This is page numbers 3229 – 3260 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th 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 communities.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is a big government. It’s got lots of people and lots of money. It’s a big system that operates on a daily basis. Of course, its mission is to deliver programs and services to people. At this point, people are asking for help in trying to take that first step in admitting they do have a problem and they want to sober up. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. What immediate steps is the department taking to support established on-the-land programs? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has approved three proposals for

on the land. We are going to treat them as pilots so we can do an evaluation of those. That will give us good groundwork needed to work with communities to develop further on-the-land treatment programs. Thank you.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

It seems the Minister has stated this is in its infancy stage of trying to flush out a framework in terms of how this will work. How will the Department of Health and Social Services see itself involved in on-the-land programs? Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

We spend slightly over $6 million in community counselling. A lot of the community counsellors are from the communities that they work in, so they may be involved. The other thing is certainly our involvement would be that we are a funder for the on-the-land treatment program. Where we can assist in other areas, the department is prepared to do that.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

From a cost standpoint, can the Minister expect to see 33 different on-the-land programs or will the Minister provide leadership and develop a policy framework to ensure the efficiency of the delivery of the on-the-land programs? Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

One of our initiatives, through the Aboriginal health and community wellness division, is to develop wellness plans in all of the communities. Within those wellness plans, we are going to determine whether or not an on-the-land treatment program is what that community wants. Once that has been determined, our intention is to try to fund all of the treatment programs that are being proposed over the next couple of years. Money permitting, our intention is to try to fund them. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of cost, what allocation of resources would the department identify as a possible source? Would it consider, with other departments, the possible consideration of revenues from liquor sales? Mahsi.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Minister of Health and Social Services

We would be coming forward through the regulatory process, the business planning process and presenting our full-blown costs for on-the-land treatment to the House. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement.

I spoke about the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan 2012-2015, which was brought forward

about a year and a half ago, and then I also spoke about the Minister’s Forum report. I’d like to know from the Minister with regards to the Minister’s Forum report and all the recommendations that are within it, can I get an update on what the department is doing in terms of those recommendations, what kinds of actions are they taking, are they updating the original Mental Health Action Plan or doing something different. Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are not planning on updating the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan is something that is taking us from now to the end of this government. There is no time to update it. Within that action plan, we called for a Minister’s forum and visit with the people to get information from the people on what they think will work in this area. That’s what we’ve done. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

To the Minister, thanks to the response, but he didn’t really address my question with regards to the recommendations that are in the Minister’s Forum report. There are 67 recommendations in there. What is the Minister doing to put those recommendations into some kind of an action or to take some action on those recommendations? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The department in general, we have an Aboriginal community wellness division; we have money that’s being put into addictions from the House. We’ve got some additional funding to address some of the issues that we laid out in one of the two, either the action plan or the recommendations from the forum. We’re moving ahead in areas that we have been talking about for the last several months since we’ve got the forum’s recommendation. We intend to carry them out. I think we’re moving in that direction. It’s a difficult thing to answer what are you doing to carry out. We’re following the plan. Wherever we find the money, we are trying to action things that were recommended by the Minister’s Forum. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

To the Minister, I guess I’m feeling very puzzled. I’m sure my face looks puzzled. I don’t think that this is a difficult thing to tell us exactly what you are doing. There are 67 recommendations in this report. The Minister says they’re following the plan. Well, I want to know how you’re following the plan. There is any number of things in there that could be done sooner than other things in there.

Can the Minister give me some indication of two or three things they are trying to do first before they do the other 63 or 64?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The first set of recommendations, the most prominent set of recommendations were around treatment on the

land. So we are developing a treatment on-the-land program with the communities. We are receiving recommendations from those communities. We are proposing to run some of those recommendations or proposals as pilot programs. We are trying to develop a youth treatment program. Like I said, there’s a consultation process in Fort Simpson where we’re trying to develop an on-the-land youth program. We’re looking to other jurisdictions to see what they’re doing with mobile treatment, I think. Those are the top three recommendations, so we’re moving on those things. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That certainly helps. I thank the Minister for that explanation, but it sounds as though we’re starting with recommendation number one and working our way down to number 67. That’s a concern for me. Number 67 says, “Establish an advisory board with regional representation to oversee the implementation of the forum’s recommendations…provide annual reports,” et cetera. So can the Minister tell me if this advisory board is something that is on the radar within the next short time period, or is it going to be one we’ve done from number one to 66 and then we do 67? Thank you.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you. No, we’re not doing it chronologically. What we’re doing is we’re trying to address what we consider to be top priorities. The recommendations to debrief the Minister’s Forum, we have talked about putting a group of people together. That group of individuals may actually have met, but I’m not 100 percent sure, so I wouldn’t say that here in the House. But we’ve talked with individuals that could work on debriefing the Minister’s Forum, so we’re approaching this. We’re not going to do it chronologically, for sure, I can assure the Member of that, but we are trying to get through all of them. We didn’t ask for recommendations so we could shelve them, like has been said before.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to this opportunity to ask questions to the Health Minister regarding crack and prescription drug use and what we are doing about it.

I was talking to my eight-year-old son yesterday, and this is no word of a lie and I dare anyone to counter that. He told me he heard about crack, and I’m telling you that was a shock to my wife and I to hear about it. We asked him what this is and he

says, the kids talk about it at school. It’s not about one school, it’s the fact it upsets me and actually really ticks me off that my eight-year-old son is starting to understand what these things are.

So my question for the Health and Social Services Minister is: What is he doing to help people who suffer from crack and prescription drug addiction in the Northwest Territories? I want to hear what he’s doing about those types of problems. It really upsets me not only as a legislator, but as a parent. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is correct that these are two very serious issues. Crack and crack cocaine have caused all kinds of problems in all of the communities, small communities. Communities are trying to deal with it; people are trying to deal with it in various ways. There is something that an individual can get to a counsellor that we will send individuals for treatment for crack cocaine addictions.

Prescription drugs are a little bit different issue. Prescription drug addiction is a very hidden addiction, so it’s something that’s difficult to bring out into the public. People can say, well, that person sells crack, that person is on crack and that person is on crack, but it’s very difficult when it comes to prescription drugs to easily identify that. In those cases, it’s a lot of personal responsibility that individuals have to take and all we can do is get the messaging out there that we’re available to help. Thank you.