EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Mr. Speaker, the need for more medical personnel in the community of Baker Lake is an issue that I have raised on a number of occasions in this House.
Most recently I have been made aware of a significant shortfall in the level of staffing at the Baker Lake Health Centre, which forced it to be closed for emergencies only.
The staff who are there are working very hard. Without sufficient staff to share the load and adequate supplies, the situation becomes unsafe and unacceptable.
Can the minister update this House on the current status of the Government of Nunavut’s Nursing Recruitment and Retention Strategy?
Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Aupaluktuq.
It is a concern to all of us that we continue to have a shortage of nurses throughout Nunavut, but our officials are constantly keeping track of people coming and going. They work pretty hard throughout Nunavut.
We just concluded National Nursing Week very recently and we acknowledged some of the contributions that are made.
In Nunavut, it is always challenging because people do come and go.
There are a number of nurses who have been serving in various health centres throughout Nunavut, but the term of the contracts do expire at a certain point.
By and large, I think that our officials are doing quite well and staffing strategies are in place.
It is a challenge that some communities like Baker Lake do fall into that shortage category, but they are not being ignored.
I will be happy to provide my colleague with further information once I have had an update on that particular community.
Our reports right now are normally national in scope throughout Nunavut, but I would be happy to provide further information once I have a full briefing on the community of Baker Lake.
I also encourage the minister to continue to keep us informed and advise us as well with the needs assessment. As we all know, health issues are very demanding and they touch everybody’s lives each day.
In the past, Mr. Speaker, in standing committees and committees of the whole, I have always acknowledged that Health and Social Services is operating with a minimal budget. You have two departments of Health and Social Services and staffing comes with it. Mr. Speaker, I want to elaborate in regard to staffing.
The allocation for community health centres has not been changed in many years.
The Baker Lake Health Centre is a five-nurse station, although it often operates with fewer nurses than that. It should realistically be a six- or seven-nurse station.
Can the minister advise this House as to when health centre staffing allocations will be reviewed?
Mr. Speaker, I think the member should know that they are constantly under review by our departmental staff. We do have a recruitment and retention strategy in place and that continues to be implemented throughout Nunavut.
Like I indicated earlier, there are challenges. Many of our nurses we have are recruited from southern communities and thereby they have to eventually go back to their place of province or whatnot.
With respect to Nunavut, I think we’re making some progress. There are constantly graduates of our Nursing Program with very important help from Human Resources and Arctic College, as well as the significant amount of funding that my department provides. There is mainly one department providing nursing training in terms of funding.
We normally contribute close to $400,000 in training dollars through our nursing training.
Currently the information I got from my Human Resources colleague is that we have 20 degree nursing students enrolled in a one- to four-year Nunatta Campus program.
In year one, we have seven enrolled, including two beneficiaries; in year two, we have nine, including three beneficiaries; and in year three, we have three, including one beneficiary.
So I think, by and large, we are making some progress. It’s not enough, but we can guarantee that these students, if they do succeed in graduating, will be based in Nunavut and placed in the appropriate health centres.
Mr. Aupaluktuq, your second supplementary question.
It’s encouraging knowing that the Department of Health and Social Services is actively taking education and using it in order to encourage professional services. It’s astounding to know that we have 20 nurses registered now and I think we need to exercise that to ensure the best service and such a sensitivity and respect are also in place.
We know that that comes in place in every profession.
Mr. Speaker, I’m really glad to know that there are six beneficiaries and I’m sure we could use a lot more. It’s very encouraging to see that.
As I wanted to formulate this question, I was thinking about this, Mr. Speaker, and I want to ask formally. In my preamble, the Baker Lake Health Centre was extremely short staffed for an extended period of time. At one point, there was only one registered nurse on call, which was the nurse in charge.
Can the minister explain what steps are taken by his department to ensure that relief staff are available to work in community health centres when staffing levels are so low?
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Aupaluktuq.
Mr. Curley, Minister of Health and Social Services.
The department is certainly committed to providing all of the resources needed and we do have a program and policy in place that relief nurses are available. Occasionally, if there is tremendous pressure upon the nurses with respect to health or an increase in some pandemic related issues, we will provide extra help.
I will review Baker Lake and if we do need to put in extra nurses to relieve some of the pressures that are there, including replacing some of the nurses who have left, we can transfer some nurses from other places.
We are careful not to dip into the agency nurses, which is always on our options. We will look at Baker Lake and see what we can do for the member’s community. It appears to be serious, in my opinion.
I don’t currently have a particular breakdown of Baker Lake, but I will look into it and get back to the member while we are sitting here.
Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Minister Curley.
Your final supplementary question, Mr. Aupaluktuq.
That’s very encouraging and I’m sure the staff and community members of Baker Lake will be relieved to know.
It’s hard being a legislator. It’s a case of heck if you do and heck if you don’t. I know one primary example is I was the one in the House who had been asking about overspending with agency nurses.
That was more or less basically for us to be more accountable feasibly.
One of the things that we have a drawback now is that there is a tremendous shortage of nurses as we speak. However, I encourage the minister to at least update us towards the end of the session in order to see how the staffing will be addressed.
With that final, I would like to say, Mr. Speaker, that when I spoke to the staff at the Baker Lake Health Centre regarding the staff shortages, it appeared that some of the problems in hiring short-term or casual replacement staff was due to the fact that only headquarters in Iqaluit could authorize the necessary staffing actions.
Mr. Speaker, my final question is: can the minister explain why the regional directors are unable to make the necessary decisions to ensure that appropriate service delivery standards are met in their community health centres?
Hon. Tagak Curley: Mr. Speaker, the regional directors had that ability a few years ago and a few years ago, two or three years ago, even a year ago, the Members of this House were complaining that the agency nursing category was so huge.
To be honest with you, I think I was alarmed as well to know that we were spending over $20 million a year on agency nurses in some cases, in some years. We have scaled that down.
I would just like to update the members with respect to the agency nursing category.
Normally we treat Iqaluit as a different category because we do have a hospital here. In Iqaluit, right now, we have four agency nurses in place.
In the Baffin as a whole, we have ten agency nurses throughout Baffin. The Kivalliq has two agency nurses on our payroll at the current time.
The Kitikmeot has seven agency nurses in total.
That responsibility about two years ago remained at the regional level and therefore, the costs were not observed.
The deputy minister of the day had to make a decision to bring that authority back to headquarters so that they can monitor the rate of agency nurses and put some controls on it.
I think we have scaled it down.
In total, we now have 23 agency nurses hired throughout Nunavut and we would like to continue to reduce that as our nursing supply, including those nurses graduating out of our own program at Arctic College who are put into the nursing category throughout Nunavut.
Question 089 – 3(3): Status of Funding for the Embrace Life Council (Elliott)
Earlier today, I addressed the issue of suicide prevention in Nunavut.
As you will recall, on March 3 of this year, during our deliberations of the government’s proposed budget for 2011-12, I asked a number of questions on the status of the government’s suicide prevention activities, including the funding to be provided for the Embrace Life Council.
Can the minister confirm that the $248,000 contribution funding that was approved by this House during the 2011-12 budget review has been provided to the Embrace Life Council for the current fiscal year?
Hon. Tagak Curley: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question.
I think this gives me an opportunity to let the members know, for all that matter, and Nunavutmiut that the program that we’re currently using towards suicide prevention is funded from the federal government through the category of the aboriginal health contribution agreements that we receive annually.
These are conditional programs. That means that you must adhere and agree to do certain things for the government.
They would pass that responsibility to the department to carry out the obligation requirement, that is, you must submit annual reports about whether or not you have carried out the objectives that you agreed to in the contribution agreement. The second part of the major category is that you must agree to provide financial statements and audited financial statements before the next contribution agreement is entered. That is the responsibility of our partners, particularly the Embrace Life Council.
Last year, they ran into a bit of difficulty. The department has been working very hard to bring them up to stats, to standing. They had to get back to the category of good standing and we have done that.
Our departmental officials have worked with them, and they are now back on track and are now receiving that amount the member just stated. Therefore, they are back in business and we are happy to have them back on track.
Your first supplementary question, Mr. Elliott.
I’m not sure of what Mr. Curley was actually referring to.
The $248,000, I understand the explanation you gave, that was the amount that we had approved in the House.
According to what you said, they will now receive that because they have officially reported properly.
But I guess my next question then is based around a $300,000 amount that is also received and you mentioned the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy funding.
There are actually two sets of funding. It’s my understanding that there’s $248,000 that we, as a Government of Nunavut, have approved in the House and that has been approved by all members in this House.
According to what you said, that has been approved.
So now I would like to ask about specifically that $300,000 that is separate from the $248,000 that is provided from Health Canada that we, as elected officials, don’t vote on to be passed on; it’s through contribution agreements decided upon by his department.
Minister Curley
Mr. Speaker, I’m not 100 percent sure exactly what the whole line of questioning is as well because I certainly don’t administer that program.
All I know is that the various programs that we receive from the federal government are implemented and carried out for the benefit of Nunavutmiut through various partners that we have, including NTI and also the Embrace Life Council.
Yes, the $254,136 for the fiscal year 2011-12 is the funding that the members voted on and that is certainly geared towards the Embrace Life Council.
Whether or not they spent it all, I don’t know. I believe that’s the fiscal contribution for the current fiscal year.
In terms of the details of the funding, I may have to get back to the details on that because under the various aboriginal contribution-related funding, they come in large categories and it involves a whole slew of programs. Some include the community wellness training programs and some are geared towards the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training program.
So I would have to get back to the member, and if he wishes to clarify his question or if he would be prepared to write me a letter on it, we would reply in detail, but I will certainly try and help him out.
Your second supplementary question, Mr. Elliott.
My understanding of the way the funding works is there’s $248,000 that we approved in the House and that’s the operational budget for the Embrace Life Council to operate, I’m assuming, hire individuals, travel, and that has been approved and that’s not what I’m questioning.
I’m questioning an amount that I was told is $300,000 that is received from Health Canada to the Government of Nunavut Health and Social Services under the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy, so there is that funding.
Originally that $300,000 was given to the Embrace Life Council and then the Embrace Life Council would distribute that money as contribution agreements into different communities across the territory.
Now, if it’s causing confusion for Mr. Curley, maybe I’ll rephrase my question and ask: how much money does the Government of Nunavut receive from the federal government under Health Canada through the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy Fund?
All I can say is that I think we receive adequate funding for the various initiatives that the federal government contributes.
If the member wishes me to provide him with details right up to the penny, I’ll be glad to do that, but I think the member should know I don’t administer that policy.
All I know is that we have a policy in place, a strategy in place, and I’m happy to tell the member that I’m satisfied with our managers administering that program effectively and we’re back on track.
I received a letter today from the vice-president of NTI with respect to Nunavut’s Suicide Prevention Strategy. The letter is written to proclaim our continuing support for Nunavut’s Suicide Prevention Strategy.
Our program managers are working hard to ensure that the programs are being implemented for the benefit of Nunavutmiut.
I do have an estimate here.
The current funding allocations, including addictions as well as the prevention, are quite significant. They are over $1 million in total, but it’s a pot of money that is geared towards the aboriginal-related programs.
I’ll be pleased to provide further information at a later time in order to try and satisfy his questions.
Your final supplementary question, Mr. Elliott.
Again I thank you for that commitment.
I just find it confusing that you were saying that you allow the managers to manage and you’re confident with what they do, yet you don’t know what’s going on with them.
You are the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, so, to me, you’re responsible for those managers.
You would want to know how much money they are giving out in contribution agreements because ultimately the Government of Nunavut is responsible, as you said earlier, for the reporting for this Health Canada funding.
Just to help you out, if I could please get specifically a breakdown of how much the National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy funding is and, again, the distinction between the operational funds that the Embrace Life Council actually receives and the separate funding that they were receiving.
What they used to be able to do before they ran into the trouble that you had mentioned before and now that they’re back on track, they used to receive funding from the Government of Nunavut to be able to give out activities that they did in communities, and then those communities would report back to the Embrace Life Council, and the Embrace Life Council would then report back to the Government of Nunavut.
But that funding has been cut and it is no longer given to the Embrace Life Council. Now that it’s working fine and the Embrace Life Council is working, will you be providing more funding to the Embrace Life Council?
Sometimes I feel that the member, when questioning the minister, and I think I’m right, assumes that we administer the budget right down to the penny. We don’t go into micro-dollars.
I would say to you as the minister, I’m responsible for the policy in place and the guidelines in place. It’s up to the managers, not me.
Sure, I can ask for the information, but really in a way, I have other things to do, Mr. Speaker.
I just want to ensure that the program is effectively carried out, the policy is implemented, and the results are being provided back to the federal government and to all of our partners.
I can say to you again, Mr. Speaker, that Health and Social Services receives close to $1 million from the federal government, from Health Canada, to be exact, about $823,000, towards a contribution agreement that is designed to deal with suicide alertness, intervention, and training programs. And we translate that into detail.
We do provide applied suicide intervention training projects and there have been over 400 training events throughout, including our very important partner, the Department of Education.
Teachers have pretty well been trained to be involved in that.
If the member wants all of the details, I may be the wrong person to ask. Maybe he needs to ask those project managers and these groups exactly what amount of pennies they spend on implementing these programs.
I don’t have figures right down to the penny.
Question 090 – 3(3): Financial Situation at Local Housing Association (Schell)
First of all, I would like to apologize for having a bad cold here.
My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation. Here we go again.
Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, CBC News reported that Cambridge Bay’s local housing association experienced a $1.4 million deficit last year and that it had not provided financial statements to the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
Can the minister update the House today on this situation?
Minister Curley, responsible for the Housing Corporation.
They do have a quite significant deficit and the department and the regional staff are continuing to deal with that issue.
They do have a debt recovery program that they are currently working on. They are getting close to a plan that would be implemented to ensure that the Nunavut Housing Corporation recovers and that the local housing association up in that region is fully back and operational.
I was advised from my officials the other day that not all parts of the CBC story were accurate. They spent a significant amount of time with the reporter on that, but he had not obligated himself to correct what he had stated.
Your first supplementary question, Mr. Schell.
As the minister will appreciate, it is very important that Members of the Legislative Assembly be aware of any emerging problems with their local housing associations’ financial positions.
Can the minister clearly indicate today which local housing associations in the territory are facing deficits or have not provided current financial statements to the Nunavut Housing Corporation?
Certainly we are obligated and we do carry out our obligations and implement them.
We will provide and we continue to provide updates on whether or not our overall budget is in danger of exceeding the amount.
We certainly are not willing to fund any of the debts that communities experience.
Therefore, the agreements are being negotiated with those communities that are experiencing a shortfall with their operations and maintenance budgets.
That information is currently ongoing and I will be pleased to provide information once I have all of the categories of those that have a significant amount of debt incurred at the appropriate time, Mr. Speaker.
In his response to the 2008 report of the Auditor General on the Nunavut Housing Corporation, NHC indicated that it has plans to initiate six or seven LHO assessments which should be completed by the fall of 2008.
Can the minister confirm if these assessments were completed and can he indicate how the NHC is working with local housing associations that may be at risk of financial difficulties?
Deputy Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Schell.
Hon. Tagak Curley: Mr. Speaker, I’ll be pleased to provide that and I will take that question as notice.
Deputy Speaker: Okay, that question is taken as notice.
Question 091 – 3(3): Update on Taloyoak Housing Construction (Ugyuk)
I want to direct my question to the Minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation.
My colleague, Mr. John Ningark, asked a question regarding SIP units not being constructed in the Kitikmeot.
In Taloyoak, there are units that require construction and I believe that there are six units.
I was informed the foundations are shabbily constructed as they are too high and the telehandler cannot reach the area due to the height.
I asked when they would be accessible and I was told that once they have laid the gravel around the area, they will be able to reach the foundations.
My next question was: when would gravel be laid? I was told that there is no gravel in Taloyoak.
I wanted to know when they would be able to lay some gravel around the foundation once the piles are constructed.
Taloyoak has rocky terrain with big boulders, so they need gravel around the foundation.
However, we don’t have a gravel crusher. Based on this information, we would have to wait three or four years for the completion of these units.
I remember very clearly last year around the same time that the members had to cut $50 million from the fund and this was my very first meeting. It was a headache as we had to cut $50 million as one of my first duties as a member.
We had to deal with such a large cut.
I don’t think they did enough research on the needs for the construction of these units when there is no gravel available in Taloyoak. This will incur further costs to construct these units.
The only time they can access gravel is during the summer.
There is a dire shortage of housing and the Nunavut Housing Corporation should make appropriate plans to make sure that construction is done properly and that resources are available.
Some of the piles are very high and the equipment cannot even reach the roof.
So when will they lay gravel around these units and commence the construction?
Deputy Speaker (interpretation): Thank you, Ms. Ugyuk.
Minister Curley, Minister responsible for the (interpretation ends) Nunavut Housing Corporation.
The units to be constructed experienced a delay due to the materials arriving late in the season, when the ground had frozen. In late fall, the Kitikmeot becomes almost impossible for ships to navigate due to the ice.
There are seven units requiring construction in that community.
The community currently has a construction company called the Lyall Construction Company. Most people know this company or have heard of it. The company has been tasked to initiate the construction as soon as it is possible.
As you are well aware, you can’t access gravel at this time because there is deep snow cover on the ground.
Whenever the gravel becomes accessible, the foundation would be laid with gravel. So we have to wait until the snow melts because gravel is inaccessible at this time.
According to the work plan, we expect that Lyall Construction heavy equipment will be able to access the gravel in June and once accessible, the gravel is to be laid around the units.