ends when we address the victim.

With that, I would like to urge Members to support the motion. I think most Members already dealt with the declaration by this House regarding zero tolerance and family violence. There have been all kinds of letters written to the Minister. I have copies of 65 letters that were written by native organizations, the YWCA, women's resource centres, the municipalities, the Tree of Peace and all kinds of band councils and organizations that deal with the issue and who are administering programs. I don't think I have to go on. I'm sure a lot of other Members have a lot to say about the issue. I believe family violence prevention workers should be supported and I'm sure all Members will agree.

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion. The seconder of the motion, the honourable Member for Iqaluit, Mr. Patterson.

Dennis Patterson Iqaluit

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'm very pleased to second this motion. I would like, in speaking to the motion, to talk about the situation of shelter workers who are working for the Aggvik Society at the shelter in my constituency. This is because I know their situation best, Madam Speaker. I know that their situation is very similar to the plight of shelter workers throughout the Northwest Territories, in Mr. Gargan's riding, in your riding, Madam Speaker, and in other places where these people are working under great stress.

Who are these people, Madam Speaker? In my constituency they are, first of all, most likely to be either Inuit -- the vast majority -- or very long-term northern residents. They are women, and they are often single parents with between two to four children. They have served in this very stressful work place for up to four years, with breaks for maternity or stress leave. They are taking every opportunity available to get training in this very difficult work environment. In my constituency, they are taking shelter-worker training in the human services program at Arctic College, and I'm pleased to note that one worker has actually graduated with the human services diploma.

What do they do? What is this job? First of all, they work shifts and in Iqaluit there is often only one staff person with a daily or nightly average of 16 people in the house, including children. Typically, one of the clients is in crisis and needs very careful attention. Most clients, in fact, and their children are often in distress, and often they have been injured.

The staff members undertake a very broad range of duties. They answer the phone, they monitor telephone calls to screen potential threatening calls, they answer the door and screen visitors in the same way, they clean the bathrooms -- there are no janitors -- they do the cooking -- there is no cook on staff -- and, most important, they provide counselling or a listening ear. I've heard the duties described as a combination of sister, mother and friend. I don't really think there is an equivalent position in the GNWT public service. No one I can think of who works for the GNWT, except maybe a Cabinet Minister, has so many duties. Maybe Nellie comes close. Maybe the closest equivalent in the public service is a student residence supervisor, perhaps. I would like to note that I understand that a senior dormitory supervisor at an NWT residence makes pay level 21, which is a pay range of between $40,000 and $47,000, plus a host of benefits that, as Mr. Gargan has said, these workers don't have.

Madam Speaker, the shelter worker in my riding, where there is a very high cost of living -- where it costs over $3 to take a taxi anywhere in town -- make $10 an hour. The most experienced and best qualified staff make $12 an hour. I understand that the average take-home pay every two weeks is between $600 and $700 net. There are virtually no benefits.

What is keeping these shelter workers at their jobs? Nothing but sheer dedication. No increases have been possible for three or four years, other costs have only increased, so these workers are actually falling further and further behind as their situation is not addressed.

The other point I would like to make is, Madam Speaker -- and I know we're in times of financial restraint -- if these people and the societies and friendship centres that sponsor them were not delivering this vital service, the Government of the Northwest Territories could never step in and do this job the way it's being done now and at the cost that it is now costing.

One study that was done a few years ago, which took a look at Aggvik Society wages, benefits and operating costs, compared that with how a similar government-run facility like a corrections facility would be run using corrections models, pay scales and staffing levels, showed that the Aggvik Society operation runs at about one-tenth the cost of a comparable government-run institution. So the government is getting, really, very good value for the money that is being spent.

Madam Speaker, it is an important service. The Aggvik Society shelter served over 500 clients last year from all over the region. They are regularly running at 120 per cent capacity. I want to emphasize that there is strong support for this organization in the region and in Iqaluit. They are still maintaining a very modest food budget due to lots of donations of food, including country food, and items like furniture, toys and supplies. Three years ago, when there was a shortfall in the capital requirement to build an addition, the community and the region raised $54,000 with private donations in a very short period of time.

Again, Madam Speaker, I want to emphasize that I'm well aware of the restraints the government is operating under, but this vital service is being delivered in a very cost-effective manner. I suggest that unless relief is soon found that the breaking point will have been reached for these dedicated workers. They may well find that they simply can no longer afford, even despite their dedication, to continue at this kind of work, and they may be succumbing to any opportunity to take other better paying jobs.

I was very pleased that the government was able to assist alcohol and drug workers with their wages, and I don't think we should confuse this issue with the wage parity issue, Madam Speaker. I think from talking to staff in my constituency who work in this shelter, that they haven't set their sights so high as wage parity. What they would really hope is that a means can be found to allow them to at least begin to catch up with even cost of living increases. These increases will only continue in the coming years.

Fundamentally, Madam Speaker, as Mr. Gargan said, what this is also really about, as his motion indicates, is really how serious we are to honouring our commitment to no tolerance of family violence. Until we deal with this issue of the long-time lack of progress in improving the wages of these family violence prevention workers, then our society will suffer. Really what this is about is helping our people to be well enough to go to work so that when we have economic progress, when we create new jobs, when we develop new governments, when we implement land claims, the new opportunities will not be out of reach of many of our citizens due to social problems and dysfunctional families.

So, Madam Speaker, I hope this motion will lead to some redress of this long-standing disparity. I think we should give the new Minister of Social Services and Health some time to work on this issue. But I would hope that by the time the main estimates of the Department of Health and Social Services are presented in this House in the new year, we'll have some evidence that this long-standing problem is going to be addressed.

We've adopted a commitment to zero tolerance for family violence. Let's have the political will to identify this issue as a priority, to take a step to live up to the commitment of zero tolerance, with redress for these hard-pressed employees. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

---Applause

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. To the motion, the honourable Member for Yellowknife Frame Lake, Mr. Dent.

Charles Dent

Charles Dent Yellowknife Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I would like to speak in favour of this motion as well. As former chair of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services, I know during the committee work, we often heard in communities that people felt the family violence prevention workers needed more support. We know, in talking to the family violence prevention workers, that they agreed salaries were a very, very big problem.

In the final report of the Special Committee on Health and Social Services, we talked about front line workers like those who work in family violence prevention. In our report, we noted they are asked to do too much with too few resources.

Most of their time has to be spent dealing with immediate crises or balancing the range of services they must provide. That is because of a lack of adequate funding. As a result of that, we found those workers didn't have enough time to do prevention or follow-up work. That sort of work is extremely important if we want to be able to properly deal with family violence.

I also made a Member's statement on Wednesday of this week asking that the government deal with salaries as a significant part of their strategy of zero tolerance towards violence. As I noted in my statement, many of the programs across the Northwest Territories have had to shift dollars from programs into salaries in order to keep their salaries at a comparable level to what they started at when the programs began ten years ago, just to keep up with inflation.

What that means now is that there are many who don't meet the minimum standards set by this government for running something like a group home. They can't provide the same level of care that this government insists upon for people in care in government facilities because they don't have adequate funds. I think that is important because we have to make sure that, if family violence shelters are part of our social safety net and part of the whole government strategy for social services and dealing with family violence, they must meet certain minimum standards. I think we have to deal with that very quickly.

At this time, I would also like to commend the workers at the Yellowknife centre, the Allison McAteer House. I think, in spite of difficulty with funding, they do an exceptional job of providing referral support, counselling and shelter. I know they have even found a way to have a child advocate. I think that's a very important function, someone who can work on behalf of children is needed. I think we've heard another Member in this House recommend that this government look into having an ombudsman for children. I think a child's advocate in a community is an immediate step we should work towards in all shelters in operation across the territories.

In spite of declining funding and the tough financial times, the Allison McAteer House staff have still found a way to run an outreach program. Again, this is dependent almost entirely on staff being willing to work for very low wages and doing an awful lot as volunteers. Alison McAteer House is a 12-bed, two-crib facility. I think Members would be interested to know that during 1992-93, they provided over 4,000 bed nights. In 1993-94, that was down somewhat, but still 3,500 bed nights, and they weren't able to satisfy the demand. They weren't able to provide shelter to people at all the times it was needed.

Madam Speaker, as other Members have pointed out, there will be costs for these salary increases, but I think the Members of the Standing Committee on Finance have already pointed out that Members in this Legislature do expect to see the government prove they are serious about the policy of zero tolerance towards violence. Madam Speaker, to do that, we have to put money where our mouth is.

So, Madam Speaker, I would urge all Members to support this motion. Thank you.

---Applause

The Speaker Jeannie Marie-Jewell

Thank you. The honourable Member for Baffin South, Mr. Pudlat.