This is page numbers 2121 - 2162 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 health.

Topics

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to hear the answers. I look forward to, going forward, what the department comes up with. It's not just for truckers. When we are finished with COVID, we are going to have visitors up here, and we get the same complaints during the summer time. We just have to look at a better way of handling it. Whether we need one at every pullout, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how often people have to go to the washroom. I'm sure not too many times between the border and Yellowknife. Whatever works, I am willing to listen to solutions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Again, this is another time where this is a whole-of-government approach. We have ITI that does the wayside parks and Infrastructure that does the highway pullouts. Again, we are conscious that there needs to be a solution, and it needs to be ready and in place before the season begins so that we are not having to have this conversation every budget session in January or February. I will certainly commit to the fact that the plan can be laid out a little more clearly, and we will make sure to do that, as I say, well in advance of the season of next year. In the meantime, regular cleaning every two weeks, regular monitoring by one or the other department, we'll sort that out, will be happening. If, in fact, there are truckers or others trying to use the facilities in the next while and they are having difficulty, to the extent that it's because of COVID-19, there are 811 numbers, and to the extent that it's other matters, we certainly will take those inquiries and figure out a solution. They are essential workers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Question 595-19(2): Aftercare and Supportive Housing
Oral Questions

February 25th, 2021

Page 2128

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The department's business plan identifies that they are working to develop after-care programming with the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation. I am wondering where the department is at with this work and how soon we can expect to see a made-in-the-North after-care program that includes supportive housing. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. The department does, indeed, have a mandate commitment to establish nine transitional housing units for individuals returning from addictions treatment. The timeline on this commitment is completion by fall of 2023. Work is under way. The jurisdictional scan, research into best practices, and the scan of existing services have all been completed. These pieces of work will be used to inform the development of an NWT model for these transitional homes. To achieve an item of this nature, we need to work in an integrated manner with my colleagues in housing, ECE, MACA, and Justice. The department is currently designing an intradepartmental approach to the development of this model, and the development of the model is anticipated to happen next month followed by consultation with stakeholders through the spring. The model will then be finalized and put in place for planning purposes by the summer of this year. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

I am wondering if this review that the Minister is speaking of will also include supportive living for people with mental health and addictions but also their families, supportive living directed towards families?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Specific programs for individuals with mental health and addictions is out-of-scope for this supportive living review that the Member referenced. However, we do recognize that individuals may have co-occurring disorders. That is to say, they may be disabled and also have an addiction, and that will certainly be considered in the main work around mental health and addictions recovery.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

I hope that will include families, as well, because people with mental health and addictions and disabilities and addictions are also parents, and coming by supports for families in the North is a very big challenge for people. One of the priorities of the 19th Assembly is to increase the number and variety of culturally respectful community-based mental health and addictions programs, including after-care by providing services for individuals with addictions, such as Wellbriety and AA programming. This is to reduce the number of returns to treatments and increase the length of time between treatments, as well. The timeline identified for this deliverable was spring 2021 for that work to begin. I'm wondering, what improvements to after-care support services can residents expect to see in 2021, and do these improvements include supports for families or after-care for supports for families? Does it include matrix programming, or does it include life skill development, as well?

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

That was about 10 questions. I'll do what I can here. Certainly, the department is on track to deliver a number of programs at this point. We are preparing to roll out our peer support program, which provides money on an application basis to communities to set up things like AA and Wellbriety groups to assist people in retaining their sobriety. This work is on target, and we'll start on April 1st of this year.

In addition to that, the department continues to work with Indigenous governments and Indigenous government organizations to assist them in accessing the On-the-Land Healing Fund. Of course, we know that that has a wellness and addictions treatment focus and is a flexible fund that can include families and after-care as a focus. That fund has been in place since 2014-2015. The funding is available during each fiscal year, so there will be a new opportunity to obtain funding after April 1st of this year.

There is work going on to establish a managing alcohol program in the NWT as well as a model for better access to detox at the community level, that is to say, outside of the hospitals. The timing on this commitment, these two commitments, managed alcohol and medical detox, are to be completed by 2023. It's anticipated that, even though some of these items are not going to be implemented immediately, they will be in development, and if they can be expedited, that will certainly happen. I think that what's really important to understand in this area, and I'm sure my colleague is aware of, is that these are big and complex issues. It takes time to address them. We are working through the issues that we know need to be addressed and to improve the quality of the services that we provide. As I say, if we can get to them sooner than we think, of course, we will.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I apologize for my wordiness. I'm trying very hard to concentrate, but all the talk of toilets from Mr. Simpson, I regret the water I drank today. Will the Minister commit to working with the Department of Justice to bring together after-care support team that focuses on wellness for all NWT residents that are returning from institutional care back to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

After-care support is, obviously, a shared responsibility. We talked about transitional housing and how we would need to partner with ECE, Justice, MACA and housing in order to bring those transitional housing units to life with appropriate programming. We would certainly be continuing our relationship with Justice on services like the Wellness Court and integrated case management as well as the integrated service delivery initiative. I think what I need to understand from the Member is more specifically how having yet another level of integrated service would serve clients more effectively than the services that we already have either in place or in development, how they would be different and why it would be valuable to put yet another layer of integration into place. What I will commit to doing is to having further conversations with the Member to understand what she's proposing and the value that it would add to the work already under way, and I'm available to do that at her convenience. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to follow-up with some questions about outhouse facilities between the border and Yellowknife because I've had the displeasure of using some of those back in January myself, coming back. I don't want to get into all the dirty details here, Mr. Speaker. Look, I raised this five years ago in the house with the previous Minister of ITI. Photographs were shared from other members of the public, and it was very distressing to see this. I see from the COVID-19 statistics report that, peak periods, there's 1,200 vehicles going through every two weeks. Having these facilities cleaned out once every two weeks is just not going to cut it, Mr. Speaker. What is the Minister prepared to do about this now? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, when we prepare for session, when you prepare through the year, this is something that I had flagged even before we came into session. It is something that the deputy minister of ITI, deputy minister of Infrastructure are already working on together. They know it is an issue. As I've said earlier, I was not here five years ago, and I certainly didn't have the awareness that this became an issue. It is an issue. It happens every year. It happened every year, every time the facilities freeze up. The Wayside Parks fall under ITI. The roadside pullouts fall under Infrastructure. Yet, between the two, I fully acknowledge that we come here every year and face this issue.

The two departments are now working together. The two departments have just been told, thanks to the questions asked earlier, that I expect a plan. I expect that my colleague is likely going to feel the same, lest she have to stand and answer the same series of questions. Between the two departments, we're going to come out with a plan together so that we don't have to come back year over year. I realize doing this every two weeks is difficult and arguably not enough, not sufficient, but let's figure out what is sufficient, what is the problem, where are the issues. I don't have that information. Is it every single facility? Is it the Infrastructure facilities? Is it the ITI facilities? Is it used because of COVID? Is it increased use or reduced use with COVID? I don't have that information. We are going to get it. We are going to have a plan. We are not going to be answering questions next year during budget session about outhouses, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Kevin O'Reilly

Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake

I just want to quote something from Hansard, June 2, 2020. Gee, that's a little over a year ago. Me saying this in the House, Mr. Speaker: "If the Minister digs down into her pile from the previous Assembly, she will see that there were a number of complaints about the 60th parallel outhouse in particular. I don't know what it was like this spring, but there were photos sent to me. They were shared with the previous ITI Minister. The Minister made a commitment to try to improve the cleaning regimen, so I don't know whatever happened, but if the Minister digs down far enough in her pile, she'll find all of that in files with her department, I'm sure." That was more than a year ago with a previous Minister. This has been flagged a number of times in this House. Why can't the Minister just amend the contract and double the cleaning regimen so that it's at least done once a week right now?

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

I'm not going to double a contract on the floor of the House. That's not an appropriate way to solve this problem, but I am going to solve this problem because it is a year-over-year problem. I completely agree. I am happy to be put in my place and on my heels on this one. That's fine. I have committed to coming up with a plan. I am committing to coming up with a solution, whether it is because we have increased cleaning regimes, whether it's because we have increased monitoring of the various facilities, whether it's both. I'm not sure. If it's just the 60th parallel, that's easier. Those are the kinds of things that I need to have information about, so we can make a targeted and quick assessment and solve the problem immediately.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

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

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this month, I gave a Member's statement about the men's A New Day program. It's a healing and wellness program for men who use violence in their intimate relationships. I am under the understanding that the existing contract for this program is up next month, and I am wondering if the Minister of Justice can please let us know what the plans are for this program. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister of Justice.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With all the talk about outhouses and A New Day program, it feels like I am back in the 18th Assembly. As the Member noted, the contract for A New Day program was a four-year contract that ends at the end of March. The Department of Justice will not be renewing that contract. The contractor has been informed of this. The plan is to transform the program into more of a community-driven model and making that money available on an application basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Does the Minister have any information as to when this money will be made available or when the terms of reference will be available, as well?