This is page numbers 4545 – 4588 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 services.

Topics

Tom Beaulieu

Tom Beaulieu Tu Nedhe

The department does buy all fuel at wholesale. We do try to look for the best wholesale price. Having said that, I am not able to answer the Member’s question. I don’t have the information of what our anticipated fuel costs would be going into the future.

What we do is we have the trends that we recognize that fuel goes up and down on a daily basis and then slowly inching upward, but we recognize that the wholesale purchase this year compared to the wholesale purchase last year was substantially higher this year. Therefore, there were increases of up to 19 cents, 20 cents on a litre of gasoline, fuel products and so on this year over last year.

Unfortunately, going into the future, I don’t have that information with me, but I would be willing to provide that to the Member if I can get that from the organization that works on that for us.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to welcome my daughter Chelsey into the House. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has provided me with a briefing note. The Minister has provided me with some stats. The Minister has provided me with some further information, and oddly enough, all these three pieces of information conflict with each other. I’ve talked to the people in the community of Paulatuk and their information conflicts with all three pieces even further.

I’d like to ask the Minister of the Housing Corporation who is doing these particular assessments on these units, what is their qualification, what are their competencies and when were the assessments of these units in Paulatuk last done to know that they’re up to date, because the condition ratings given to me in these pieces of paper are not what’s actually on the ground, and I would challenge him to say that they’re being done by qualified, professional people who can make these proper assessments.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister responsible for Housing, Mr. R.C. McLeod.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a lot of confidence in our LHO maintenance ability to do these condition ratings. We do have some training with them. The latest batch of condition ratings would have been completed as of March 31, 2014. Out of the 2,160 units across the NWT, we’ve got 2,146 that have been completed. They were completed as of March 31, and again, we do have a tremendous amount of confidence in our LHO maintenance staff’s ability to do these condition ratings as they have been doing them for a while.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I’m glad we have confidence in these people who deliver the program, because somebody who, obviously, we have confidence in

said all the molding material was removed, area was treated, new material was installed, and by the way, that’s the fall of 2014. There is conflicting information with this work done. I’m speaking to people in the community. The Housing Corporation owns 75 percent of the housing units. There is nowhere else to go. They’re deplorable.

Will the Minister step this up and do an evaluation of all the housing in Paulatuk, because there are no options and nowhere to go, and people are living in unhealthy, unsanitary conditions there that need to be addressed now.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

Two of our units in the community are very good, but I will commit to going in there and doing an assessment. We have people from our district office going up there all the time and working with the community, and some of the numbers may be different because the numbers that we use are the assets that we control. There may be some homeownership units that are in there that the residents might be counting amongst our units because Housing would have been responsible for building those units in the first place, but at the end of the day they’re homeownership units.

I will follow up and make sure that all of the information that we have is current and up to date, and I will share it with the Member as well as the MLA for Nunakput. Thank you.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Back to my very first question, I will accept that as an offer, but back to my first question. I want to find out what competencies that these people who are going to go in there and do these particular assessments. I suspect that the everyday person can spot mould, but are they aware of what type of mould it is and how dangerous it is?

We have overcrowding in that community and we have zero options. We own 60 of the 80 units in that town and there’s nowhere to go, but there are nine sitting empty with nothing being done, but your information provided to me says there’s only three. So we need to find out what’s actually happening on the ground. What is the Minister prepared to do?

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

As I said before, I’m prepared to confirm all of those numbers, any information. I’ll confirm the nine units, whether some of them are homeownership units that may have been just lumped together with our own assets.

As far as the mould issue goes and the competency, again, our folks on the ground, because there are more and more issues with mould, there are many remediations, and that we try to communicate to the residents of the communities, but once we identify a unit with mould, we either try to remediate it, or in some

cases where it’s not being able to be remediated, we will dispose of the unit.

Again, I will confirm all that information and make sure all of the information correlates and I will share that with the Members. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re getting somewhere on this file and I want to be very clear. Will the Minister send proper professionals with appropriate credentials to go and assess those particular units, not send some secretary in there to walk out or some administrative assistant to walk in there, count heads, count bodies, whatever the case may be to say is your unit well. I want competent professionals that can go in there, assess them properly, develop a plan with the community and show them that the housing issues matter to them. Because right now I’m getting calls that there’s an oil spill in that town, people don’t know what’s going on, they see pads all over the ground, it’s springtime. That means that fuel could be going anywhere. We need to ensure that this community is safe and taken care of. Thank you.

Robert C. McLeod

Robert C. McLeod Inuvik Twin Lakes

I can assure the Member that this community is safe and is taken care of. As with every other community, there are small issues that we have to deal with from time to time. As far as the mould goes, our folks in the community are getting more educated on mould and its effects. If they see mould and they need a further opinion, we do have folks in the district offices now that have taken mould identification and remediation training. We will send them to the community as we did with another community in the Beau-Del where we heard in the community meeting that they had some issues with mould. The very next day we had one of our folks go in there that just completed the training, and I haven’t heard the latest out of that yet, but we’re looking forward to seeing that.

Again, I mean, I will make sure that in dealing with these issues that all those folks are qualified, and if there is some identification that they’re unable to work with, then they will call in the appropriate people. We’re not sending secretaries or administrative assistants into these units to do the condition ratings. All of our LHO maintenance people are qualified. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions of the Minister for Health and Social Services about infant hearing programs in the NWT. I know we

have an Infant Hearing Program and I guess my question to the Minister is if he could explain to me so that I’m truly clear on what we have.

What is the content of our Infant Hearing Program and when was it first started in the NWT? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A universal newborn hearing screening program was introduced as part of the GNWT’s Early Childhood Development Action Plan, 2001-2004. Stanton, the audiology department there has been delivering the universal newborn hearing screening program since June 2004, which is called the IHP, or the Infant Hearing Program.

This program is delivered at all birthing centres in the Northwest Territories and aims to identify infants with permanent hearing loss by the time they’re three months old and provide the necessary services to support communication development by the time they’re six months of age.

Since beginning the IHP, more than 3,650 newborn babies have been screened for hearing loss, and this is as of March 31, 2013. Since 2005, the IHP has tracked outcomes and produced an annual outcome indicator report.

As indicated, in addition to the IHP, children are screened for hearing impairments during routine development screening or the well-baby clinics throughout the Northwest Territories. So, currently all babies in the Northwest Territories have access to screening for hearing loss or difficulties in the Northwest Territories. All babies. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. I guess I’m just not exactly sure, my understanding is that this is a voluntary service that parents do not have to have their kids tested at birth.

So I’d like to know from the Minister, he said that the program runs in all birthing centres, but that presumably means that if a child is born, for instance, in Alberta, they have to go to Edmonton to be born, if they’re not screened there, when they come back here do we know whether or not they’ve been screened?

Can the Minister confirm to me or give me some assurance that every child in the NWT, any newborn child, whether they’re a week old or five minutes old, are screened for hearing loss? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

Thank you. Babies born in the Northwest Territories utilize the IHP program here that we have in the Northwest Territories. As far as NWT residents that are born outside of the Northwest Territories, I can’t say that they are receiving the IHP because I don’t know

what programs exist in other jurisdictions. But I can say that through health clinics and health processes here in the Northwest Territories we do have well-baby clinics, and hearing loss is one of the things that’s assessed for parents and babies. So if somebody is born out of the Northwest Territories and comes back and goes to a well-baby clinic, they will get the same assessment. Thank you.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks to the Minister. Some of the information that I have indicates that we try to identify children or infants with permanent hearing loss. My concern goes to infants who have some hearing loss, because some hearing loss is going to impact kids as much as permanent hearing loss.

So to the Minister, if we have a child with some hearing loss as opposed to permanent hearing loss, do we follow up with supports and with treatment? Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

There are a wide range of degrees of hearing loss that children may experience. Regardless of the hearing loss identified, rehabilitation services are provided. So hearing aid prescriptions and other types of things, fitting. There’s also speech-language pathology which is available and will help individuals who have some degree of hearing loss. So there are programs available to youth, children and babies in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks again to the Minister. My last question goes to the staff that he was just talking about, the speech-language pathologists and the audiologists. In my time here I have learned that we have great difficulty often in filling both of those positions because they’re very specialized.

So can the Minister tell me whether or not all the positions that we have identified – staff members of speech-language pathologists and/or audiologists – are those positions filled right now and where are they located? I’m presuming that most of them are centralized as opposed to being in the regions. Thank you.

Glen Abernethy

Glen Abernethy Great Slave

These are hard to recruit positions and I don’t actually know the status today of the individual positions, which ones are vacant, which ones are not, but I’ll be happy to provide that information to the Member and committee right away. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Being that we’re wearing these purple boutonnieres today to raise awareness about elder abuse, I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I also just want to thank him for supplying this to raise that awareness today in the House.

When we send some of our senior population out for medical services, whether they go to Edmonton or come to Yellowknife, does the department or the health authorities monitor our senior population when they travel outside of the Yellowknife or from the small communities to Yellowknife? How do they monitor their clients to make sure they are making their appointments or just being in a safe environment without any harm and making sure they get to their appointments on time in a safe manner and that they are taken care of from their point of departure to arrival back to the communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.