Page 6-27, community health programs, operations and maintenance, $20.174 million. Mr. Henry.
Debates of April 28th, 1999
This is page numbers 397 - 430 of the Hansard for the 13th Assembly, 7th 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 chairman.
Topics
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 426
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 426
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Could the Minister inform the committee if the rules or procedures for supporting non-profit community groups has changed? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 426
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We had meetings with some of the groups that I believe the department funds. They had concerns about service-based funding. Their main concern was that it had to be broken into so many different services that they offer that if they did not get one particular component of it, it threw their whole funding and services into chaos. I am wondering, the Minister was very emphatic that there was no change to the way these groups apply for their funding. I am just wondering if he could help shed some light on what the concerns would be from these groups like the Canadian Mental Health Association? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
April 28th, 1999
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Floyd Roland Inuvik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To be a little clearer on the answer I made earlier, with community-funded organizations or non-government organizations, they would apply for funding through the regional or local community boards. One change that has happened is Yellowknife now has a health board for the city of Yellowknife and funding from the community organizations or non-government organizations would be accessed through that board. The only ones that receive funding directly from the department are the territorial organizations. For more detail, I can get Ms. Ballantyne to respond.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe most of these organizations, and we will use the Canadian Mental Health Association as an example, are they funded directly from the department or from the boards? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Floyd Roland Inuvik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If they operate on a territorial-wide basis, they would receive their funding from the department. If they are a local mental health association, they would apply to the board of the region or community. For example, the Canadian Mental Health Association proposal under the Community Wellness Program is in the range of $140,000. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The NWT Mental Health Association has provided a service of a helpline for a number of years. I believe their fiscal year is the same as the government's, March 31st. Has their funding been approved or is it contingent on the approval of the department's budget? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Floyd Roland Inuvik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As with all other funding that comes from this government, it is based on the approval of the budget. Thank you.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, is there any possibility that consideration could be given to these agencies such as the Canadian Mental Health Association that provide extremely valuable services to people in the territories? Is there any way that special consideration could be given to those organizations by moving their year-end up three months ahead of what the government is so that they know what their funding is for at least three months? I understand that a lot of them are having great difficulty because when they find out when the funds have been committed by the government, it is usually well into time periods when they have had to make commitments on office space and other services. Is there any way that the department can look at working with these organizations that are providing a valuable service, certainly I would anticipate much cheaper than the government can do, if there is any way that they can be assisted in the financial crunch that they run into at that time of the year? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Floyd Roland Inuvik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Within the existing guidelines that we have to operate under, we can work with the organizations to try and keep them in tune with what is occurring, but that would have to be within the existing guidelines we operate under as a government. If we were to pursue any further changes, we would have to get the Department of Finance involved to see what other processes can take place, but within what we have, I am sure we can work with them to some degree to try and notify them of any possible changes. Thank you.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am wondering if the department would consider multi-year funding so that at least it would be an overlap, at least a couple of years, so they could work six months prior trying to get funding in place for an overlapping year. Would there be some consideration of that? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Committee Motion 24-13(7): Labour Market Supplement For Nurses
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 427
Floyd Roland Inuvik
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One of the concerns we have as a department is in the area of trying to provide multi-year funding. For example, we have contributions with health boards, but they know that the level of funding they would receive would be dependent on the budget getting passed
or if we were to get different targets as a department, we would have to reprioritize our initiatives. Multi-year funding, in that sense, would be a difficult process to commit to. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.