EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
We wanted to get the guidelines so that funding could be utilized properly.
Are there no guidelines at this time in your department?
The funding normally flows to municipalities or other agencies through contribution agreements.
And in the contribution agreements, there are specific requirements to identify what the funds will be used for and also reporting on the use of those funds.
So, it is in the contribution agreement with each of the organizations receiving grants including municipalities where that service is outlined.
Does the Minister receive any report on how many people have received help for their drug and alcohol addictions?
I don’t know which individual will respond to that question.
I have never found out about that before and now I’m more aware about what goes on with that line item.
Maybe I’ll have my official answer that question.
There are actually normally two requirements under a Contribution Agreement; one if the financial reporting and the other is operational or the service provision part of the Contribution Agreement.
Under my authority, we receive the financial reports.
I assume that, and I’m going to make an assumption because I don’t work in the field, that the operational people in each regional office would receive the program report as to what services were delivered and what not under the Contribution Agreement.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): What I stated earlier, when there are no guidelines, it seems like the Government of Nunavut is just getting rid of the money with no accountability from the hamlet councils.
They are not giving them guidelines and not even evaluating whether it’s positive or negative because the way I look at this now, it’s just being thrown out there.
I want to ask the minister if she is prepared to set up guidelines to assist the communities?
I want to hear those kinds of concerns because I am concerned.
I want to make sure that the funding that is available is being put in a good use.
How many people have been assisted?
I am in full agreement with my colleague, and I will check this further and find out exactly what the contents are, along with my staff.
The question is quite lengthy too, but I will raise my hand later.
Thank you, Ms. Brown and Mr. Blais for responding.
Chairman: I don’t have anybody on my list.
Mr. Alagalak. You can proceed.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): I want to say a few words on the Council for the Disabled.
For those people who are in wheelchairs because there are three of them in Arviat and they come to see my sometimes.
I believe last year that they were sent to Iqaluit for a meeting.
That was a very positive step to those people is physically disabled.
Their only mode of transportation is in a wheelchair.
At that time, in the meeting in Iqaluit, they said they made quite a few recommendations to improve the services.
I wonder what had happened to those recommendations at that meeting.
The Executive Director for Population Health, who I believe was the person who spearheaded that initiative, has taken all of those recommendations and we are looking at how we will implement those over the next few years.
So they haven’t just been taken under advisement.
We are also trying to determine the resources required to implement some those recommendations, and at the same time put a plan in place in order to ensure that some of those recommendations that we think are implementable, are done over the next two or three years.
I don’t have anything to report today, but I can tell you that we are definitely working on those at this point in time.
I was told last spring, that some of the recommendations were going to be implemented right away.
That there should be improvements on their wheelchairs or crutches but looking at this, it says $90,000.
It seems like it was just used for a meeting.
Before 2005-2006 some of these could have been implemented.
It seems like we are just going to go on and on without actually implementing those recommendations.
I wonder if the minister can provide us with those recommendations and what actions have been taken on each recommendation up to date.
What other plans that she has?
Can she provide that to the House?
Yes, I understand my colleague’s concern.
We are falling behind with people with special needs, but we are currently working with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and I will let my Deputy Minister to respond further.
Unfortunately right now, the Executive Director for that particular area is away until April 4.
So I have no on else that I could look to provide that information at this point in time.
We do have an initiative; we are working very closely with Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, we have a task group that’s basically dedicated between our department and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, in looking at the whole issue of people with disabilities as well.
So I can assure you that it’s not because of the lack of action.
Our department has a severe shortage of personnel, and I think as soon as that person comes back, I will be in a better position to respond to providing at least an overview of the recommendations and where we are at with the implementations of it.
I can’t do that until that person returns.
Mr. Alagalak: What you are saying is you are committed to provide that information as soon as you can with that?
Mr. Blais: What I am saying is I will provide it to our minister, and then it will be up to our minister to determine how that information is dealt with.
I assume that the minister will commit to provide that information for us.
Chairman: That’s not a question, so thank you.
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I would like to ask the minister and her officials.
On June 23, Mr. Whitworth stated about the elders in the elders’ facilities.
You said there were going to be investigations and I would like to ask if the policies are the same.
What stage are they at right now?
I am going to let him answer this question and then we are going to break for dinner.
Whenever an incident occurs, we normally look to the professional practice unit to do a review or an investigation depending on the seriousness of the incident.
A report is provided to my office, and then directions provided in terms of any corrective measures.
I believe that issue has been dealt with and corrective measures that have been put in place that were recommended by the review group.
We are going to break for half an hour.
>>Committee recessed at18:23 and resumed at 18:58
Mr. Curley (interpretation): I’ll thank them later.
The other question I wanted to ask. The Custom Adoption Commissioners, how difficult is their job.
What kinds of responsibilities do they have.
I’m pretty sure they spend quite a few hours so I would like to ask the Minister what their responsibilities and how difficult the job is.
Mr. Chairman, I guess I’m not really able to answer that question very well.
I haven’t been involved since coming to Nunavut very much in this particular area because of the other priorities.
I know that, typically the appointments are made by cabinet and that the work appears to be fairly straight forward and simple but that would be just my observation at this point in time.
I want to ask the Minister or her Deputy Minister, I don’t know, maybe they’re not aware how difficult it is for the parents to be and if they’re going to interview the foster parents.
He stated that it seems very simple, maybe it doesn’t require that much paperwork.
I wonder why it’s simpler than foster parents.
Like I said earlier, I said that my observation, and I guess it’s not my...I have not done an in-depth review of the process, but in looking at the application form and the process, it doesn’t look to me like it’s any more complicated than a foster parent, but I would not be speaking with a lot of degree of knowledge on this issue.
Again, it’s basically just the observations that I have observed in looking at the documents normally that are used.
So that’s as much as I can say on that particular issue at this point in time.
My question is that, is there much...application is one thing, paperwork probably involves whether or not social services are somewhat involved or relative to the interview or what not.
So in my view, it’s probably not a one-day or one-hour job, and after all of that work, if the adoption doesn’t go through, what happens to the case?
Again, I am not able to answer that question because as I said earlier, this is not an area that has been an issue since I arrived here 21 months ago.
So there have been no cases or particular issues that have been brought to my attention.
So, again, I am not experienced enough to answer that question.
But I believe though that the deputy minister is responsible for ensuring that all of the rules and regulations within the Department of Health and Social Services are obeyed and complied with, and that goes with the adoption commissioners.
My point is this: if all of the work is involved in preparing adoption, if that work doesn’t succeed, my point is the adoption commissioner doesn’t get paid, particularly the Customs Adoption Commissioner.
So in lieu of that, I would urge the deputy minister, Mr. Chairman, to keep records of whether or not, even statistically exactly how many adoptions are custom adopted, carried out in Nunavut, and the amount of work involved because I am concerned because if this payment system for the commissioner is only based on successful ones, then the incentive is to rule as many as you can because I realize these adoption commissioners may have other jobs, but in some respects, it may be tempting to get one adoption out of the way in order to get paid.
So would it be possible for the deputy minister to bring in a report as to whether or not, include statistics as well as the number of adoptions and so on, and maybe even review the payment system so that it’s not be seen as trying to have more adoptions in order to get paid for the number of adoptions.
Yes, we will commit to provide our minister with a report on the number of adoptions and any other information that would be relevant, and secondly, we will look at the fee schedule that is currently being paid.
Also what happens if someone, if for example, an adoption does not go through, to ensure that the Adoptions Commissioner, who has done all of the work, as to whether they get remunerated or not.
I would agree that that would seem to me unfair if I have done all of the work, and something doesn’t happen, and there has be I think some degree of payment for that.
So we will look into that, and we will bring back to our minister that information.
Mr. Curley: My other question, Mr. Chairman, I heard the deputy minister indicated earlier that there were seven 24-hour elders’ facilities.
I’m not really clear if there are that many.
I know Rankin Inlet has four units or so, elders’ facilities, but it’s not a 24-hour facility.
So, could you clarify that for me because if there are 24-hour facilities other than Iqaluit, which communities are they in.
What I said earlier was that there were seven women’s shelters and I guess the question was in the shelter area.
I was not making any reference at that point in time to elders’ facilities.
Are you then at all making any progress with respect to the 24-hour services, for the facilities for particularly the elders, mainly because I know that in my constituency there was certainly a strong case for that but it appears to have been an incentive to do a market survey for whether or not elder’s 24 hour facilities are needed.
Was it meant to be a market survey?
Whether or not you have established a task force, publicly paid for, I assume there was some members on that task force that are not employees of the government, but they have been paid for by the public which we appropriated through this house.
Also, the taskforce appears to have a non-public responsibility.
Mr. Blais: Okay, I’m going to try and answer that.
I’m sure I’m clear on the question.
First of all, the task group represents mostly all public sectors.
Health and Social Services, the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, Department of Education, in regards to the social support as well as Nunavut Tunngavik Inc and housing.
Those are the key representatives on the task group and of course as you know, the taskforce’s mandate was basically to do a review and to come back with recommendations in regards to the continuum of care for elders.
Of course, there would also be a subset of that that would be focused on elder’s care.
That review is complete.
The report is being drafted and its recommendations and we could expect, some time in early to mid April to submit our recommendations to cabinet for consideration.
I think this is where we are at this point in time.
My point was this, that if the non-government officials can be the custodians, able to read and write, at least read the recommendations and the report, why couldn’t the members of the assembly have some information available to them that may be of use to us in assessing and taking part in at least recommending how we think the direction of the elder’s facility should be established or funded in Nunavut.
Only when we hear from the people, it seems that is when it’s brought to our attention.
What my colleague mentioned makes a lot of sense and the task group was given a directive from the cabinet and my Deputy Minister already stated them.
I think there can be changes made if he has any suggestions as to who should be there and also include Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in there.
I will try to push for that.
So, it will be formed like that because it makes more sense to consult with the people who live in the community and I just wanted to bring that up because I support his comments.
Mr. Curley: Thank you, Minister for her response.
My point is the minister announced today the she was not able to make public or table the recommendation of the task force, so that it being in the point is perhaps on the business of the recommendation from his officials, I would think that you or your Assistant Deputy Minister.
Normally if you have a task force that is established by the government, it’s normally a pretty broad membership and has a pretty public responsibility, to consult, seek advice and so on, and pretty free wheeling kind of advisor group that is seeking comments from the public for the purpose of creating something or a government policy related to it.
Why couldn’t you agree to table that forward so that we as the Members of the Legislative Assembly could take part in giving you some advice rather then just seeing the final recommendation once they’ve been approved.
Obviously my point again was if the non government officials are beneficiaries of the report and recommendations that non government officials, would it be okay to seek copies from them, instead of you guys because we couldn’t get it from you, would that be okay?
Mr. Chairman: Madame Minister.
Hon. Levinia Brown (interpretation): Thank you, the report was completed, but what we are doing now is working on the recommendations. I would also like to have my Deputy Minister to supplement my response.
The report is still in draft form.
We are currently pulling together the recommendation as a result of the extensive review that we’ve done across all jurisdictions.
We’ve been working with Department of Community and Government Services to determine some of the requirements that would have to be put in place.
I don’t see how that report could be made available at this time because it’s not ready to be made available, that’s one reason.
Secondly, this was a direction from cabinet as well, that we come back with a plan and recommendation to look at possible site selection and we were given a very tight time line.
We are working towards that time line as well.
So all I can say is the report is not ready to be tabled or made public, and secondly once it is, then we will, through Cabinet, can decide what course of action is in regards to the communication of that report and the information contained in that report.
Perhaps then the minister could consider one possibility, how the Members of the Legislative Assembly or there group could be incorporated.
Would you include the task force then in consulting with some Members of the Legislative Assembly, or all of them for all that matter, throughout the region?
I’m a bit confused; maybe I can ask the chair, there is no request under our O&M budget for funding for elders care facilities for this year or for Capital Budget.
Again this is one of the recommendations that will have to go forward to Cabinet in regards to funding of this facility, or through the regular process.
There is quite a lot of work yet to be done in regards to getting this whole thing finalized.
I look to my minister in regards to the question from the member, because I’m not in the position at this point to provide that report to you, its not ready, recommendations being drafted and as far as I know it’s to go back to Cabinet.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. So we will not be consulted, the answer I got then is, we got your message, that Members of the Legislative Assembly will not be consulted nor will see the recommendations report until the Cabinets approve the report.
Then in that case, then it will become a policy not just a recommendation.
So all the elders facilities should be established or funded in Nunavut.
Is that what I hear from the Deputy Minister?
Mr. Chairman: Deputy Minister.
The answer to that is no.
There is, at least in our recommendation a recommendation that consultations do occur.
So it is part of the pulling together of that document but under my view is that Cabinet will support our recommendations, one of them will be to consult with communities and regards to the billing of these elders’ facilities, should they be approved.
A question is for the minister and/or Mr. Blais.
In 2004-2005 on page H-20, you said it would inquire to explore women’s health in the areas of mammography therapy, women’s shelters, maternal care and violence against women.
With the transfer of the Status of Women’s Council from the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, to the Health and Social Services Department to adopt the full responsibility for these issues, both are seen as ongoing objectives.
Could you update us on the work that your department is doing for those four priority areas?
In regards to some of the initiatives that we have in place currently, and some of the ones that we are working on, in the area of Maternal and Childcare, as mentioned earlier, we basically have received funding to train 28 Maternal Care Workers, starting this year.
We have established a partnership with Nunavut Arctic College.
We will begin training four this year, 12 next year and 12 the year after that.
So this will address, hopefully Maternal and Child Care Workers will be the frontline workers to do a lot of the pre-natal and preventative things that can be done to improve the births of children and also the welfare of the mothers as well.
So we are looking at 28 people trained in that particular area.
Of course, they will be looked at being placed in all jurisdictions across the communities.
As it relates to other initiatives in regards to women, our department is also a member of the Violence against Women Task Force, which is basically, again a multi-government department membership, mostly at the Deputy Minister level.
We have identified a number of initiatives this year, which Health will be a main partner in those initiatives.
We hope to be able to host we’ll be able host a major forum, which Health will probably sponsor sometime in the fall, September I believe as well.
The whole area of Violence against Women and looking at developing better information systems to track these issues is a major initiative of our department, and also others as well; it is not just our department that is putting that in place.
We are also undertaking a review of all of the shelters across Nunavut and how they are dispersed currently.
We will be looking at trying to develop a needs assessment tool to determine if future shelters are to be built or those accommodations provided then where we should be in the future.
So that work will also be undertaken this fiscal year.
Those are some of the activities that we will be working on in this fiscal year.
I asked the minister in the House on Friday about Violence against Women.
She said that they track incidents of violence against women.
She said that the trend was increasing.
I am wondering if the trend is increasing, if the department looked into why the trend is increasing and what types of activities, or initiatives we can put in place to reverse the trend so it starts to decrease.
I think that there is an area where there is significant cooperation between the Departments of Justice, Education, Health and Housing.
This is the purposes of the Violence against Women Steering Committee.
One of the first things that this group recognized, not only health because this is not only a health issue, this is a multi-departmental issue, recognize that there needed to be a better gathering of statistics and it doesn’t matter if also the RCMP are involved as well.
So one of the first initiatives that all of our departments undertook is to look at how is information being gathered in each of our departments with the hope to be able to quantify more succinctly not only the numbers of people being affected by this but also to determine what strategies we could put in place to address those.
Again, statistics are only as good as the amount of information that you have that gives you the ability to determine what strategies can be put in place.
So this is the work that is under way currently.
We do track through out health centres of course how many women show up in our health centers that are facing those situations.
The RCMP also has tracking systems and other departments and justice as well.
The cooperation now is to bring all of this information together to establish priorities and that’s what we’re working on currently, Mr. Chairman.
Listening to the questions of some of my colleagues earlier about the number of shelters in Nunavut, I recalled the questioning during the Capital Planning session in November.
I think the number at that time was four.
I think we had two then that were closed.
Now I’m hearing seven are open.
The thing that kind of interests me is we have 25 communities in Nunavut and we have only a few shelters, whether it’s four or three or seven.
Why do women have to move out of their house in a small community into a crisis shelter with her kids probably, when it would make more sense to have the person that is hurting them move out of the house?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to move that person out and then the women and their families could stay in their houses.
It just doesn’t add up to me in the smaller communities.
Why do the women and their families have to move into shelters?
Take the one person out and do something with.
Put them somewhere.
Mr. Chairman, if the Minister or Mr. Blais could comment on that.
Chairman: Who would like to answer the question?
I respect the question that’s been raised because it’s a question that our task group, the Violence against Women Steering Committee has asked as well, is there a different way that we could deal with this issue.
You may want to direct that question to the Department of Justice, who is currently doing consultation in communities, for new legislation that they hope to propose that will hopefully reverse or give us the opportunity to do just that.
This is not a health issue.
Health only responds to the needs.
This is an issue that has to be looked at legislatively as well.
So, I think that process is under way, not from Department of Health and Social Services, but from Department of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Blais for that answer.
The reason I was asking that question is because your department is providing $3,350,000 this year.
It’s been increased from last year of $3,091,000 for shelter facilities.
Some of them are women’s shelter facilities.
I’m not sure how many.
If a facility does not exist in a community and a family has to seek emergency shelter, where do they go?
How do you move them to a safe area?
Do you send them out of town?
Do you put them with a family member?