This is page numbers 2685 – 2724 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 work.

Topics

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I will commit to having the department advise the health centres and the drugstores that individual clients who prove that they have applied could do one of two things. The drugstore or the clinic can do an immediate check to see how far along in the process their card approval is, or also just to prove that they have applied and they will be covered.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my opening Member’s statement earlier today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment some questions in regard to the Aurora College campus in Inuvik and the lack of programs that are actually at the campus itself, in the facilities.

I would just like to ask the Minister, starting off: How are programs distributed throughout the three campuses in the Northwest Territories? How do we decide which campus gets which program and moving forward from there? That will be my first question. Just how are programs distributed, diploma programs, certificate programs, throughout the three campuses in the Northwest Territories?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would just like to congratulate all those graduates, over 141 graduates between the three campuses. That’s a huge accomplishment for those individuals and I’d just like to applaud them for that.

The programs that have been distributed through the three campuses are based on the needs of the communities and through the venue of the Aurora

College Board of Governors. As you know, the Board of Governors is meeting in the next two weeks, I believe in Inuvik, and those are the opportune times to ask those questions or give ideas and suggestions on various programs that should be delivered.

I understand where the Member is coming from. I will be addressing that with the current board chair and also the president. As we move forward, I would encourage also the Members to approach the board representative from a regional perspective. In that fashion, they do make the decisions as a board of governance. We provide them up to $30 million to deliver programs across the Northwest Territories. I will be forwarding that information to the board governor. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know the Minister can’t answer the second question I was going to go into, but has the Minister, speaking with his colleagues on the Executive Council and Cabinet, talked about what types of programs are needed for the Inuvik-Tuk highway, for the early childhood Children’s First Centre or the other projects that we have going on in Inuvik? Has he spoken with his Cabinet colleagues to say we need these programs in Inuvik so that our leaders, as stated in the statement earlier, do get addressed and we want to hold accountable providing those programs? Has he spoken with his Cabinet colleagues to get those exact education programs for the Aurora College so the local people can become our leaders in the future? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mr. Speaker, yes I have. We will continue to pressure that at the Cabinet level. At the same time, I have a board chairs meeting that consists of the college and all the education board chairs, and we discuss the communities’ needs. If there are ideas generated or suggestions, then we will work with that. At the end of the day, the Board of Governors makes that decision based on the communities’ needs. They work with the community representatives what is required, whether they be the activities happening in the Beaufort-Delta, Sahtu region or Deh Cho region. It will be based on that. We get a lot of feedback. From the feedback, we discuss around the table with educational leaders and develop programs based on that. This is an area that we closely monitor. We will continue to make changes to our programming for the Northwest Territories that will benefit the North. Mahsi.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Mr. Speaker, being new to the Legislative Assembly, I’m finding out new processes, the way things are being done. My understanding, from what the Minister just said, is the board of directors make the final decisions on where programs are being offered. Why is there not a process where the Minister might make the final

write-off on where these programs are sent? Or would the Minister take those recommendations from the board of directors, bring it back to standing committee, and standing committee can have some recommendation into how those programs are being delivered?

Obviously, we have a strong voice here, small communities, rural and remote communities that do need these training programs. Would the Minister be open to having that as a process, bring in recommendations from the board of directors to standing committee and having dialogue from there so that we have a greater interest in how these programs are being offered throughout the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mr. Speaker, we do go through an annual basis before we distribute funding to the college so they can deliver programs, trying to get feedback from the Board of Governors on what is needed and to make changes.

As we know, there are a lot of community learning centres for the Northwest Territories that need to be fully taken advantage of. There are all of these different programs that should be delivered at the community level. I will take the Member’s suggestion seriously into consideration. I will be working with the Board of Governors, the chair and also the president to move this forward and identify what changes are required at the regional or community level. I will bring that forward for the Board of Governors. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up on my colleague’s questions on the health care cards and the renewals. I am wondering what the department is doing to commit resources to speeding this process up and the backlog that is currently happening in the system. What is the department doing? The Minister indicated 11,000 have been completed but they are estimating that there is somewhere around 35,000 to 40,000 that have to be completed, so we are only about a quarter of the way done. What is the department committing its resources to speed the process up and make sure it works faster?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Perhaps I wasn’t clear. There are 11,600 until birthdates, until the 16

th of

May of this month, and at that point we had processed approximately 86 percent of those. But right up until the end of 2013 we will have about 38,000 people right from January too. So another 26,000 and some-odd cards, people whose cards will expire from May until December. Then the rest

of the people, the 3,000 or so residents of the NWT, their cards will be expiring in 2014.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

I guess my question is still what kind of resources? Obviously, we as MLAs are getting e-mails, three or four a week from different people that are having difficulty getting renewed. Obviously, the process is not working quickly right now. What resources are we committing to make sure that the process works quicker?

The residents of the Northwest Territories are frustrated right now. Myself and Mrs. Groenewegen have given you several examples today of people who have applied, including myself. My card would have never renewed before my birthday. I had to go to the pharmacy and get it updated. What is the department committing to resources?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

I’m not sure that putting more resources in the Inuvik office, which is responsible for processing the cards, is the answer. Perhaps we could deal with trying to provide them some assistance in the processing of the cards.

The process is that people in Inuvik are dealing with the cards as they come in. They’re processing and sending them to Ontario, they’re being printed, and then they’re being mailed out to the individuals in the Northwest Territories that are to receive health care cards. But if I can commit to the Member that we will contact the Inuvik office and see if the issue is a lack of manpower. If the issue is a lack of manpower, we’re prepared to put some individuals in the office to process the applications. Thank you.

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

As I indicated, some of these applications are going back and being mailed. We’ve looked at the website, and the website seems like it’s very inefficient. So these applications are being returned to people incomplete. Is there not a quicker way, either by phone call or e-mail, or an e-mail on the website that somebody can send information to or their questions to? Obviously, the applications are coming back, people are phoning in, the phone number is not working because half the mailboxes are full when somebody calls and they can’t even leave a message. So I understand maybe the resources and the bodies may not be the answer, but definitely communication systems. Is there a way that we can improve the communications system for residents?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Yes, I think there is a way that we can improve the communication and I will have that discussion with the executive, and they will, in turn, have a discussion with the people that are responsible for making sure that the lines are open when people want to get a hold of information.

The reason that the applications are often returned is an issue of ensuring that people are eligible for health care cards when they apply for it. There is information that is needed on the health care card that guarantees that those individuals are eligible,

and we are trying to comply to previous issues where people that were not eligible for health care were holding NWT health care cards and that was a huge issue. We think that we’ve arrested that issue with this type of diligence, and if that’s causing some further delays, then we will try to address those delays as soon as we can. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Bouchard

Robert Bouchard Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along those lines of communication, what are we doing for the health care centres, the health clinics, the pharmacies, to provide them with information, to provide them with this excellent line of communication? Because that’s where residents, my residents that I talk to, have been going and several residents have been going to get the information. It seems like the pharmacy has a separate line of communication that they can use. What are we doing to assist those groups, those private groups that are basically carrying the ball for the GNWT?

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

It’s no secret that the majority of the issue seems to be focused in on communities outside of Inuvik and outside of Yellowknife. Definitely we are looking at how to close that gap.

Like I indicated, we thought that it was an anomaly that individuals were having issues, but if you look at the numbers, we have a fairly high compliance rate. Most people are not having issues, they are getting their cards on time. We have taken time to ask individuals. There are some in the system that do come forward to MLAs, that indicate that there is a problem. We are trying to address those problems as quickly as possible. But I will touch base with the executive to make sure that if there are simple things that are missing on the application and so on, that they are not returned, that a phone call is made to fill in information that can be filled in with a phone call. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are from earlier today in my Member’s statement, to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Since the Minister promised last February to appoint a health board to the Beaufort-Delta, what steps have been taken to actually reinstate the board? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess aside from having some contact with the MLAs from the Beaufort-Delta, we have not discussed reappointment of a health board with the Aboriginal governments or the other municipal governments in the Beaufort-Delta. We have continued to work with the public administrator in the Beaufort-Delta.

One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason that we’ve continued with this system is we did not have a chief executive officer. Today I’m pleased to announce that the Beaufort-Delta has hired a full-time chief executive officer. That individual has started work there with the public administrator. We figured the public administrator would provide some continuity. The chief executive officer will be coming down to Yellowknife to meet with us and we will talk about plans about what we should do as far as a board goes in the Beaufort-Delta. Thank you.

Frederick Blake Jr.

Frederick Blake Jr. Mackenzie Delta

In speaking to some of the members that sat on the last board, I know one of the major concerns is to have financial experience at the table. With that said, I’d like to ask the Minister what issues stand in the way of getting this board reinstated and why is it taking so long. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The previous board was disbanded. It was for reasons that I’m not totally familiar with at this point. However, one of the requests from the Beaufort-Delta, in speaking to some of the leadership, there was an indication that if we are going to reappoint the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Board, that individuals sitting on that board should have some knowledge, good knowledge of sitting on a board, good knowledge in being able to read financial statements, having some skills to sit on that board, and they’re able to effectively report the workings of the board back to the communities. They said, don’t just pick people to sit on the board; pick people that are going to be functional, that are going to be effective, that are going to improve health services in the Beaufort-Delta. That’s why it’s taking some delay to be able to bring those types of people together.