EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
The Violence Against Women Committee, we are attempting currently… . We’ve done a review of all the various shelters. We’re looking at the reasons why people are going to the shelter and why the re-admission rates for the shelter are very high.
As well, I know the Department of Health and Social Services does have a number of established protocols to deal with that particular issue. And again, collectively, all the social services departments, health, education, justice and culture, language, elders and youth, are attempting to look at this whole issue of shelters.
Shelters are a symptom of other issues in communities.
So, the hope in the future is that we will be able to accommodate the types of services that are required, not always to looking to shelters as the end goal. I think that’s got to be part of the what the this community is attempting to do at this point and time.
So, all I can say is that I don’t believe there is a consistent policy, but there is a process in place currently that is attempting to review all of the issues surrounding shelters and violence against women, and that is that committee I talked about earlier.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Blais.
In Cambridge Bay our shelter is for the community, but we had a situation a few years ago where communities would go… A lady from another community needed shelter and she was transported to Cambridge Bay to our crisis shelter. And then what happened there is…
Our hamlet runs the municipalities under tremendous financial pressures. Our hamlet ended up buying significantly more on our budget and on funding than our shelter received on an annual basis.
So, it did jeopardize the crisis shelter.
It jeopardized all our clients in our communities that we had helped.
But it is pretty hard to say no to someone from another community when they need help.
So, when we asked if there is a crisis shelter policy we didn’t really get an answer.
And when we sought funding, the extra funding from your department, we ran into difficultly there as well because, as the former mayor, I was well aware.
So my question is on alcohol treatment.
Where is there an alcohol treatment centre in Nunavut, or do folks have to go down south, or are there alcohol treatment groups in communities?
I’m not exactly sure; I haven’t been given any information as to where those clients go.
I will get my deputy minister to elaborate on that to answer the member’s question.
There is no additional centre in Nunavut at this point in time.
We have a working group, a committee, that we’ve established a few months ago with NTI.
A joint committee with the Department of Health and Social Services and NTI, and one of the core objectives of that committee is to look at the development of an addiction centre for Nunavut.
We do have addiction programs and services in a number of areas. And we do have people, social workers, who deal with that issue.
But there is no organized addiction centre at this point.
So, all the individuals who require services basically are sent out-of-territory currently, Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I recall a couple of years ago reading a story, and the news was that there was going to be an alcohol addiction centre opened somewhere in Nunavut.
It didn’t say where, but it said somewhere in Nunavut.
It was the former government that made that announcement. So, we were all waiting with anticipation where it was going to be located.
Cambridge Bay, a couple of years ago, proposed an alcohol addiction centre in our community, because what we noticed is that a lot of our residents, when they were sent for counselling to Edmonton for a three- or four-week course program, it was costing $30- 35,000. And individuals would come back a short while afterwards saying that without the family support, they were having alcohol problems again.
So, it is a very costly thing.
So, I am wondering what plans you have to open an alcohol or addiction centre somewhere in Nunavut.
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Yes.
I agree with the member that there should be one in Nunavut.
It is very expensive when you have to send out clients, down south.
I am not exactly sure when there is going to be an alcohol treatment centre in Nunavut, and I do not know which community it will be located in.
So, I cannot really answer him at this time.
Thank you, Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In regards to dental health here in Nunavut, it must be very expensive.
I would like to see if the department of health could have a better preventative system.
Before they have to have any work done, they should have their work done more often, especially the smaller children who are brought to Iqaluit to get their dental treatment done.
Will there be more dental treatment being done by the department in the near future?
Chairperson: Thank you, Mr. Arreak.
I feel that dental treatment is very important, and we have had a lack of dental professionals here in Nunavut. There is some treatment done by the dental therapists with their grade school children but we have a lack of those professionals at this time.
What we are planning right now is organizing our department to bring them closer to the people of Nunavut, because we feel that it is very expensive to send our patients down south.
We would like to be able to assist them here in their own community and to help the professionals. We feel that care closer to home should be the priority of our department rather than sending them down south. We will be looking into it to do more planning on this issue.
I would like the minister’s response. In regards to tobacco products, there always are people trying to tell people to quit smoking or using tobacco products.
You see nowadays a lot of people, young people, adults as well, still smoking, and we should be preventing the people of Nunavut from starting smoking.
Yes, I am in support of the member’s question.
It just seems like there are quite a few people who have quit smoking or using tobacco products. I am very proud of them.
Even in the wintertime they go outside to go have a cigarette so that they will not smoke in the house.
If you see more people are still smoking, it would be nice if we could make them quit. But there are some posters and ads that we have brought about in my department that are trying to scare the public from starting to smoke, or to quit smoking.
Some people that want to keep on smoking tear the posters down, but the people that want to quit would put the posters back on the wall to try to get the people to quit smoking.
I was one of the people who were selected for some of the commercials that are on TV.
Perhaps that will help people to quit smoking.
Mr. Arreak (interpretation): That is it, Mr. Chairman.
Chairperson: Thank you, Mr. Arreak. Mr. Curley.
Under page H-7 of the main estimates, under contract services, there is $15,610,000. I just want to get a brief clarification as to what kinds of contract services you provide or are provided with.
Under “Contract services for residential care,” and for the foster services for children, and the group home for the challenged, those are what we use the contract services for in the amount of over $15 million.
The minister stated the three services that are provided under contract services.
Do you have any information on the breakdown of the contracted services, because she only stated three categories. Can she have them broken down in a written form?
Hon. Levinia Brown: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We will be able to provide them in a written form.
It is mostly for data entry, health promotion, the media, new initiatives, foster care payments, foster parent mutual aid, education, group homes, residential care, janitory and miscellaneous services, and mental health and addictions.
I would like to ask the minister… . I understand that these are done by contractors in the amount of $15,610,000; not done by the government, by contractors only, such as the group homes. They have release arrangements with those contractors, is that the case?
I am the Chair, not the Speaker.
I would like to get Bernie Blais, my deputy minister, to explain it further.
I believe that all of the group homes currently… The buildings themselves are owned by the Government of Nunavut, but the services that are provided in them, the people that provide the service, are the ones that are under contract.
So, basically we contract out either to non-government organizations or to the private sector the provision of those services, but the buildings, I believe, are all ours at this point.
I would like to thank the deputy minister and the minister.
In Rankin Inlet there is a group home for mentally challenged individuals, and the employees over there at the group home do their job to the best of their ability. I see them quite often helping the young mentally challenged people, and they care for them very much.
But I would just like to find out, is that a public tender process when you are going to contract, when the contract expires?
Just this year, that is what we were putting through the tender process. But before that, I did not know how they did it.
They recently awarded the contract for the group home provided on a contract basis in Rankin Inlet.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): That is it.
The regional hospitals that will be built in Iqaluit, Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet… There is also need here in the Baffin region to provide services for the mentally challenged as well as expectant mothers.
I just wondered whether those regional hospitals, will they have provisions for them in those regional hospitals to care for those individuals?
The three regional hospitals in Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, and here in Iqaluit… I saw the plans of the hospitals and they are sort of similar.
They will have various provisions or various clinical areas, or rooms, but I am not exactly sure whether… I am sure that the hospital that is going to be built in Iqaluit will have those kinds of provisions as well.
They will have room for wheelchair access and there have been considerations to provide those services in the regional hospital.
Chairman: Thank you, Hon. Levinia Brown.
Mr. Barnabas: What absolute changes are being planned for the way the department addresses mental health issues?
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Barnabas.
I will ask my deputy minister to respond to your question.
I only outlined what I had seen of the outline of the health centre that will be built in Rankin Inlet.
I will have to go to Cambridge Bay to see the layout of the facility that they are building, and also the one here in Iqaluit.
In order to respond to your question I will direct you to my DM, but of course this facility meets all the requirements.
I will get Bernard, our DM, to make a supplement.
The two facilities in Rankin Inlet and in Cambridge Bay… The one in Rankin Inlet will have 11 beds which will be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
That will also have staffing available in the hospital 24-7 as well.
We are also recruiting for physicians.
The types of services that will be offered there: there will be some accommodations for mental patients, but anything that’s acute or serious will still have to go out-of-territory in those two locations.
Facilities in both of these communities are basically both regional and territorial facilities, because there is an opportunity for us to look at moving patients within the territory as much as we can to ensure that we’re using the capacity that’s here.
Again, just to reaffirm, these will be both territorial and regional facilities.
In Iqaluit it’s a bit different.
The Akausisarsarvik mental health centre which is here is currently being operated by the elders’ association, and soon the Department of Health and Social Services will be taking over that centre.
We will then begin to operate the mental health facility here.
So, we will have a high degree of ability, in this particular community, to be able to service clients, possibly from all parts of Nunavut as well.
That process has already started.
In the Nunavut communities, there are mentally challenged individuals, in our areas and of course in the High Arctic riding.
There is not enough support or services provided to those individuals, especially in the smaller communities.
Do you send your counsellors up to those smaller communities so that they can have the required support?
I know that we have our elders, but it seems that in the smaller communities, or in the have-not communities, those individuals are not given the required support or services that they should be receiving.
I consider this issue very important.
But it seems quite clear that there is a shortage of counsellors in Nunavut.
The member asked if they get counselling or assessment, but we are well aware that we have a shortage of resources, both financial and human resources.
But, we are making progress, and once those facilities are erected and utilized, we will be increasing the support or the services.
I will ask our deputy minister to supplement my response.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Madam Minister. Mr. Blais.
There are a number of initiatives that we’re looking at currently. The whole concept of closer-to-home involves the development of an education and training strategy for things like mental health workers in Nunavut.
We know that there is a serious shortage of professionals in the country, in North America, and the world, currently. Therefore, the only way to improve the services in both the smaller communities and larger communities is to look at what kinds of programs we could develop in partnership with Nunavut Arctic College and other colleges and universities in Canada, so that we can develop mental health workers in Nunavut that would be able to provide a certain level of service to both mentally and sometimes physically challenged people.
This is both for children and adults.
We are working on a plan that hopefully we will bring back to the cabinet for consideration that will involve that kind of a moving-forward strategy.
We recognize at this point in time that many of these services are not available in some communities, and our hope over the next few years is to significantly improve that level of service by developing, in Nunavut, the types of people that we need to provide a certain level of service.
Chairman (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Blais.
I thank the deputy minister for responding to my question.
Of course we’re not going to solve this problem overnight.
We’re going to have to work on it over time.
I do have another question regarding the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Council that was established just recently in January 2004.
Could you give us an update on what’s been happening on that issue?
There is progress.
We now have one employee and it’s called… .
There has been some progress and we do have one employee. We would like to see this established and well on its way, as it’s very important.
I have nothing further.
Any questions? Page 7.
Health and Social Services. Branch Summary. Healthy Children, Families and Communities.
Total Operations and Maintenance. $36,348,000.
Do members agree?
Chairman (interpretation): Page 9.
Health and Social Services. Branch Summary. Health Insurance Programs.
Can I ask a question on page 9?
Chairman: Yes, you may, Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson: I was looking at Department on page 14; they talked about a medical travel coordinating centre for all of Nunavut.
So I’m wondering, Mr. Chairman, if the minister or one of her staff could explain how the medical travel coordination centre will be staffed and where will it be located.
Our Deputy, Mr. Blais, will respond to your question.
The notion of the establishment of a medical travel coordination centre involves basically creating a center where all the calls, the coordination of flights to and from communities, the booking of boarding homes or hotels, the transportation to and from airports, to and from hospitals, to and from specialist offices, and also interpreter service… .
As well, it would involve a quality-assurance process where clients who travel in and out would be followed up, maybe three days after returning home, to find out what kinds of experiences they’ve had in regards to the whole travel envelope of services that are required.
The current travel process is a very complex one, one that is not easy to manage because of all the locations that we refer patients to.
So, what we’re looking at currently is the establishment of a central coordination bureau. And the location at this point and time I don’t believe has been determined.
It would require good infrastructure in terms of information technology in order to be able to provide the level of services that is required.
We will be working with the Department of Community Government and Services as well, as I talk to my counterpart deputy minister about the possibility of joining forces to also do all staff travel. Because again, if you are going to develop a very sophisticated centre, you might as well extend that possibly to do staff travel as well.
So, that process is just about ready to get underway.
The reason why we have been delaying it is that we haven’t been having any information.
If we’re going to go out through our due process we need to identify for those people who would be submitting proposals what the level of activity will be.
How many trips will they be booking? How many boarding homes will they be working as well? That information, I think, now is secure.
I think we have enough reasonably good information to be able to go out to the market to solicit proposals, hopefully from people who might be interested in establishing that kind of centre in Nunavut.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Blais. Mr. Peterson.
I sounds like it is a good idea.
I noticed that one of the costs that seems to be going up, it went up significantly last year, was the travel one.
I think he budgeted $28 million, and then it jumped one year to $49 or 50 million. Yet, this year you’re now projecting an increase, it’s the same as last year.
So, I was hoping that if you put this medical travel coordination centre in place, we would actually be able to effectively bring that projected travel cost down. And of course, if we can control our costs, then we can put that money into other important areas of health.
I’m wondering if the minister can commit, Mr. Chairman, to tabling the results of the department’s recent medical travel review.
Is that possible? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes, there are more patients that go out to the hospital or go to get a check-up. It is beyond our control how many people go to the hospital or have medical travel.
We do not like to see too many people go on medical travel.
Like I stated, it is beyond our control to know how many patients will be on medical travel.
I am very proud that this spring, Canadian North has signed a contract.
This is going to be very helpful. We have cut $500,000 dollars from medical travel because of the contracts with the two airlines. Canadian North and First Air are the ones that have the contract to do our medical travel to the south.
Is the minister committing to tabling the medical travel review?
Is that what you’re committing to?
Your question, I will let my deputy minister answer.
The review was done already, several years ago, of all the medical travel by a consultant, KCG Consulting, I believe.
So, our direction is basically to follow through on that review and to explore the opportunity to develop a medical travel centre. Currently that’s what we’re doing.
We have done a fair amount of analysis.
I can tell you that in total, between airlines and all other costs, we spend about $71.6 million in out-of-territory care.
That’s hospital, special service, medical travel, and all of the other supportive stuff that goes with that.
So what we’re doing currently is one of the things that we didn’t have. We didn’t have good information on the traffic, the volume, of people in boarding homes, or the number of airline tickets we awarded previously.
That has been the part that we’ve been working on: getting the data required to develop the request for proposals.
The next step that’s anticipated, the review has been done before my time, is to look at hiring a consultant, because it’s a very complex proposal. This is not just an airline contract; it involves many components, the medical travel process.
To hire a consultant now that we’ve got enough information is to get their help to develop the RFP itself.
So the next step that we’re looking at is the development of the RFP, using the information that has already been done previously and the information that we have currently done in terms of the data analysis and collection.
Thanks for that explanation of the work that you’re doing on medical travel.
I’m wondering, can we get copies of that information so that we can review it at some point?
I would like to read it because medical travel is a big chunk of the budget; $71 million is quite substantial.
I’m wondering, Mr. Chairman, if the minister could provide us with some assurances that the money they’re projecting for travel needs in 2004-05 will be adequate for your needs.
After last year, you projected $29 million, and we ended up at around $48 or 49 million.
So, could you provide us with some kind of assurances please?
Your first question: there is a review going on right now. As soon as we find out, we will come with an answer to you for this review.
As soon as we know, we will let you know.
Second question: about that, I will ask my deputy to answer that question.
The report itself is available in our office. But we are making sure, first of all, that the report can be released. And secondly, under the ATIPP rule on third party information, we are also currently investigating whether or not that information can be released as is, without some disclosure.
So, we will be in a position, hopefully shortly, to give you a direct answer on that. But again, we are making sure that this report that was done previously… whether the KCG, as the third party, has any objections to us releasing that information.
Again, under the ATIPP rule, as you know, there is a requirement for us to do due diligence.
I would hope that as the government, if we are paying for a consultant to do work that we own, then we shouldn’t have to ask them if we can release it.
We are legislators there for public information, so I hope when you talk to them that you make them understand that.
I am wondering, Mr. Chairman, during our regular members’ caucus we got a copy of the health and social services client-travel codes for eligible recipients and escorts.
It was dated April 2001. I am wondering, has it been updated?
Has there been an evaluation of it done in the last four years to see if it is successful or needs to be improved?
Can you comment on that Madam Minister?
Yes, there is a task force that is doing a review on this.
As soon as they are finished with their review it will come to you.
The reason I asked is because this policy seems to be a problem in my region, in the Kitikmeot.
More people come to me with complaints and issues related to client-travel policy; who is an escort, and who is not, and nobody really understands it.
When people don’t understand it, it leads to problems.
I am looking at all kinds of charts and graphs and categories; it’s almost as if you need a lawyer. Was it written by a lawyer?
I don’t know, but we should try and keep things simple, keep some of the policies that we have simple, so people can understand and make them work for our territory.
We do try to use the policy as much as possible.
We know that when a person is an elder, or if you have cancer, terminal illness, or are unilingual, or require an interpreter, they are able to bring an interpreter. If they are too young to travel on their own they can have an escort.
Care-close-to-home will be working a lot better in the near future because we are giving three hospitals in Nunavut, and we will also be using the care-close-to-home.
I am sure that we could run things a lot smoother.
Mr. Peterson: That is it, Mr. Chairman.
My question, Mr. Chairman, is in regards to the minister’s statements.
How will the central referral service be implemented?
Has the evaluation been done on that?
Has there been a consideration by the management, and where would that be located?