Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’ve discussed this and we commit that I am giving it full consideration and I will be communicating with the committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to start by following up on the issue of child and family services committees further to Mr. Abernethy’s comments. In looking at the business plan that we reviewed in September, there’s a specific reference in the business plan to establishing child and family service committees in at least five more communities in this business year, and that was targeted for year ‘11-12. I’d like to know from the Minister what changed between September and the finalization of the department’s budget that she now says they will try to get five communities with child and family services committees. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I stated, this has been in our work plan. It has been

the objective of the department to set up more children and family services committees. This issue has come up before the CFSA recommendation and, as I stated to Member Abernethy, we have had difficulties setting that up. So the business plan said our goal is to have at least five.

Right now, and as the Members know, the only real possibility right now of setting up within this year is Fort McPherson, and that has been in the works for three years. It has been extremely difficult. It’s not just about the department going out and setting them out. We need the community support and community participation, we need the capacity building and such.

So I think what we need to do is we need to put in some financial resources and that’s the next level that we need to think about in light of the Standing Committee on Social Programs’ suggestion that we take a more interventionist role in that regard. It will take some money and we need to look at finding funds.

Thanks to the Minister. I totally understand that there are resources that are required. I guess I’m trying to understand why the business plan in September indicated that resources would be available in budget year 2011-2012 to establish five committees and now that money seems to have disappeared.

I also want to mention, and I believe it’s in the Child and Family Services Act review report, that one size does not fit all in terms of child and family service committees and we emphasized in the report that there needs to be flexibility in how these committees are established. In some communities there’s a very strong possibility that the child and family service committees could be part of the community justice committee that they could operate together and the same people could do two different jobs. That’s just one possibility. There’s any number of different avenues that communities can use to establish a committee which will assist them in child and family services and in apprehensions.

I wanted to speak a bit to funding for the Food First Foundation. It is something which has been funded, I think, by both the Department of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment over the last couple of years. I’d like to know if there is funding in the budget for 2011-2012 to assist the Food First Foundation with their programs.

Just on the first two points, the Member is right that we had as part of the business plan that we would like to have five children and family services committees set up, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we will put resources or that dollars are attached to that. The business plan is a plan. It’s what we want to do as a department. There are dollars allocated but there are lots of

other policy framework and directives that we lay out there.

The second thing is, yes, I agree with the Member that flexible approach is desired and that is what we have been doing. The director of our child and family services have travelled to many different communities meeting with the community people, community leadership, and working to set up the child and family service committees. While I appreciate the committee saying this is so important and why can’t you just get going, we need to have partnership with the communities. This can’t be just a top-down approach. I just want to reiterate that we will continue to work on that.

On the Food First Foundation, we don’t have any information here on whether we’ve given them money or not. I am aware that that organization has had funding assistance from some parts of this government, but I will have to take that question on notice and get back to the Member.

Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I guess I would refer the Minister to a letter from the Executive Council that responded to a letter from Food First Foundation. You might ask the Minister of ECE for a copy because I think he signed it.

I wanted to also ask in terms of mental health and addictions. The information that we were given, again in the business plan in September, is that the department was doing a review of mental health and addictions programs. That review was going to be completed, I think, in November 2010. I’d like to ask first if that review is indeed completed, and if yes, can Members get a copy of that review?

Just firstly on the Food First Foundation, I have seen the letter from Mr. Lafferty. It was under the heading of Executive Council because it involves more than one department. That’s why I said it might be getting funding from somewhere, I just don’t know exactly which department. I’m going to get back to the Member, as I had already stated.

The Mental Health Program review began in November and we hope to have that finalized with recommendations to the standing committee in the spring, April-May.

Obviously things change over months. The business plan stated that the review had been completed, but there we are. I certainly look forward to the review when it’s done. I would hope that the review would come with some sort of an action plan at the time that we get it.

I wanted to also ask the Minister about the staffing for the Joe Greenland Centre. I know the purpose of that facility is changing. It will be seniors housing. Yes, I guess kind of home care assisted housing to a certain extent. There are any number of employees there who I gather will not be able to be

employed. My question goes to the staff that will be required once the long-term care half of that building has been changed over to seniors housing or assisted housing, whichever it is. My understanding is, from what I’ve read in the plans, that there will be, I think, three home support workers required. I’ve anecdotally been advised that some of the people that are going to be hired for there are not home support workers but health workers that require far higher qualifications. A dietician I think is one name that was mentioned and I can’t remember the others. I’d like to ask the Minister if she can confirm what staffing is going to be required for the renovated section of Joe Greenland Centre. I gather there’s one home support worker there now. Will they be hiring two more home support workers and that’s it, or are they hiring home support workers and other types of health staff?

The program change at Joe Greenland Centre is to use the facility for what it was really meant to be. It was not designed for level III and IV care that we’ve delivered there for the last number of years. Since 2007 we’ve had very few residents there.

When this wing is renovated and converted into independent units, we don’t anticipate that we will have staff in that building. It will be like the other wing. There will be a caretaker and that sort of support.

What we anticipate is to expand the Elders Program for the entire community. Right now for the entire community of Aklavik there’s one home care worker. We anticipate that we could have up to three home care workers. We want to be able to run any elders day programming out of Joe Greenland Centre. We believe there are about 30 to 40 elders there in their homes who need support from home care workers with all sorts of things that home care support provides.

The question about whether this home care worker will require more skills, that’s not the information we have. We believe that those employees that are affected, HR rules require that we give them notice at the earliest possible opportunity when there are any contemplations of changes in jobs being considered. So that’s why they had to be given notice very early and they are all eligible to apply for not only these jobs but also any other jobs that come at the community as well as in the region or anywhere.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just with regard to the delivering of community health programs. As I travel to the communities in my riding, the communities have been requesting, I think the communities get a $5,000 allotment for developing their own

community-based community health programming. One of the communities, I think it was Trout Lake, found out that for the amount of in-house programming that they wish to deliver, $5,000 they feel doesn’t really cover their needs. They’ve often asked me to forward that concern on to the Health Minister. I think I have on a couple of occasions in the past year, requesting to see if there can be more funding for community-based health care prevention services. They can bring in their own healers if they wish for their different unique needs in each community. They did find that $5,000 was... In a community like Trout Lake, it gets eaten up a lot by transportation costs. That’s a real consideration for that. I’d just like to ask the Minister what the reason is for the $5,000 limit. Is there opportunity for communities to access more programming dollars for their needs?

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I need to find out more information about exactly what that $5,000 program speaks to. What I can tell the Member is that it may be that is allocated monies under one program. Communities like Trout Lake, or other communities, can access other programs and funding whether they be within the authority or department-wide. Sometimes there’s federal funding and such. Without having more detailed information, I would just like to tell the Member that if a community is interested in something specific, I’d be happy to inquire within the department and the authority to see what’s available and work from there.

I’d like to thank the Minister for that response. I’ll be glad to follow up on it.

I know that the Minister of Health and Social Services is looking at expanding the respite care programming and piloting a couple of programs. I see that even the budget for that line item went up by almost a million dollars. I’d like to know if that is the case and are they looking at communities such as Fort Simpson for something like that. I do have some constituents that could benefit from respite care services. In fact, I had thought that we were using it at one point for some constituents in Fort Simpson, but I was mistaken. Certainly something like that, I know that it will certainly benefit constituents as we work to develop health and wellness amongst all families. I’d just like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services what kind of pilot program and which communities will be used.

I’m not sure what $1 million he’s referring to, but I can tell the Member that there are different types of respite care programs that the Department of Health and Social Services is involved in. There are respite care and long-term care facilities in our health facilities and in institutional settings as well as a respite program

that we are trying to expand in the Territories. As the Member is aware, in Yellowknife we had a pilot program with an NGO two or three years ago, but we saw the need to expand that program to outside of Yellowknife and we have allocated, under Strategic Initiatives committee, an investment of $363,000 for this year which is a $73,000 increase from last year. We are in the process of developing a territory-wide program but at the same time providing some programs in communities with the highest need. I do believe Fort Simpson is one of the communities, but I don’t have that information. The communities we are moving into right now are Fort Smith, Aklavik and Deline. I will have to undertake to see what needs there are in Simpson and where they lie. We are anticipating that we will continue to fund this for next year as well. That’s where we are with coming up with an NWT-wide respite care program. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. I wonder, Mr. Menicoche, if you could clarify where that million dollars is that you’re referring to, what page that’s on or what line. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be glad to go through the Minister’s budget for her. It’s the line item on prevention and promotion services. The budget item is up a million dollars from the previous year, from the revised estimate. That was my comment there, Mr. Chairman.

I’m glad to hear that we’re expanding respite services and I’d certainly get the confirmation if it will be done in Fort Simpson. Most particularly for families of special needs is what I was asking for there, Mr. Chair.

As well, I think, if anything, one additional item that I’ve raised with the Minister already earlier on is in the community services and funding of social workers. Once again, the community of Fort Liard raised the issue. We thought it was handled by Christmastime but it wasn’t and it’s still an issue of having a second social worker on a casual basis until the return of the one who’s having medical issues there, Mr. Chair. That’s really got to be reviewed and followed up. The community does need a second social worker. They want that full coverage. They want local coverage, and I believe that we should listen to the community, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

I’m happy to note that that increase of $1 million under prevention and promotion services speaks to Healthy Choices Framework and Healthy Families programming that I spoke about earlier, and Fort Simpson is one of them.

On the social worker question, I am committed to following up on that. I agree with the Member that we need to know what the status of the current incumbent is. We were not able to fill the position

with a casual just because… I mean, they have social work coverage, it’s just that to have a position there, because this position requires to have all kinds of statutory powers bestowed on them and it’s not possible to do that on a quick turn-around with a casual. I committed to do that. I am following up on that right now and will get back to the Member as soon as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Next on my list I have Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few questions on community health programs. First off, I wish the Minister and the department every success in trying to get together a respite program for the entire Territory. I think it’s a big piece of work and something that I think will be greatly appreciated in communities around the Northwest Territories. It think that’s a step in the right direction.

I also wanted to thank the Yellowknife Association for Community Living for the program that they’ve run quite successfully here in Yellowknife for the last number of years. I’ve seen, firsthand, constituents who have had a big impact on their quality of life by accessing the program through YACL. Again, I want to thank the Minister for agreeing to continue with that program here in Yellowknife. So thanks for that.

The other issue -- and I just wanted to touch on this -- just recently there was a report that the Yukon government had a third party do an evaluation of the addictions programming in the Yukon Territory and the findings were that the addictions programs in the Yukon Territory were woefully inadequate. I’d like to just get a better understanding of how adequate addictions programming is here in the Northwest Territories, Mr. Chairman, and whether or not we would stand to gain anything by conducting a third-party, independent, objective review of what addictions programming we have here in the Northwest Territories.

Again, if you look around at the social ills that are out there, addictions certainly plays a huge part in what plaques our communities and our families, whether it’s alcohol or drugs or even gambling, for that matter, and we need to have some safeguards in place that are going to help people get through and deal with addictions problems. I guess that’s the first question I have, Mr. Chairman, is where are we at with addictions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are aware of the work that was done in the Yukon. The review we are doing is in a similar vein. The same group has done a review of similar programs in B.C. and Alberta. We are doing that and we will get recommendations and action items out of that

and work with the committee on that in the spring. Thank you.