This is page numbers 2163 - 2198 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 services.

Topics

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Yes.

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Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

There's a line here, medical professional development. I'm not sure exactly what that is. Can the Minister just describe what those funds are for for professional development? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Minister.

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Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The only information I have here is the description on the page that it is a grant to the NWT Medical Association for the professional development of eligible NWT physicians, so I'll ask the deputy minister if he can provide some additional information on this. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Deputy Minister.

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Cooper

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have much to add. This is just part of the support that the department provides to the medical profession. In addition, we also provide physicians with support, as an employer, to engage in medical professional development through our human resources and staffing line. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Member.

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Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Where I'm going with this is: one of the biggest things, in terms of medical treatment and medical services for our small communities, and I guess for all our communities in the territory, is that, if you want to effectively treat somebody or offer them the best service you can, you have to fully understand what their culture is like and what cultures are like in small communities and understand that. I think that would make a lot of our medical professionals better practitioners and help them hone their craft. It's a little tougher if you just insert somebody from the South and put them in, say, a small community and they don't quite understand kind of the ins and outs of that. My next question is: I don't know if this has been asked, but has there been more work done on cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural training in their department? Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Member. Minister.

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Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the department has been working on cultural safety initiatives since the 2013-2014 fiscal year, and what we have focused on, to define what we're talking about with cultural safety, is initiatives that are designed to address inequities experienced by Indigenous residents when accessing our health services, to improve early childhood development indicators, enable seniors to age in place, and increase the number of mental health and addiction program supports. What we want is: we recognize that, because of historic factors, Indigenous people may not be accessing the healthcare system as much as they need to. The Mental Wellness and Addictions Recovery plan addresses this issue, and the specific Caring for Our People Action Plan sets out how we're going to accomplish cultural safety within our healthcare system.

There were a number of pilot activities that the department carried out to try and understand what worked best. They did 13 of these, and they have now finished with their pilot phase and are developing a framework on cultural competency which will be introduced in the Legislative Assembly once it has been endorsed by the NTHSSA leadership council. This is really, in my opinion, well on its way to being embedded in the everyday work of the department that people take this training and they learn about the operating environment from a cultural point of view. What we are looking for as a result of this is that more staff are trained in cultural competency and that patients express greater satisfaction with the services that they have received. When those numbers start to go up, we'll know that we have started to meet our targets in this area. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Member.

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Steve Norn

Steve Norn Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that response. I'll just finish up with a short comment. I think we need to start collaborating more, working with our Indigenous governments and working at the community level. Yes, I support my colleague from Inuvik Twin Lakes on having kind of those buffers to help bridge those cultural gaps, and I'm hoping we see some more work done in that area. Mahsi cho, Mr. Chair.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Member. I'll take that as a comment. Next, we'll go to Mr. Bonnetrouge.

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Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I'm sure the Minister is well aware of my concerns about the local health centre and the staff issues there. Many of my people, my community members, have complained to me about the goings-on within the health centres. They are questioning the competencies and experience of staff, particularly nurse practitioners, the nurses, within the health centre. I'm wondering if there is a bare minimum of qualifications required to work in a small health centre. I wonder if the Minister could enlighten me on that. Mahsi.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Member. Minister.

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Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters

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Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to express some concern about us identifying people who are working in small communities in a limited number of jobs. I don't think it's fair for us to discuss their competence or qualifications in this forum. They are not here to defend themselves. We don't have the level of detail, because this is a high-level departmental budget, to provide that level of information. We have standards for health professionals, standards of education and experience that they have to meet, and there are also professional qualifications that are set out by the Registered Nurses Association and the NWT medical association. This is an area in which we want to provide qualified care, obviously, but I'm not going to be able to discuss the qualifications of people who work in the Member's community. Thank you.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Minister. Yes, and if we could, keep the questions to the line items and to the budget itself. This is not a forum to name people, especially in the smaller communities where everybody knows everybody. Mr. Bonnetrouge.

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Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

Thank you for that, so I will dispense with my line of questioning in this area here. We had concerns that there was no communication with the community at all from any of the workers there, whether it be nurse practitioner, social services, community. There is no interaction with the community whatsoever. Anyways, so that is leading to a lot of problems there. I am just wondering on the next page, page 181, the Child and Family Services items there, I know they have a group out of Yellowknife who provides that service. I am just wondering if there is any future look into having First Nations take over a file like this in the communities. Mahsi.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Member. Minister.

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Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes.Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Assembly of First Nations worked with the federal government to develop a child and family services law that became law in January of 2020, and this provides for sovereignty of First Nations to provide child and family services care. We, the Department of Health and Social Services in the NWT, fully endorse this law and the sovereignty of First Nations to provide this care, and we are more than happy to collaborate with them and with the federal government in having communities take this jurisdiction on and provide child and family services care that meets both the national requirements and local expectations. As I mentioned to the Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, two jurisdictions have expressed an interest in taking this area on, and the federal government does have money to assist these jurisdictions with capacity to negotiate and create their own regime. This is an area that we are very interested in seeing develop over the next few years. Thank you.

Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Minister. Member.

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Ronald Bonnetrouge

Ronald Bonnetrouge Deh Cho

[Microphone turned off] ...questions.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

As there are no further questions, please turn to page 180. Health and Social Services, health and social programs, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $337,150,000. Does the committee agree?

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Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

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The Chair

The Chair Rocky Simpson

Thank you. Long-term and continuing care services, beginning on page 184, with information items on page 187. Questions? Ms. Semmler.