This is page numbers 4327 – 4378 of the Hansard for the 17th 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 health.

Topics

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about the issue of repatriation. That is, northern residents in southern placements. Over the years we have spoken of this often. We have often calculated how many northern residents are in southern institutions. We call them southern placements for a variety and a number of reasons with different types of challenges.

I think that from time to time we need to review that list and that expense for many reasons. For one thing, if we can have Northerners in the North, that’s a good thing. If Northerners in the North need to be looked after, having other Northerners look after them, that’s a good thing. It brings Northerners closer to their families where there is a different type of support. It possibly creates employment in the Northwest Territories, and there are just a whole lot of reasons why it is best, if we can, to have these folks in the Northwest Territories.

I recognize and realize that there are sometimes very specialized needs that residents have that there is no solution other than a southern placement in order to most effectively address the needs of a client, but I think that this is something that we need to constantly be monitoring and watching, because I think that when front-line workers run into situations where they need help and support, and perhaps accommodation for an individual sometimes if it’s not readily available in the North, the quickest thing is to refer that client to a southern institution, and once they’re in that southern institution, I would hate to think that out of sight is out of mind and that perhaps it’s easy to put that cheque in the mail every month to that institution where that person is being cared for.

I would like to explore today in question period a little with the Minister of Health and Social Services what types of services that are being procured for our residents in the South that might be possibilities for repatriating to the Northwest Territories with a longer view than just the immediate need of the client and to a bigger picture kind of view.

I’ll have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services later today.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for the Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Hiking The Canol Trail
Members’ Statements

March 10th, 2014

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For the past eight years and hopefully this summer, in July, people will tell us to take a hike, and I say I’m glad to. I hike along the Canol Heritage Trail. I hike with the young people. We’ve been doing it for the last eight years. Why take the hike? Why go with them?

I look at this and I say, well, what’s the experience? From this experience, what will help the youth today? We go out to the Canol Trail, someplace, maybe at Mile 15, maybe at Mile 70, maybe at Mile 222, but we take one of these locations and we go out with the youth and we give them the opportunity once every year, maybe once in a lifetime, to come out and experience life on the land of the yesterdays and see how this experience will help them. They need help in all kinds of ways today because of such an enormous amount of challenges facing them.

This experience helps them with the value of teamwork and learning how to work together, how to survive on the land, what areas to look for to camp, how to gather wood in the rain, to make fire in the rain, how to cook for themselves, even to wash dishes, what kind of wood to get, and know that the sticks are not going to get off the ground and make their way to the fire. They have to get up and get the sticks to put them on the fire because there’s nobody there to do it for them, or to get water, but the values they learn as young people are enormous, and their potential.

You know what? After the hike, these young people are so beautiful. They’re so rich and so strong, and all they need is guidance from older people. I’m looking forward to the ninth annual hike to learn more with them, to learn with them, and having some of my colleagues that hopefully will be on the trip with me to hike this year. This will be the ninth annual leadership hike with the youth in the Sahtu, and I’m hoping that, again, we’ll have some more youth coming out with us to experience life and that this experience will do them wonders in life.

So, Mr. Speaker, certainly this summer I will take a hike.

Hiking The Canol Trail
Members’ Statements

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We heard from some of my colleagues last week that negotiations between the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the Hay River DEA to swap schools in Hay River have broken down. Not only has the Hay River District Education Authority withdrawn but so has the Commission scolaire francophone.

The solution proposed by the GNWT, while workable, just did not provide for a good learning environment for either Ecole Boreale or Harry Camsell School students in Hay River.

The situation in Yellowknife is no better. Negotiations are on hold while Education District No. 1 consults with their parents and other

stakeholders. There will obviously not be any resolution in Yellowknife prior to the upcoming court date, noted by the Minister last week.

It has been almost two years since the NWT Supreme Court ordered the Government of the Northwest Territories to provide the necessary expansions to both Ecole Allain St-Cyr and Ecole Boreale. Since June 2012 the commission has been unable to take any actions to upgrade or expand their two schools in Yellowknife and Hay River. The Government of the Northwest Territories continues to appeal court decisions time and time again. It’s a costly venture for both the commission and the GNWT, and it does not allow for any advancement. Who loses out? The students, Mr. Speaker.

It is time for this government to bite the bullet, to accept the decision and accommodation ordered by the court and start planning for two capital projects: expansion of Ecole Boreale and expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr. In the grand scheme of our budget, the $28 million cost to expand these two schools is not a lot of money. The Commission scolaire and their students and parents should not have to wait any longer. Members know how long the capital planning process takes. It has been two years already. If planning for additions to these schools starts now for the 2015-16 capital year, it will be at least another two years before the construction is complete, if at all even started.

The government has to give up on the court appeals and start to implement the court-ordered decision. All groups involved in this problem have tried to find solutions. It has been a lot of hard work on the part of many people. But the government has to realize now that their plan, the swapping of schools, is not going to come to fruition. They have to realize that they must move on to plan B or plan C before we have another two years of inaction.

I will have questions for the Minister later on. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to support my colleague Mr. Menicoche in this little micro theme day statement here.

Often I hear from people who are trying to apply for jobs and they’re screened out for various reasons, some that make sense and some that just want you to bang your head against the wall. In some cases, we hear they’re screened out and they only get the news long after the job has been awarded and the appeal period is long past. At this point, of course, they have no rights to appeal because they weren’t screened in, and often these people are screened

out. Why? Because they didn’t have the official university degree or college diploma it boldly says right on the top, but sometimes it also says on the bottom that if you have experience, demonstrate that.

The calls I get always say it seems to matter little. They show that they have 10, 15, 20 and even 25 years of hardworking experience, but to them it appears that if you don’t have the academics, don’t even bother.

This is frustrating, because I know, and everybody in this building knows, skills, training, education, experience are absolutely critical. No doubt about that. No one is trying to sell it for any less. But no one is suggesting that we take a first aid attendant and give him a shot at being a doctor. What we’re trying to do is giving meaningful people a meaningful opportunity, but oftentimes we hear, oh no, you don’t have a certificate; you need not apply.

A lot of good people fall through the system because it’s almost like the door is shut before they even get a chance to open it. So rather than use that as a distraction, let us finally realize that there are many paths to the same destination. We could work with people who have great, dedicated, northern experience. I believe strongly, and Member Menicoche believes strongly, we have to get our people working. That’s our focus. I know that’s my focus and that’s his focus; it would be nice to see it be the government’s focus.

In the end, I often hear stories like this. I got a call a little while ago about an Aboriginal woman who had some difficult choices early in her life, but she got a break and her break led her to a job. She has got 20 years of experience. She applies for a job, but no advancing. Why? Because in some ways, in her eyes, she’s being punished by 20 years ago a choice she had to make, a choice I wouldn’t want to be forced to make, one she had to make on her own. But how do we help her move forward? Not this system. What system then?

Myself and Mr. Menicoche believe really strongly that we’ve got to provide all Northerners, Aboriginal, women and everyone, a fair shot. Just because they don’t have the technical credibility of a university certificate doesn’t mean 20 years of experience is a waste of time. We can do better; let’s start doing it. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 6, acknowledgements. Mr. Yakeleya.

Norman Yakeleya

Norman Yakeleya Sahtu

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mrs. Patricia Modeste from Deline, who was chosen for the 2014 Wise Woman Award for the Sahtu.

Mrs. Modest is known for her kind heart and dedication towards helping our community. She is a well-known lady who likes to laugh and get things done when needed. She deserves this award, as do the other recipients.

On behalf of the Sahtu region, I congratulate Patricia and her family in Deline and to keep up the great work you’re doing for your community and people and remember to rest too. Mahsi cho.

---Applause

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’m aware that the Minister and his department have been doing some very good work on reviewing a lot of files within their mandate and I’d like to ask the Minister if he could put in some context either the number of clients or the kind of money that we spend as a territorial government to support clients that require southern placement at this time. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I actually can’t remember the exact number of clients that we had in there. I actually just talked about it a couple of days ago when we were having our budget dialogue, but it is about 100 adults and about 100 youth, give or take. We know it’s incredibly expensive. During the last round of supps, I asked for $2.5 million for youth and another I think it was $2.5 million or $2.6 million for adults. So there is a significant cost. There’s multi-millions of dollars a year.

I take the Member’s point from her statement where we need to dig into these files and review them and see if there’s any opportunity to repatriate and I’ve already directed that the department do that. They’re going to do a file-by-file review and where there are similar clients with similar needs and

there’s a business case for repatriating a block of them, it’s something that we’d like to explore and I’m certainly willing to work with committee on that. Thank you.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

The number of clients in southern placements, adult and children and the types of placements that they are in, I understand, are probably fairly varied, but I’d like to ask the Minister, and I know he hasn’t been in the department that long, but at his first analysis on maybe a high level, is there anything that jumps out, is there anything that stands out that may be a type of southern placement that could be repatriated to the Northwest Territories? For example, in Hay River we have the assisted living facility. A lot of the clients in that facility were in southern placements prior to this. So, is there a type of care that initially stands out that the Minister could identify where we, as Northern communities could think about accommodating? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

My initial discussions with the department, we’re looking for a similar type case where we have individuals with similar needs, but we do know right now that there’s a huge variety of residents in the Northwest Territories. We have some residents who require 24/7 care with multiple individuals and others that are more in the independent setting, but require significant medical supports. So at this time I’m not prepared to say that we have found a catchment, a group of individuals who have similar challenges that we may be able to repatriate up here, but I have directed the department to do a case-by-case review. As we do that, we’ll start to be able to see what, if any, similarities exist and where an opportunity exists we will certainly be having that discussion with committee and I hope to have the information available. We expect it to take about a year to do a review of every file. Thank you.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

That was going to be my next question is when we might begin to see the results of the review of those files to see where there might be some economies and would make some sense to a business case scenario and, also, we know there’s a human factor to this, as well, to bring some of these folks home.

In the interests of decentralization and the fact that there may be communities out there that would be interested in accommodating, whether it be a group home or an assisted living facility or maybe something even more specialized, how will the results of this work be communicated so that if there are communities who would like to express interest in being involved in a plan to accommodate these folks, how will that be communicated in such a way?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Before any decisions are made, we do need to understand the caseload, the client load, and the individuals that may be able

to be repatriated. I intend to share that information with committee and we can have a discussion on what might be the most appropriate location and how we, as an Assembly, decide where we want to invest our dollars, remembering that we want to keep people as close to home if we can find a way, and we have residents from all over the Territories, so there might be multiple opportunities here.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary. Mrs. Groenewegen.

Jane Groenewegen

Jane Groenewegen Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. There are opportunities, I think, for regional facilities and that would accommodate keeping people closer to home and it would also maybe create the need for smaller-type facilities but more home-like where possible. I really don’t have any more questions.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Just a comment. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What precipitated my Member’s statement today and my oral questions was as a result of a search on our government careers website. Recently there was posted an advanced territorial support medical coordinator and an emergency medical dispatcher. When you look on the job description, it does mention to help emergency medical evacuation services including medevac triage, coordinating dispatching and repatriation of services. This prompted me to talk about it in my Member’s statement today, but, more importantly, to have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

In less than three weeks, Med-Response is going to go live. Can the Minister indicate what is the research basis for this new program and how is this program intended to improve what I talked about earlier, our current situation?

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health. Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Mr. Speaker, a significant amount of research has been done on this particular file. It started off with a different name many years ago, the Territorial Support Network. We’ve had physicians from across the North and we’ve had some real strong champions for this particular approach, and we have looked at other jurisdictions. This is going to give the community health care workers in the communities one point of contact for all medical emergencies, medevacs, all of those types of situations as opposed to what we’ve experienced in the past where every authority had their own plan, their own reporting mechanism, which often and was capable of

leading to some real confusion out there with respect to coordinating all of these activities for the best interests of the patients. This will coordinate everything into one contact point.

Daryl Dolynny

Daryl Dolynny Range Lake

Can the Minister indicate what the department’s position is on the provision of medevac flights to emergency extractions on our NWT highway system? Last time I asked this question with the previous Health Minister we didn’t have a clear policy. Can the Minister indicate, has this changed?

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

The Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of MACA are working together on a ground and highway rescue strategy. This particular EMR response tool is with respect to direct contact out of health centres to the regional centres, and we can coordinate things like medevacs out of there, but they will be going to the communities where there are airports as coordinated by the on-site people, the coordinator in the EMR office and a dispatcher in the EMR office. It will not be dispatching airplanes or helicopters to highway situations.