I don’t have that exact statistic but I do have some information on this. The most frequent criminogenic needs identified amongst NWT offenders are those associated with drugs and alcohol. The vast majority of individuals who are going through their documentation and classification have indicated that alcohol is a significant factor in their lives and one of the reasons they may be within the facilities.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment the other day regarding late payment of income support.

I’ll start by noting that I raised this issue with the Minister in 2010 and was told at the time that the problem was due to staff changes. This time it’s attributed to the possibility of holidays or staff vacancies. Obviously, these predictable and regular occurrences should never deprive people, destitute people of their only way to pay rent, buy food and clothe their families.

Can the Minister assure me that, no matter what, there will be enough staff at ECE all the time, every time, to ensure these payments are processed on time?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to have the staff up to speed on all the processing and issuing of the cheques on time. That is one of our priorities. This has been brought to my attention when Member Bisaro first asked those questions. I then followed up with my department. There have been some challenges, but at the same time, I have instructed my department that we need to make this a priority. If we have a shortage of staff, whether it

be on leave, we need to have a dedicated individual in the system who can follow up on all requests.

I did commit to this House already that this is a matter that we’re following through with, and also, again, reiterating that there is client service training that is going to be happening at the end of this month and the beginning of next month to establish more of a positive step forward. That’s what we’re looking forward to with all the client service officers.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. We certainly do need redundancy here in order to avoid this sort of situation. I just want to explore further the issue of backup for emergencies. The Minister’s 2010 answers to me promised a change in process and more staff training. Ms. Bisaro was told last week that there will be client service officer training, and the Minister has confirmed that. Because this is a financial payment function, and because the need for prompt payments is absolutely critical, will the Minister ensure that not only client service officers but an emergency backup in the finance area will be able to make these payments no matter what?

We do try to avoid, as much as we can, on the delay of payments to those clients. We understand that the power bill, the utility bills and other food sources, that is our priority, to issue those cheques on time. But there are times when we are challenged with providing documentation and so forth.

Again, as I indicated, we are going to have a dedicated individual that deals with those matters. The requests that come in, I specifically instructed, after the question was raised in the House, that this is an urgent matter. We need to deal with it especially now that winter is here. It is a priority for my Department of ECE. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, thanks again to the Minister for that response. My understanding is that the client service officers put in the order for the cheque and then the financial people issue the cheque. That is what I was referring to. I assume that the Minister has that well in hand and will ensure both steps are taken in a timely fashion.

When these payments are late they cause ripple effects. People incur late fees for things such as phone and electricity. These are people for whom a five or 10 dollar additional charge is equivalent to a day’s groceries for a family. Unfortunately, current income support policy does not provide for the reimbursement of these penalties resulting from ECE’s tardiness.

I am assuming this isn’t going to happen again, but if it does, our records show that clearly when ECE payments have been made late, in cases where clients have been paid late, will ECE reimburse the cost of penalties that have resulted from payments received belatedly? Thank you.

That is correct; we are going to avoid late payments. Those late payments in the past, again, it all depends on the case-by-case basis. It could be missing documents. It is a shared responsibility between clients and our department, the client service officers. The information I gather and also the training that is going to be happening at the end of the month is specifically to deal with the backlog, the satisfaction survey that has been conducted in the past, how client service officers deal with those clientele in a professional and positive manner. The process itself from issuing of the cheque through the Finance department, we need to expedite the process, especially during the winter months. That is the commitment I made within my department, gave the instruction to my department. We will follow through with that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my statement and talk a bit about the Territorial Respite Care Plan, which apparently is ready to go.

I would like to ask the Minister, first of all, if he would give me, and give the House and the public, an update on the Territorial Respite Care Plan, where it is at. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The full expansion of the Territorial Respite Program outside of Yellowknife and into the communities that don’t have any respite services is going to be between $2 million and $3 million. Our Department of Health and Social Services is working with the Department of Finance to assess competing financial pressures and so on in order to look at the expansion, but we do have some services operational and running in small communities outside of Yellowknife too. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I know that there are some respite care programs outside of Yellowknife. There are three communities which have respite care for some of their residents there, but as I mentioned in my statement, there is an overwhelming need for respite care in the other 29 communities that aren’t yet served by any kind of respite care. I would like to know from the Minister when is the department going to recognize… I think they recognize that there is a need, but when are they going to recognize it as an overwhelming

need? When are they going to start providing services in our other 29 communities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the department recognizes that there is a need already. We have respite programs in Yellowknife, Detah, Fort Good Hope, Colville Lake, Fort McPherson, Simpson, Inuvik, Aklavik, Behchoko, Fort Smith and Hay River. Those are the communities, and for other communities which I have not mentioned, respite services can be made available through home care. Each of the communities that have home care, we can arrange for respite services if the need was there and we work with the authorities to provide that need through home care. Thank you.

I thank the Minister. I don’t think I heard of this opportunity for families to access respite care through home care.

Can the Minister provide a bit better explanation to me and to people listening? What would a family get by applying through home care? What kind of service is provided through home care for respite? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it would be a standard respite service for individuals that need respite from caring for individuals that need constant care, where the request would go back through the authorities, whether it would be local or regional through the Health and Social Services Authority and asking the home care to do respite care for individuals in a similar line of what is being offered in respite care programs in Yellowknife and other communities where respite care is being offered. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That sounds like a fairly bureaucratic process and rather long and involved to simply get a family some assistance to deal with the stress that they are under from day to day.

Is this a dedicated person who is providing respite through home care? If not, when are we going to get dedicated personnel in our communities to assist families with the respite care they need? Thank you.

No, it is not a dedicated individual in those communities where we don’t offer the program, but rather, we would work with home care workers that are in the communities to provide that service based on requests and based on demand. When we will expand the program would be once we are able to make a business case back through the business planning process to expand the Respite Program. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the situation in Trout Lake where people can’t see the visiting doctor unless they have an appointment. As we are learning, this is not the only community that this is happening in.

Is the Minister willing to review the practice of turning away small community residents who do not have prior appointments with this visiting physician? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would be willing to have the authorities review that. The reason that we have the system that we do where the health authorities are at the regional level and work closely with the communities, so that they understand the communities, the culture of the communities and so on. If this is happening, it shouldn’t be happening. Individuals will not be turned away from seeing the doctor if there are appointments available. Of course, when you have more than one individual showing up at the same time slot, it would be difficult, but we will do our best to allocate the time slots for individuals that come in to drop in to see the doctor when the doctors are in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.