Debates of June 5th, 2008

This is page numbers 899 to 954 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 2nd 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 health.

Topics

Oral Questions

Prayer

Speaker’s Ruling

Minister’s Statement 53-16(2) Drive Alive: Summer Safety Initiatives

Minister’s Statement 54-16(2) Protected Area Strategy

Inuvialuit Final Agreement 25th Anniversary

Early Entry To Kindergarten Programs

Inuvialuit Final Agreement 25th Anniversary

Elimination Of Business Incentive Policy

Guidelines For Seismic Lines

Inuvialuit Final Agreement 25th Anniversary

Cabinet Communications

Acknowledgement Of Crystal Milligan

Kam Lake Access Road

High Cost Of Living In Small Communities

Proposed Elimination Of Deh Cho Youth Worker Position

Inuvialuit Final Agreement 25th Anniversary

Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery

Question 263-16(2) Early Entry To Kindergarten Programs

Question 264-16(2) Renewal Of Mining Company Land Use Leases

Question 265-16(2) Guidelines For Seismic Lines

Question 266-16(2) High Cost Of Living In Small Communities

Question 267-16(2) Teaching Position Vacancies In Beaufort-Delta Region

Question 268-16(2) Access To Gravel Sources For Aklavik

Question 269-16(2) Kam Lake Access Road

Question 270-16(2) Elimination Of Business Incentive Policy

Question 271-16(2) Seniors’ Supplementary Benefit

Question 272-16(2) Employment For Summer Students

Question 273-16(2) Protected Areas Strategy

Question 274-16(2) Elimination Of Business Incentive Policy

Question 275-16(2) Elimination Of Business Incentive Policy

Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Department Of Health And Social Services

Committee Motion 29-16(2) To Reinstate Stanton Hospital Telehealth Coordinator Position And Associated Contribution Funding For A Total Amount Of $210,000, Health And Social Services, Program Delivery Support (Committee Motion Carried)

Committee Motion 30-16(2) To Defer Further Consideration Of The Operations Expenditures, Department Of Health And Social Services (Committee Motion Carried)

Committee Motion 31-16(2) To Defer Further Consideration Of Infrastructure Acquisition Plan, Department Of Health And Social Services (Committee Motion Carried)

Main Estimates 2008–2009 Department Of Human Resources

Report of Committee of the Whole

Orders of the Day

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

I’m looking on the page prior to that, where it says community programs. It has a breakdown in regard to Main Estimates 2008–2009, Child Services, $15.562 million.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Chairman, the breakdown we have is $3.444 million for foster care, and the $810,000 is for protective services, fuel price increases and NGOs.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Is there a cost breakdown in regard to southern placement for children who basically are in the foster care system or care system of this government? What’s the cost of southern placement?

Sandy Lee Range Lake

The total cost for children in care down south is about $5 million. I think I provided that in one of the session days.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Can the Minister give us an idea where these children are in the southern institutions? Where are they located and exactly what’s the number of children that are in southern placements?

Sandy Lee Range Lake

I could provide that info. I believe the number of children in southern care is very few, compared to children in care. About 24 out of 630, if my memory serves me correctly.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

For 24 children in care in the south I believe we’re spending in excess of $4 million. That’s a high amount. What type of care are we paying for in regard to children who are in southern placements?

Sandy Lee Range Lake

It is true. Some of our children have very severe issues of FAS/FAE or some real trauma, including sexual abuse, and some of those children are in intensive care settings where it could cost up to $500,000 or $600,000 a year.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Yes, that’s a very alarming number, especially the cost associated with that.

I’d just like to ask the Minister if it’s possible to get a breakdown in regard to the number of children in care in the Beaufort region, especially in my constituency, by way of the different types of care they’re in: foster care, people who are in permanent custody, people who are referred to southern institutions or outside the region, from the communities I represent.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Chairman, before we go there, I have the information on southern placement costs per use. The projected cost for ’08–09 is $6.185 million. The total number of children that we expect will be in these placements is about 42: three in Bosco, one in Lamont — I don’t know where that is — Elk Island Child and Youth Ranch, eight in Vancouver, 11 in Red Deer, 12 in Regina, five in Calgary, two in Edmonton. I would like to ask the deputy minister how many children from Beaufort-Delta are included in here.

Mr. Chairman, our stats are broken down by riding, not Beaufort-Delta altogether. The total children in care are 36: 10 from Aklavik, 22 from McPherson and four from Tsiigehtchic. We have three in southern treatment, and all three are from Fort McPherson.

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Mr. Chair, if it’s possible, can we get the information the Minister’s referring to? Can she distribute it to the other Members here? I think those numbers are pretty alarming. I think it’s good we have access to that so we can debate it further. Again, I know the Minister mentioned there were

620 kids in care when I asked her the question earlier, and I’m just wondering: is it possible we can get a breakdown of that also? And of the 620 kids, exactly what different types of care they’re in also — if I can get that information, Mr. Chair. That’s it for me.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Yes, Mr. Chairman; we’ll do that.

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Minister Lee. Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under Health Awareness

Activities, I believe we fund our

NGOs — a number of NGOs, maybe not every single one. I’m trying to understand why the YWCA gets a grant-in-kind for the lease of the Rockhill apartment building, whereas the Centre for Northern Families doesn’t receive a similar type of support. I would say they provide a service equal, in the context of necessity, to what the YWCA does. The Centre for Northern Families, as many of you know, struggles year to year for funding. They grasp at every opportunity for funding they can. Yet they don’t seem to be paired on a similar status as the YWCA, and that causes them concern, as well as me. Could the Minister explain to me why we fund the lease or the mortgage on one and not the other?

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Mr. Cummings.

Cummings

The grant-in-kind for the YWCA is for the Rockhill building, which is transitional housing — and perhaps Mr. Hawkins could speak to how a grant-in-kind works — but the arrangement the Centre for Northern Families has is that they pay rent on the building they occupy — or a mortgage, sorry — and that funding is raised through the contributions they receive to deliver services.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Could one not argue that it’s similar, in the same vein, because both are striving for ownership of those facilities?

The Chair Glen Abernethy

Minister Lee.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

I’m not sure if they’re striving for ownership of those facilities. I don’t know — I have to be honest with you — exactly why the YWCA has the Rockhill apartment on a grant-in-kind lease basis. I believe the Centre for Northern Families has received assistance in the past, and the building was given to the Centre for Northern Families from NWT Housing Corporation. There’s a nominal amount of mortgage the Centre for Northern Families is required to pay. That is my understanding of those situations.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

If my memory serves me well, the Centre for Northern Families building was the old addictions treatment centre, and it appears we’ve given two addiction treatment centres away in the

last quite a few years, of course. I’m trying to get an understanding of why we would support a grant-in-kind that, in other words, pays the housing costs under the YWCA? Would the Minister take on that task to make sure we’re comparing apples to apples, to the Centre for Northern Families? As I’ve seen and experienced, the Centre for Northern Families struggles with their funding, and I think they provide an admirable service for the money they receive in funding. I want to make sure they’re being treated equally and on the same page as the YWCA. I think they deserve that respect.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

I will undertake to get that information for the Member.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Under the homelessness issue raised earlier by, I believe, Ms. Bisaro, I’d like some breakout as to what activities fall under that. I don’t remember hearing, or I missed, what the actual $510,000 breaks out to be earmarked for.

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Those are not earmarked; it’s a pot of money set aside. It’s application-based and it’s demand-based.

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

What are the application-based requirements of an organization that wishes to tap into that pot of money? I’m trying to get some details. Is it just open for anybody who says they provide space for homeless people? Is that the principle of what it’s there for?

Sandy Lee Range Lake

Mr. Chairman, this is a program where we invite communities to make applications for funding, up to $10,000 under Homelessness Support Projects, or $40,000 under Emergency Shelter Options — under Emergency Shelter Options, small projects under $40,000 to provide emergency shelter for adults; under Homelessness Support Projects, under $10,000 to address community homelessness issues. What we look for in projects is a demonstration of creative use of existing community resources, buildings and skills, and integrated partnerships to extend the impact and use of the limited funding. Some of the organizations that received the funding in the past, in ’07 and ’08, are Deh Gah Gotie Dene Council in Fort Providence in both categories — one for $40,000 and one for $10,000; Acho Dene Koe First Nation in Fort Liard; an Aklavik Indian band; Zhahti Koe Friendship Centre in Fort Providence; Katlodeeche First Nation in Hay River Reserve; and Pehdzeh Ki First Nation in Wrigley. In my visits there, they told me these were very helpful to them.

Debates of June 5th, 2008

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