This is page numbers 5457 - 5492 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th 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 care.

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The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Pursuant to Section 21 of the Human Rights Act, I wish to table the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission 2009-2010 Annual Report.

Pursuant to 100 of the Financial Administration Act, I wish to table the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Financial Statements at March 31, 2010.

Item 15, notices of motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 5, 2010, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories commit permanent funding for respite care services across the Northwest Territories before the cancellation of any existing services.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this motion today. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 5, 2010, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that this Legislative Assembly requests the Governor-in-Council to dissolve the 16th Legislative Assembly on September 4, 2011, to permit a general election for the 17th Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories to be held on October 3, 2011.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time, I will be seeking unanimous consent to deal with this motion today. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Whereas maximum unit rents for public housing are determined for each community and calculated by dividing the number of units in a community by the total operating and maintenance costs of the community housing organization;

AND WHEREAS maximum unit rents are often very high because the number of units in a community is small and operating costs are extremely high;

AND WHEREAS very high maximum unit rents are a substantial deterrent to tenants and often make earning increased income a very unattractive option which is inconsistent with the stated goals of the Housing Corporation;

AND WHEREAS the maximum unit rents could be lowered if unit rents were determined on a regional or even a territorial basis;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Nahendeh, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation undertake the regional analysis and policy changes needed to establish a significantly lower maximum rent schedule for public housing units;

AND FURTHER, that the Minister provide the proposed changes to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure no later than April 1, 2011.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Some Hon. Members

Question.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Question is being called.

---Carried

The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Whereas the Department of Health and Social Services and the regional health and social services authorities currently provide respite care services;

AND WHEREAS respite care services support the goal of keeping families together by relieving stress on primary caregivers;

AND WHEREAS the cost of these respite care services is much less than the cost of institutional care for disabled children and adults;

AND WHEREAS without respite care services some of these individuals with disabilities might become institutionalized and the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services;

AND WHEREAS without respite care services these families may have to rely on more costly programs, such as Income Support, foster care, health care and programs offered through child and family services;

AND WHEREAS the Minister of Health and Social Services stated in her report, “Foundation for Change,” that respite care services for families with special needs and disabled children would be expanded;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Weledeh, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories commit permanent funding for respite care services across the Northwest Territories before the cancellation of any existing services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The motion is on the floor. The motion is in order. To the motion. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be quick. We’ve heard an awful lot today about the value of respite services. These services offer the families an opportunity to care for their children, and rest, and get their children socialized into society.

I attended a Yellowknife Association for Community Living meeting shortly after it came down that the program in Yellowknife had been cancelled. I was pleased at that meeting that I had the opportunity to listen to a young man with autism stand up and speak about how valuable this program is to him. At that time, he stood up and said respite workers helped him to socialize. They helped teach him social skills. They helped teach him how to build relationships. They go on visits in the community with him. They get him out into the community and provide opportunities in the community.

Not having respite would mean this individual would not learn these important skills, Mr. Speaker. He indicated that he would have a lonely life without respite.

I’ve talked with other individuals who have children with intellectual challenges. One family told me that they can’t understand why some people are even thinking about removing this funding, especially when it’s working to include their children into society. Losing this program tells them that the people around them, that society is turning their backs on these families and their children. They are concerned that they might have to go on anti-depressants. They are concerned that their children will have to go into the hospital. They are concerned that they will have to use other aspects of the system, which will ultimately cost the entire system more money.

This is a cheaper way of providing support, important support to these families. I think it’s incredibly important that the department stand up, find the $250,000 for the Yellowknife program but also, as promised in Foundation for Change, find ways to provide greater levels of respite service to persons with intellectual challenge in the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. That’s what this motion talks to. Don’t cut what we already have and find ways to support those programs in the communities. Frankly, I’m concerned that if we are willing to cut such a fantastic proven program in Yellowknife, the next step is to cut respite services in the communities.

So let’s not make that mistake, let’s get it right, let’s find the funding, let’s make sure that we continue to provide respite to those citizens in the Northwest Territories who need it.

I will, of course, be supporting the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. I will go to the seconder of the motion, the Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to take a few minutes to really speak to the benefits of respite services in the words of the people themselves. I want to start with expressions of benefits about the family members who have disabilities. What are they gaining from the respite services we currently provide and are talking about discontinuing? A break from their families. That seems odd, but if you think about it, you can understand that pretty quickly: the opportunity to develop social skills and aptitudes, relationship building, concepts, learning opportunities, partnerships, new opportunities for all kinds of things, leadership and organizational skills, community membership, the opportunity to become more active, to increase their resilience.

Respite workers replace extended family members when none are present. We know the North has many families that have moved from their communities and don’t have extended families present. Trust and undivided attention to family members with disabilities. Again, that’s certainly understandable when the Member is from a large family.

Let me talk briefly about some of the benefits enjoyed by the parents and siblings of a family member with a disability. The opportunity to reboot or recharge. It’s a vital break. It’s my only break. Physical and emotional break. It’s a chance to re-bond. It’s a chance to paint a room, to go grocery shopping or simply go for a walk. It’s a chance for family or adult conversation. It’s a chance to do homework in peace. It provides new hope. It’s a time to remember who we are and reconnect with self. It helps with challenges. It’s simply a godsend. Respite services make us better parents, provides the knowledge that family members with a disability are, indeed, safe during that time. It’s a chance to take a deep breath. It’s a chance of a normal life in our abnormal circumstances. It’s an opportunity for night classes, which would, of course, equal better employment opportunities and perhaps better care for their families.

Even respite services have benefits to share with us: ultimate joy, peaceful feeling of satisfaction. Their work is making a huge difference. They’re providing a needed service. They feel fortunate. They’re offering people an opportunity to be part of their community, and they have developed close relationships with families, including family members with disabilities.

These issues raised represent fundamental needs of families dealing with real situations. It’s a chance to shop for groceries, to go for a walk, to look after the real basics. Failure to deal with this need could result in an escalation of related health and social issues with much greater but avoidable costs.

As legislators and representatives of the people, we face a continuing challenge on how to allocate our resources, on how to balance the many demands and needs with the realities of what is available. In the case of respite services, we have heard from people in a very personal way that provides the clarity needed for decision-making. It is clear today that the balance we seek includes the decision to put priority on funding respite services. The Minister has expressed an understanding of the situation.

Mr. Speaker, I support this motion and will expect to see this government give an appropriate and specific response in the budget presented this coming February with a clear solution to providing uninterrupted and ongoing respite services where cuts are currently planned and ongoing or enhanced support throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support the motion that’s before us today for many of the reasons that have been articulated by my colleagues Mr. Bromley and Mr. Abernethy.

I, too, would just like to mention a few of the benefits of a strong respite care service in our community: integrated availability back into the community, social skills, relationship building, positive learning experiences, resiliency, helping families stay strong.

Mr. Speaker, a stated goal of this government is strong, vibrant communities. Mr. Speaker, respite care services are an integral part of us having strong, healthy communities.

Mr. Speaker, we didn’t get a chance to communicate with the Minister on the funding cut to the respite care program and, Mr. Speaker, that’s a real shame. It’s a shame that we had to find out via alternative means; like I mentioned earlier, my constituency meeting. That’s not how things should work, Mr. Speaker. Things should work much more cohesively than that. We should be able to have a dialogue with the Minister and with the government when it comes to proposed funding cuts. We shouldn’t have to learn at a constituency meeting, especially a service like the respite care program that is the target of a reduction.

Mr. Speaker, that’s just not on with me. It does give the impression that decision-makers do not care about the program. I find it unfathomable that the government could not come up with a plan to deliver respite care service in the Northwest Territories prior to deciding to spend the $250,000 somewhere else without even telling us. That’s a shame, Mr. Speaker.

Again, this motion points us back in the right direction and hopefully we can start a new, better era of communications with the Minister on how we move this forward. I certainly, Mr. Speaker, want to work with my colleagues on this side of the House and the Minister and the government on making positive change in people’s life, and I think respite care services and the respite care program certainly lead us in that direction.

I want to thank the mover of the motion and the seconder for bringing that forward today. And all the families and folks that were in the audience today, thank you very much for your support. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

David Krutko

David Krutko Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, will be supporting the motion with the understanding that we will expand this program throughout the Northwest Territories. It’s pretty hard to elaborate on a program that you can’t see the benefit of because you don’t have it. I think in a lot of our communities we don’t have the luxury of having this program in our communities. The program we have is an elderly person, the family takes care of them day in and day out. They get stressed out. They can’t take care of themselves and the elder. It comes to a point that the health provider will come in and say, okay, we’re taking that person out of your home, we’re taking them to Inuvik to the long-term care facility. That’s the respite care service we’ve been provided. That should not be the case.

We have individuals in our communities, young individuals who are disabled, who have special needs. Again, the services they get are being provided by the family members in those communities, and that should not be the way that these programs are being delivered. We have to have a universal health care system in the Northwest Territories that accommodates all needs and users of these different programs regardless of where you live.

I was frustrated to hear the Minister say, well, we have a program in the Inuvik region. But it’s in Inuvik. Mr. Speaker, I have 20, 35 individuals in my three communities I represent -- Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic -- who are disabled. What do we have there to offer those people? What’s there to offer to assist the families so that they can also take advantage of those programs and be able to take some time out and also get some relief?

Mr. Speaker, it’s critical that this government starts looking within the confines of the Northwest Territories that benefits all Northerners, that benefits 33 communities. Yes, it’s a challenge, but the challenge of the Northwest Territories and the resilient people of the North, we are used to challenges and we are used to being able to help each other out and support each other, and more importantly, those people who are vulnerable individuals in our society because they have special needs or are disabled or the elderly.

Mr. Speaker, it’s critical that this government puts the resources where they’re needed to implement this program throughout the Northwest Territories, and because of that requirement of the motion, I will be supporting the motion with that understanding that this program will be expanded to include other communities in the Northwest Territories; not just the larger centres, not the regional centres: communities. And when I say communities, I mean 33 communities. I hope this government hears me loud and clear and let’s expand this program to assist all people in need throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. For me, the preamble, the whereas clauses of this motion say it all. The government keeps saying that we value families, that we want to support families, but I find this is a very strange way of showing it by cutting a program of such value.

Further, this action flies in the face of the recently tabled report on the review of the Child and Family Services Act. Throughout that report there’s a recurring theme of the need for provision of supports for families and communities. How can the Minister of Health and Social Services accept the Child and Family Services Act report, acknowledge the value of it, if the philosophy of these two actions are so totally different? On the one hand I feel she’s saying rip the supports out from underneath our families in the NWT. On the other hand she’s saying let’s provide the supports needed.

For me it can’t be said often enough that the effects of cancellation of this program will only add to our growing health care costs, care for the children and, potentially, care necessary for the parents when they reach the end of their rope. The Minister says she is working to find a solution to keep the program going. That’s very good to hear. But not all solutions that I’ve heard so far are okay. One suggestion has been for parents to use voluntary support agreements to get the respite care their child needs. Will that mean that the child will have a steady respite worker? Will there be a worker at all? How safe can the parent feel when, in the wisdom of Social Services and their assessment of the safety and security of the child in his or her own home, the child could be apprehended? There will always be that lurking thought in the mind of the parent. It is not an acceptable solution, Mr. Speaker. Yes, it provides access to dollars to get some respite for families, but it is stealing money from one pot to continue an essential service on the other hand.

I anticipate the plan that the Minister says she will bring to the committee in December. I certainly hope that it includes the recommendation of this motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do thank the architects of this motion here. It is a very good motion. I will be supporting the motion.

Mr. Speaker, I want to speak in terms of the basic care of respite care in the Northwest Territories, mainly in terms of the second whereas in this motion is to support the goal of keeping families together, as the Member, my colleague, Ms. Bisaro has stated, we need to focus on this goal in terms of one of our supports for families and also support the communities to keep their children as close to home as possible.

Mr. Speaker, we also need to look at the high cost of this program in our smaller communities. I understand that there is a program in Deline that they are working on. Due to the high cost of travel, training and staff, it gets quite costly to have programs like this in our communities. However, we need to look beyond the cost of health care in some of our remote communities and look at a coordinated approach as the motion speaks to having permanent funding right across the whole Northwest Territories. That is the basis I look at this motion in my support for that.

Mr. Speaker, some of our health boards have to make some tough decisions in terms of services that we provide in our communities with the amount of limited dollars that we have, as Ms. Bisaro spoke about in terms of stealing from one pot to support another program. That isn’t the way we should be looking at health care to our people in our communities.

I want to say, Mr. Speaker, that this program is dearly needed in our communities as in other communities. I want to say that this program here certainly does help our families and our people in our communities, and that we need to look at this seriously and not have any programs cut to this program in terms of some haves and some have nots in terms of a health care system being developed.

Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion.

The Speaker

The Speaker Paul Delorey

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to speak in favour of this motion. I think that my colleagues have very clearly and well expressed the benefits of respite care for families that are caring for family members that may have special needs.

Mr. Speaker, I have actually been in a situation where I had an opportunity, really a privilege of caring for a couple of adults in my home that were intellectually challenged. Mr. Speaker, it is a very rewarding task but it can be very isolating. It wasn’t long after I had these two individuals come into my home that I started to notice that my phone wasn’t ringing so much anymore. People weren’t inviting me over for dinner or inviting us over as a family. Sometimes people can become and can develop a sense of isolation. They feel that they are in this alone. That is a feeling that needs to be avoided at all costs.

Mr. Speaker, when I hear my colleagues speaking out what works here in Yellowknife and other colleagues speaking out what we need in the small communities, Mr. Speaker, I think we need to take a creative approach to this. I think we need to look at the family unit. I think we need to look at the individual that needs the care. We need to be creative in how we respond to that.

My colleague Mr. Yakeleya just referred to travel and training and staff. Maybe in some situations what is needed is for a caregiver to come into the home for a period of time so that the primary caregiver or family member can go out and do other things. Maybe it isn’t about taking the family member with the challenges out of the home and taking them away someplace else. Maybe it is about bringing someone into the home, but in a sense I don’t think that there is a one solution fits all scenarios approach that we can take to this.

When we do not have the same kind of critical base population, a formalized program may not be as easy to institute in a smaller community where we may be only talking about a few people. It may not be practical to take them away from their home communities. Maybe we need to be very sensitive to the individual circumstances and needs of families and individuals in crafting a program, but whatever we do, it will require money. It will require resources. I am a very strong believer that sometimes very little by the way of support from our government can go a very long ways towards keeping the families together and allowing people to do what in their heart they really want to do, which is care for their loved ones, but at the same time, not end up burning themselves out or feeling like they have to give up their life to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I will support this. Again, I encourage our government as we go forward to adopt best practices, do what works for the individual clients and be there to support any way we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.