EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Having said that, internally, within the Department of Health, we have taken the active role in trying to consolidate within the Government of Nunavut the various programs and services available for people with disabilities in partnership with the Department of Education.
Last year, we tabled in the House a booklet that outlines all the Government of Nunavut programs, as well as the Government of Canada, that supports people with disabilities just to get some more information out to the people with disabilities group as well as individuals in the community who require this information within the communities who require this information within the communities.
What we have tried to do is do the work as well internally as to what we do for people with disabilities in Nunavut.
Could the minister tell me approximately, I’m sure you should have some detailed numbers, how many Nunavummiut are there that have disabilities?
I don’t have that information before me.
Is that information that you could easily find and provide to the House?
As it relates to the services that we provide to people with disabilities, that information should be within the Department of Health.
I guess, then, today or tomorrow, you can provide that information to us so that we can have it available.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Sorry, I was reading.
If it’s available tomorrow, I would be glad to provide it.
In my riding of Cambridge Bay, I notice that every year, there seems to be more people coming down with disabilities of one sort or another and it’s very difficult for them to live in their communities and get around. So I think it’s a very important issue that we address.
Nunavummiut, even with disabilities, should be able to live a reasonable standard of life.
I’m wondering if the minister could tell me how she interacts or works with other departments in the Government of Nunavut to ensure that people with disabilities are able to have a reasonable standard of life in their communities.
Could the member clarify the question in terms of how I interact with what?
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, certainly.
The Department of Health is only one department, and you indicated that disability is something that’s important to your department, but I think most departments in the Government of Nunavut have a role.
For example, Housing would have a role to ensure that the houses are designed with disabled people in mind.
So I’m wondering how you work internally with your colleagues in the Cabinet to ensure that people with disabilities, throughout all of the departments, are given an opportunity to enjoy at least a standard of life in their communities.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you and I thank the member for clarifying his question.
I think I answered part of that question earlier in that the Department of Health has been active in promoting and getting the information from across Nunavut what programs and services are available for people with disabilities in government, not only within the Government of Nunavut but also with various federal government programs.
That document that outlines, in one place, what services are available was tabled in this House and released. It consolidates information from the Nunavut Housing Corporation, as an example, that design houses to support people that require ramps or specialized counter heights or whatnot, as an example, is a program, as well as programs available to people with disabilities that require education through the Special Needs Education Program and various initiatives of that nature. So the Department of Health has taken the coordinating role in that.
At the same time, the advocacy group advocates the issues that they see as priorities and highlight some of the challenges that they face, similar to the Status of Women Council, which have provided us some direction in areas they wanted addressed. And, one of them was having the information available in one place for them. So in that way, we have supported the coordinating role of it.
At the same time, I believe under the Treatment section of my main estimates, there’s a whole range of services available to people with disabilities, whether it be hearing impaired or physiotherapy, and so on, that describes what services we provide from the health standpoint to people with disabilities.
I thank the minister for that detailed answer.
I’ve had several constituents that I’ve had to help in the last year who have disabilities.
Just dealing with the government is a fairly complicated process; you have to deal with the different agencies or different government departments.
So it would be appreciated if the minister could highlight to her colleagues that their departments also have the responsibility to help people with disabilities.
Another area that I’m concerned about is homecare and I have asked a question about homecare in the past.
It’s come to my attention recently that, in my riding, there’s a shortage of homecare nurses which is affecting the delivery of the program. There are homecare workers but then there are homecare nurses, and that seems to be an issue.
I’m wondering if the minister could explain how her department focuses on recruiting homecare nurses for the Homecare Program not only in my riding but right across Nunavut.
The homecare services that we provide at the community level. It starts at the community level if there is a need that is identified by an individual who requires homecare services.
So anyone at the community level can request homecare services through their community health centres and/or homecare offices.
Once that request is made, the nurses at the community level then determine what homecare services are required based on a clinical assessment of that particular individual that has put forth their request.
Once that evaluation has been completed, then the nurse at the community level will then initiate the recruitment of a homecare worker at the community level to address the need that has been identified by an individual through a self declaration request, or an assessment from a nurse practitioner or a nurse at the community level.
So, minister, are you saying that any nurse could technically qualify to be a homecare nurse? It doesn’t have to be a homecare nurse specialist; it could be any nurse in the community that could make visits to homes?
There are two areas: there are homecare workers and there are homecare nurses.
The homecare nurses are recruited through the normal recruitment process of the Government of Nunavut, through HR, and by region. The homecare workers that support the homecare nurses are recruited at the community level by the nurses.
That was my question earlier. There is a shortage of homecare nurses which is affecting the delivery of the program.
So how does your department address that area?
How will you recruit homecare nurses who can support the program?
I’m not worried about homecare workers because I think we’re pretty well covered there, but it’s the homecare nurses that we have to worry about.
If there is a need by community, by region, then the Executive Directors would identify those needs and go forward to the department for additional funding for PYs if there is a need for additional homecare workers at the community level.
I believe that there is a need in my Cambridge Bay riding. I have heard that from people.
One of your priorities for 2008-09 on page H-16 is to “Expand the level of services being offered at the new Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay health centres by recruiting more staff under a successful recruitment and retention strategy.”
Could the minister provide some detail on what level of services will be expanded at the Cambridge Bay Health Centre?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I’ll ask the deputy minister to speak to that.
Just to update the member, this Assembly approved an implementation strategy for the department that includes a number of services that will be expanded at the regional centre in Cambridge Bay.
We will review some of the services and provide that information to the member.
I thank Mr. Campbell for the answer.
I think it was this time last year when the former assistant deputy minister said the health centre was 70 percent operational. I’m hearing anecdotal information that the shortages of indeterminate, agency, and casual nurses, that the level of services is, in fact, not at 70 percent.
So I’m wondering if the minister could comment on how the department is going to expand the level of services at the health centre in the coming year.
Not to respond to anecdotal information, what I can speak to is related to the implementation plans of the three facilities and I will have my deputy minister respond to that.
Mr. Campbell (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) First of all, I just wanted to re-emphasize that there is a global shortage and we have been hearing this all along that we are struggling to try and find health professionals in general for Nunavut and that’s true for all of the country.
It’s a global issue. There are a number of challenges in trying to recruit and retain health professionals, and particularly, in the nursing sector, we do have that great need.
Now, specific as to some of the things we’re looking at for expanded services or improved services for the centre in Cambridge Bay, we’re looking at a Day Hospital Program.
We’re also looking at a regional diagnostic medical laboratory services for the centre; we’re looking at diagnostic imaging services; we’re looking at improved in-patient services that are there for short-term purposes; we’re looking at some services for palliative care for the centre; we’re also looking at some rehabilitation services; at some point, we’re also looking at a birthing program for the centre.
Those are some of the high level areas that we’re looking at improving in some of the services that are offered at the health centre in the region.
That’s our plan for the next three years and I’ll qualify that by saying that plans are subject to change.
As I indicated earlier, we do have some challenges in trying to recruit nurses in each community, so a lot of this will depend on recruitment efforts that we have started in our Nursing Recruitment and Retention Strategy.
One second, Mr. Peterson.
I thank the deputy minister for that explanation.
It certainly seems like a lot of services will be offered, and of course, like you said, it will be contingent on how many nurses or medical professional staff that you’re recruiting.
I’m aware that in Alberta, I think I mentioned it in my opening comments the other day, they’re recruiting for a heart hospital down there and they’re looking for 600 nurses.
So I anticipate that there would be a few Nunavut nurses, and possibly even some from Cambridge Bay, who will be applying for the jobs down there.
You mentioned, “... under a successful recruitment and retention strategy.”
I take it that’s the Nursing Recruitment and Retention Strategy.
Can you give us an overview, to date, on how the strategy has been working?
I’ll start on responding to some of that question and I’ll ask the deputy minister to elaborate more on the internal initiatives.
The piece on the monetary proposal is one that is still outstanding and that remains outstanding until the collective bargaining process has been dealt with. So I can’t speak to the pieces that are in that proposal for our nurses because that, again, is under collective bargaining and the members will have an opportunity to vote on that and so on.
Having said that, I’m going to ask my deputy minister to talk about the other initiatives within the department that are not tied into the collective bargaining process that we’re working on internally.
Some of the things we’re doing internally, as the minister has indicated in earlier discussions, we will be doing a review on the job description of our nurses and see what comparative analysis we can have going with the other jurisdictions in Canada on their job descriptions and have a comparative analysis done on the types of pay and benefits that they provide to their nurses.
So that work is currently on its way and we’re trying to get that started.
I know this is a lot of bureaucracy we’re talking about but that’s where things start in government.
We do have a steering committee that’s been established in the department.
It has had three meetings so far and it includes the regional nurses participating and community nurses participating in that committee, as well as our headquarter types participating in that committee.
We are looking at doing a promotional program for nurses as part of that process, doing some videos, doing some posters, having a recruitment campaign in some of our job fairs down south, running some TV ads, and that kind of work will be happening.
We’re currently working on a terms of reference and the Request for Proposals will be going out in the next... I keep saying in the next two weeks but the two weeks never come, it’s anticipated that the Request for Proposals will be in the papers in the foreseeable future.
We will also have a process started to include a review of the Nursing Program that we have with Arctic College, as we indicated last week, on how we can expand that service to some nurse training program in Rankin Inlet as well as Cambridge Bay, as well as having some foundation here established.
We will be starting those discussions with Arctic College in the next month I’ll say, once our budgets are approved.
So there are a number of things we are doing in-house to get ready for recruitment.
Of course, the government also approved the 12 additional nursing positions to be used as pools for the regional offices.
Those are being currently in the process of getting the job requests for staffing action done for those positions. Those positions will be located in the regional offices, four in Cambridge Bay, four in Rankin Inlet, and four in Pangnirtung.
The purpose of those nurses is to act as pool nurses for the whole of Nunavut. Yes, they’re located in the regional offices but they’re expected to respond to covets for nurses in other communities as well throughout Nunavut.
So there are a number of things that we have started by initiating the steering committee and things like that.
We’re on page H-4 of Health and Social Services. Branch Summary. Directorate.
I just want to follow-up on Mr. Campbell’s last comment.
I wasn’t quite clear if I had missed it or not but he’s just mentioned, as part of this whole thing, that there was going to be an RFP coming forward in a couple of weeks but it never seems to come. Exactly what was that RFP for?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I’ll get the deputy minister to respond.
Mr. Campbell (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) The Request for Proposals will be for a firm, or consultant, or otherwise, a media company to develop a promotional program for our nurses in the way of having posters made for some of our role models, having a video made of nurses working in Nunavut, suggesting a recruitment process down south, developing some promotional material, developing a website for our Nursing Program, and that kind of activity that we want to promote nursing.
Down south, I guess, is where we go.
There is going to be also a recommendation that will be provided to the department on the types of fairs that we should be going into, like job fairs, and what our target audience should be.
So we’re expecting that promotional RFP, as I said, to be out in two weeks.
That’s what I told the minister a couple of weeks ago but I still haven’t seen it on paper, so things are slow and the process has started.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Mr. Campbell for clarifying that.
One of the other things is, I don’t know if it was the minister or Mr. Campbell had mentioned earlier, that they’re looking at reviewing all of the job descriptions and looking at how they would compare to similar work conditions in other jurisdictions.
I think as my good friend from Cambridge Bay that used to be here used to say, “It’s no secret that...” I’m sorry; not Cambridge Bay, Baker Lake.
That one wasn’t a good friend.
He was just a friend.
“It’s no secret that nurses are leaving Nunavut even to southern jurisdictions for better pay and benefit packages.”
So, in looking at that, one could assume that by reviewing the job descriptions and looking at how they compare with other jurisdictions, that we would anticipate that there would be an increase in pay and benefits or pay based on what other jurisdictions are paying their nurses right now. Would that be a fair conclusion to make?
What we have committed to doing, and we have advised the union of this as well, is that we are going to do just that: we’re going to review the job descriptions as it relates to other jurisdictions and how we compare for pay.
So in Nunavut, if we compared a nurse practitioner job and then Alberta, if they’re the same, how do they pay? There might be some discrepancies there. We might be higher; they might be lower, and so on.
What it will allow us to do is to do a comparative analysis as to how we compare with other jurisdictions in the challenges that we face in recruiting nurses.
Once we have that information available to us, then we have to work with the Department of Human Resources and the union to deal with that next step part.
You know we can’t bargain outside the bargaining process.
So respecting that process, what we certainly want to do though is find out where Nunavut stands as it relates to compensation levels for nurses and then using that information to make an informed decision on the next step.
Hopefully, that will also tie in with our committee that we have established with the nurses on the recruitment initiatives process.
I don’t think you would have to look too far at any of the nurses who are leaving or have left; they’ll probably tell you they’re getting paid more somewhere else down south than they are up here, except for the agency nurses.
I’m just wondering, and I think that that’s something that’s long overdue to be done, if the minister could give me an indication as to how soon she feels that that will be done where you would be at the next step of approaching the union on the next steps to go forward if there’s to be any changes.
I can’t say specifically when but what I can say is that we’re going to be working with a group that’s called the Hay Group and Associates to do the review across Canada.
How long that will take them, we have to count that into consideration, and hopefully, sooner than later would be ideal, but we’ll try and get as much of that information ready this year hopefully.
I’m sure all of the nurses and health professionals out there would encourage you to get it done quicker; the sooner the better.
The minister has indicated that this could happen in the next year. Is that what you’re targeting, to try and have it done within the next year?
We would like to try and get it done this year.
I wish you luck in doing that because I think it would really help retain some of the few people that we have left out there in that field this day.
Given that, if it’s done in the next year, I just want to get a confirmation that this budget that we have before us doesn’t reflect any possible increases that may come about as a result of those findings. Is that correct?
Two things: the collective bargaining, as it is right now, is still going on. So any decisions from that are not reflected in here and we’ll have to update that.
Secondary to that question is: should our reviews result in a further review of compensation and eventually, down the road, hopefully we’ll include that additional funding should that be the next step.
So this here does not reflect either of those at this moment.
Chairman (Mr. Barnabas): Thank you, Madam Minister.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for that response.
I guess I can further echo the Minister of Finance’s caution that it’s not only legislative issues that we may have to worry about to eat up the little bit of surplus that we have there, that there are other issues that need to be taken into account as well.
Mr. Chairman, I know that this area deals with the Human Resource Division for the department which is in there and I’m just curious.
I’ll start off with something I mentioned in my opening comments.
In the first two weeks of December, there were seven senior positions - two Executive Directors, four Directors, and an Assistant Deputy Minister - that were advertised I believe in the Nunatsiaq News.
I would think that that’s probably almost all of your senior management; I don’t know how many directors would be left after those seven.
I’m just wondering if there was any reason why we have seen, in such a short period of time, such an exodus of people from the department.
Mr. Campbell (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) As I indicated earlier, the department went through a bit of reorganization at the higher level just to refocus our program delivery and the services we provide to Nunavummiut.
As part of that process, I had put some of the staffing actions on hold until we had this reorganization completed.
In that process as well, we had some unfortunate events as well of one of the executive directors that passed away and passed on, and then we had a resignation from the former ADM of Operations just before Christmas.
So those are things I don’t have any control over.
Before Christmas, as the member said, we had advertised for a Director of Human Resources. We have gone through the screening process and all of the necessary steps required to do that.
We offered a position to somebody; they declined due to various reasons. We’re back to square one. That particular job is going to appear in the paper again at some point.
We advertised for the Director of Clinical Services at the hospital. Again, this position has been advertised before. We advertised for the Director of Health and Social Services in Iqaluit; that’s been filled.
We advertised for the Director of Health Services at the Iqaluit hospital.
We advertised, as I said, for the Executive Director for Population Health. On that particular one, an offer has been made. The candidate is within the government and will be starting in the first week of April.
The Director of Finance position is currently in the recruiting process. The Manager for the Nunavut Women’s Secretariat was advertised and was filled.
We are currently recruiting for the ADM of Operations through an expression of interest.
We are managing that process and positions like that, and I do appreciate the observation.
As I indicated, it was put on hold until the reorganization. There are still a number of key positions in the department that we are using through the Request for Proposal process and having consultants do some of our work for us.
We want to eventually divert and stay away from using consultants and using indeterminate staff to provide these functions for us.
Our capacity right now is running anywhere from I believe it was 37 percent at one point just before the session was opened.
We are having our challenges but we have to deal with these challenges through various contracting of some of the services we need to do immediately.
I can imagine what a strain it’s been on the few people that are still left there in light of, I would say, the majority of your senior management team being gone.
While we’re on the topic of human resources and capacity… you just mentioned those positions and you had indicated that some of them were held back as a result of reorganization.
I note in the department’s Inuit employment numbers over the past few years, in 2004, the department, as a whole, was at 77 percent capacity. The same thing in 2005; they were at 77 percent. In 2006, they were at 77 percent.
The last numbers that we have, that have been provided to us almost a year ago, dropped 11 percent down to 66 percent capacity.
To me, it seems it stayed fairly stable for a few years and then all of a sudden, it has just taken a big jump of 11 percent more people leaving.