This is page numbers 3361 - 3382 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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.

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Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I guess my next question is as part of the review of the Employment Standards Act, is that information the department could try and find out; could we engage with some of the small businesses who are not offering paid sick days and see kind of where we are at in order to close this gap? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Any changes to the Employment Standards Act, especially potential changes that could cost small businesses money, will be the subject of extensive consultation and discussion with small businesses. I do not want to do anything that is going to put a heavier burden on small businesses than they're already carrying. So I can guarantee the Member that we will have extensive consultations on these points. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Oral Question 885-19(2): Home Care Support in Communities
Oral Questions

December 9th, 2021

Page 3369

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn't have a chance to ask my questions yesterday so my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Can the Minister state or commit to provide the estimated financial savings from decreasing the size of the long-term care facility from 48 to 16 beds? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. We have some loose ends in this project which we need to tie up before we can provide a specific dollar estimate of the savings.

The analysis that's underway right now is whether it is feasible to attach an extension to the current long-term care at the Inuvik Regional Hospital or whether it would be more effective to build a standalone facility. So this is something that engineering and geotechnical work is looking at evaluating. We do, because we've gone from 48 beds to 16 beds, in any case expect some reduction in the cost, but the amount of that is hard to quantify right at the moment. Thank you.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order to reduce the demand for the larger regional long-term care facilities, support for elders are going to be needed to be provided in their homes. So can the Minister commit to use the financial savings to provide the support or build that capacity within the communities, in the small communities for elders? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a bit of an apples and oranges situation because we don't usually take funds dedicated to capital projects and move them into operations and maintenance. So even if there was savings on the capital project, it would be spent on other capital projects, whether for health or some other kind of development.

It's important to know that we get a chunk of funding from the federal government from the First Nations and Inuit home and community care funding, and what happens here is that the regional health and social services authorities identify the resources they need to meet what we already see is growing home care needs and we evaluate those for additional resourcing. Thank you.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know in the health centres the nurses that we hire, or CHNs, I've said it in the House, they have many roles that they play in the communities and home care is just one little part that is added to all of their emergency, everything else that they do.

So can the Minister provide how many positions have been created in each -- in Inuvik in each of the seven Beaufort Delta communities to support the establishment of home care and home support workers available seven days a week for elders to age in place? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, following the home and community care review, which was completed and presented to the Members of the Standing Committee on Social Development in the summer of 2020, we've invested in oversight for home support workers to try and develop standards and scope of practice for these positions. So we've been looking at, for example, what kind of clinical supports people need who have complex needs, expanded hours of service as the Member mentioned, and how to meet the needs of the growing population of people who prefer to age in place.

In the Beaufort Delta region in particular, there is funding for two regional home care coordinator roles. But at this point, we have not added incremental positions to provide extra hours of service, but that is coming. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd ask when, but I don't want to use my last question for that. So can the Minister identify or provide the total cost of equipment that's been provided to -- oh, sorry. I switched that question up yesterday, because I knew I wouldn't get an answer.

Can the Minister commit that the Department of Health and Social Services will assess all elders' homes, as well as the homes that have elders living with them in the Beaufort Delta communities, or all NWT communities, small communities, for their equipment needs and work with the NWT Housing Corporation for their access needs in order to help them continue to age in place? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, next year we're going to implement a system called Interride, which I'm sure the Member is familiar with. It's an international assessment tool that assesses people for the kinds of needs they have, the services that they require, and the resources they need to meet their needs. And so this is going to be introduced and implemented for the whole population who requires supported living of some kind. And that will enable the health planner, that we have recently hired, to develop a plan about how to meet these needs, what kind of funding is required, where the needs are most urgent, and how to go about meeting them.

So this is a very systematic evidence-based decision-making assessment tool that will tell us what people need, when they need it, where they need it, and I'm really looking forward to the results so that we have a concrete way of making decisions about supporting people to age in place. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you, Minister -- I mean Mr. Speaker. Okay, for the Health and Social Services. Many NWT residents have voiced that they want mental wellness and addiction recovery support in their own communities. Currently, most of the positions for this work is located in Yellowknife. But what plans are underway to increase more staff in the regions?

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Member for that question. The focus recently in Health and Social Services has been to provide community-based funds that have specific applications for services and programs that communities or Indigenous governments, in some cases municipal governments and NGOs, can apply for to create service delivery in their communities.

So this year we announced an addictions recovery and aftercare fund which can be accessed for hiring community-based counsellors, and those counsellors could support two kinds of projects:

Projects that support individuals living in or working towards addictions recovery; and,

Projects that support addictions recovery and aftercare programming in the community.

So this has been a very popular fund. 13 proposals received so far. And just at a quick scan of this list, I don't see that there is one from Tlicho community services agency but certainly one would be welcomed.

We have other community-based programs. I won't go through them all but I'll just say there's a peer support fund; there's a suicide prevention fund; and there's the on-the-land healing fund.

The purpose of these funds in general are all the same which is to provide community-based responses to issues that people identify. Thank you.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you. In the field of mental health and addictions, we often hear that we must meet people where they are at. Are there outreach workers in each community? Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the community has used the funds that I'm talking about to hire counsellors, there may, in fact, be someone in place who does addictions outreach, otherwise that would be a function of the community counselling service that exists in either in-person, virtual, or telephone form everywhere throughout the NWT. So community counselling is the place to go for immediate same-day follow-up.

I also wanted to mention that where communities have connectivity, we have a mobile phone app called Wagon, W-A-G-O-N, which is an interactive aftercare and recovery app which is available to residents who would like to try it out and engage with the supports that are provided. This was developed by the Edgewood institution in Nanaimo, BC, which many Northerners have visited for their addictions -- for the facilities-based addictions treatment. Thank you.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you. Can the Minister identify what specific community-based programming is in place now to support people struggling with addictions between the age of 20 to 40 years old?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. I just went over the general list, the community counselling program, which I just mentioned, and the fact that it is now transformed into a same-day service. There are child and youth care counsellors which are offered jointly with ECE in the schools which provide support to youth. There are the E-mental health options which I just mentioned, Wagon, but there are others. There are facilities-based addictions treatment. There are no facilities in the NWT so these are facilities in the south which we contract and people attend.

We have psychiatric care and treatment available in the Northwest Territories. We have the NWT Help Line to call with immediate needs. And then I'll just mention again the three specific funds:

  • On-the-land healing;
  • Community suicide prevention; and,
  • Addictions recovery peer support.

Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you. How does the Department of Health and Social Services work with other department to provide wraparound supports to people in their 20s to 40s -- 40 years old struggling with addictions such as child care, counselling, career coaching, income assistance, etcetera. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. Providing those wraparound supports is very important. It's not just the work of one department; it is often the work of many departments. And I'll give an example:

Right now, we're asking for an expression of interest in transitional housing for people who are exiting facility-based treatment and require a place to live while they maintain their sobriety and build up some stamina in that area. So we're working with the Housing Corporation on that. We work with ECE on issues like income assistance. We work with Justice. This is really a cross-departmental approach.

As the Minister of Justice said earlier today about the therapeutic community at the South Slave correctional centre, this is a place where people can obtain their sobriety while serving their sentence and can then move into a continuum of service which includes not only Justice but as I say, Housing, ECE, and Health. So this is an area that's new. It's one that we're developing and we're very keen to receive feedback on. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.