EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I know the rule is to recognize members once, but more and more people in Nunavut have to commute between two communities to do a job and to raise a family and Charlie and I share that. So he is split between Cambridge and Taloyoak so I would like to welcome him to the Gallery as well.
Clare Basler, I worked with and met with him many times on various projects. As well, I want to recognize David General who has done a lot of work for the Government of Nunavut, also when we were tasked with putting the framework together for the decentralization implementation plan. So he was the numbers man for that project.
Again, I would like to recognize him and welcome him to the Gallery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Written Question 014 – 2(3): Government Contract Regulations Made Under the Financial Administration Act (Curley)
I have a question for the Honourable David Simailak, Minister of Finance.
Since April 1, 1999, on what occasions has the Executive Council of Nunavut exercised its authority under Section 5 of the Government Contract Regulations, made under the Financial Administration Act to direct a contract authority to enter into a contract notwithstanding any other provisions of the regulations?
The Executive Council is required by regulation to record its reasons for entering into or directing a contract authority to enter into contracts under Section (1) of the regulations.
What were its reasons for doing so on each occasion referred to in question number 1?
Written Question 015 – 2(3): Intergovernmental Agreements Between the Government of Nunavut and Other Jurisdictions (Tootoo)
This Written Question is for the Honourable Paul Okalik, Minister responsible for Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs, and it has to deal with intergovernmental agreements, and IGA is the acronym, between the Government of Nunavut and other jurisdictions.
We know that on December 4, 2001, the governmental agreements made by the Office of the Interim Commissioner of Nunavut on behalf of Nunavut were tabled in the Legislative Assembly and made available to the public.
Mr. Speaker, the first question is:
Between the period of April 1, 1999 and January 31, 2006, what final intergovernmental agreements did the Government of Nunavut enter into with other jurisdictions?
What were the contents of each of those IGAs?
Between the period of April 1, 1999 and January 31, 2006, what amendments or changes were made to the IGAs that had previously been entered into by the Office of the Interim Commissioner of Nunavut?
Tabled Document 082 – 2(3): P/T – F/P/T Housing Ministers’ Meeting – September 22 to 23, 2005 in Liverpool Nova Scotia (Akesuk)
I wish to table the following document; P/T - F/P/T Housing Ministers’ Meeting - September 22 to 23, 2005 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.
We’ll take a break for 20 minutes.
>>House recessed at 15:09 and Committee resumed at 15:35
We’ll begin. In Committee of the Whole, (interpretation ends) we have the following item to deal with: Bill 12.
We wish to proceed with Bill 12 and continue with the review of the Main Estimates and Business Plan for the Department of Health and Social Services, followed by the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Evyagotailak. Are we in agreement to deal with Bill 12?
For the record, minister, introduce your staff please.
To my left is Dave Ramsden, Deputy Minister, and to my right is Eric Whitworth, the Acting Assistant Deputy Minister.
Chairman: Thank you. I would like to make a reminder to the committee. As a reminder to all members, I ask that you refrain from any activity that will interfere with the proceedings of this committee.
I made a reminder of this yesterday, and I remind you again today.
Yesterday, we were on pages H-8, H-9, and H-10. Are there any further questions?
I welcome the minister and her officials back to the House.
Mr. Chairman, yesterday, I asked a question about what the rates were for foster care in Nunavut, and then we adjourned for the day.
The new rates that were announced in a press release on June 27, 2005 are as follows: the new rates for Rankin Inlet, Cambridge Bay, Pangnirtung, Sanikiluaq, Iqaluit, Kimmirut, Whale Cove, Arviat, Cape Dorset, and Kugluktuk was $43; for Qikiqtarjuaq, Hall Beach, Repulse Bay, Chesterfield Inlet, Clyde River, Igloolik, Baker Lake, and Coral was $45; for Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, and Resolute Bay is $47; for Taloyoak, Gjoa Haven, Grise Fiord, and Kugaaruk is $50.
As well, there was consideration given to foster parents, additional allowances for foster children that required special care.
So, there was a provision for that also.
I wonder if the minister could explain how, and not in great detail, but a little detail on how the Foster Care Program works in the different communities.
First of all, for foster parents, the selection of foster parents, a lot of it is voluntary. Members of the community will identify themselves as expressing interest in becoming foster parents.
During that time, the family is assessed through the social workers and they are provided training, and also have explained to them the guidelines applicable to foster parents which has been published and updated and distributed to every foster parent in Nunavut.
There are also foster parent associations in the Kivalliq as well as in Iqaluit. There is none yet for the Kitikmeot, but the selection of foster parents is voluntary in terms of self-identification by expressing interest. Training and explaining their roles and expectations is done through the social workers.
Thank you, Minister, for the information.
I have heard in some communities, it’s certainly happened in Cambridge Bay over the years, where there are times when we don’t have foster care parents. We do have foster care parents, but we need some more foster care parents.
They just do not seem to be there.
In those situations where we do not have foster care parents available, what does the department do with the children who need care?
The procedure that is followed by the caseworkers is first of all trying to identify an emergency placement for the foster children. If there are no foster parents in the community, then we would have to look at the alternatives of sending that child to other communities where there are foster parents that are willing to take the child.
If there is an emergency, then we have to look outside the community, but every effort is also made to try and recruit and promote being a foster parent through the association. That work is ongoing, but in the cases of emergencies we have to look outside the communities.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for the information.
If the child has relatives in the community and they have not identified themselves as foster care parents, and there are no foster care parents, would the relatives of the child be approached to be foster care parents?
That option is one that is available and if there is a family that has expressed interest in being foster parents, then the procedure would be to work with that family and go through the process of foster parent guidelines and per diems and so on; explaining the roles and our role to the family members who want to be foster parents.
Once a child is in the foster care home, how regularly or often do the social workers visit to ensure that the child is being looked after by the foster care parents?
There are no set procedures on the times the visitation is required, but the relationship of the social worker and the foster parents is quite regular and in that, it also depends on the case and the individual and the foster child himself.
For the most part, it is on a case-by-case with each child.
So in terms of a guideline whether you are required to visit once a week or sooner, there is no procedure like that in place, but rather the social worker handling the file makes a determination based on her judgment and the evaluation of the situation when and how frequent those visitation will be.
I guess what I’m concerned about is that there may be people who are screened to be foster care parents, I think most adults that look after the children, but there may be foster care parents out there who were screened to be foster care parents, but when they take in the foster care children, they don’t look after them as well as the children should be looked after.
I’m wondering in those situations, how do you identify that the foster care parent that isn’t caring for the children to the standard that the department wishes the kid to be looked after?
And what do they do in that situation; do you take the kid out and find other foster care parents? What would you do?
The social worker or the case manager of that particular situation would make those assessments based on the child’s needs as well as the foster parents. There’s an evaluation and training that is also applied for foster parents.
And if the social worker determines that the child is better off with another foster parent and there are concerns with that then the steps would be taken to address that.
But of course, the social worker involved with the file would make that assessment call. If there are concerns, then the necessary steps would be taken to correct that situation.
In situations where a foster care family is living in a house where they already have three or four kids of their own, or other foster children, and it’s a two or three-bedroom house where they are clearly living in an overcrowded house, would the department put a foster care child with a family that’s living in a house that has overcrowded living conditions?
Normally, we would expect the child to have a bed to sleep on and not have to sleep on the floor.
Do you assess those kinds of conditions?
When a person expresses interest to be a foster parent, then those situations and conditions are reviewed by the social worker and determinations are made.
Sometimes in cases like I mentioned, we have to look at emergency shelters or emergency assistance from foster parents in the communities and depending on the situation.
If there is a specific concern of that nature in Cambridge Bay or in the communities, we would like to hear about that, but we have to look at it in the context of what and explain what or review the situation and go from there.
I’m not aware of any specific case like that in Cambridge Bay; I’m just sort of applying common sense logic, knowing the current conditions around Nunavut in many communities where families are living in overcrowded housing situations.
It’s well documented. I don’t think you want to put a child into those types of conditions.
Can the minister tell the House how many children are currently in the protection of the Department of Health and Social Services under the Child and Family Services Act?
The June statistics showed that there were, at present, 295 foster homes and on average, 325 children are in care each month.
I thank the minister for those numbers.
Could the minister tell us how many group home facilities are located in Nunavut and where they are located?
I’m going to list the communities off the top of my head while Eric is looking for the list.
There is one in Cambridge Bay, one in Iqaluit, one in Rankin Inlet.
Perhaps the member can clarify. Are you looking for information on children’s group homes or adult group homes?
I’m looking for information on children’s group homes.
The information that I have is that there is a group home in the Kitikmeot Region, which is in Cambridge Bay, one in the Kivalliq Region and one in Iqaluit.
In those three group home facilities for children, how many beds would be available for the children?
In total, approximately 25.
So, it appears that we have a huge dependency on foster care parents if you have on average 325 children a month in foster care. If 25 are in group homes, 300 are with foster care parents.
My final question on foster care for the minister: can the minister comment on whether it’s possible for foster care parents to abuse the program by simply taking in 3, 4, or 5 kids into their homes at $43 each, depending on which community you’re in?
It appears to be a very lucrative opportunity if it’s $43 per kid per day; 30 or 31 days a month.
It’s open for abuse if there are people out there that would stoop to that level.
I finally found the list that I was looking for.
I think there has to be a distinction made here. The group homes that I listed are a bit different than the foster parent program in terms of service provided.
The group homes provide services to children in need of care of medical and so on. So that’s a little bit different than placing children in foster parent homes.
In the case of placing children with foster parents, again, the caseworkers review the situation before placing children in every home. Not every foster parent can take in four or five children.
If the foster parents are doing a good job, certainly the social workers would work with those individuals on a regular basis.
At the same time, I think, to say it’s a lucrative deal, I wouldn’t say it’s a lucrative deal. It’s a need that we have in Nunavut, and the service provided by the foster parents is a service that we appreciate on behalf of the children that are unfortunately in the situation.
So every effort is taken by the social workers to ensure those children are protected and are treated fairly or adequately by foster parents.
So I hear what the member is saying, but each social worker that is managing the file would review those situations and placements as the needs arise.
I apologize if I have misunderstood the group home facility.
I was looking at the annual report that the Director of Child and Family Services wrote for 2005 and on page 8, he mentioned in the year 2004-05, there were 433 children receiving services in Nunavut under the Child and Family Services Act; 46 were out of territory placements due to medical or behavioural problems; 284 of these children resided in approved foster placements/extended family placements; 19 reside in Nunavut group homes; and 70 children remain in the family home while receiving the service. I took it to mean that the group homes were for children who needed special care.
So maybe the director should clarify that when he publishes his next report.
With respect to the comments about a lucrative deal, I don’t mean to imply that there are any foster care parents out there that are doing that.
I would like to think and hope that foster care parents are taking in kids and looking after them as they come under the protection of the Government of Nunavut. That’s why we have that program.
I am hoping that the social workers who place the children in the foster care homes are regularly visiting the foster care parents, and the foster care homes, to see how the kids are doing.
I think they have to do those kinds of follow-up reports. I know there are files kept on all the children in the care of the Department of Social Services. So I am just hoping there are regular visits to make sure that the kids are doing well and are being treated well and they are having a happy life while they are in the care of the foster care parents.
I don’t mean to imply that there is anything underhanded going on, but there is the potential for that kind of stuff in any government program where there is money being provided, if there isn’t follow up and inspections.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to go to page H-9, and under Contributions, Shelter Programs, there is $3,350,000 budgeted for shelter programs in 2005-06. In 2006-07, it’s been reduced to $1,956,000.
This is funding towards organizations providing shelter facilities accommodating special needs individuals such as women’s shelters and elder’s facilities.
I wonder if the minister could explain why there is a large decrease in 2006-07.
First of all I would just like to, again, clarify for the record the information that is listed in the Superintendent of Child Welfare’s Report includes not just foster children, but also children that are in care in our facilities. That could include children in beds in Iqaluit.
The children are in that care because the parents would not have relinquished the right to those children, but those children are in our care because of their medical condition. So the facilities are a little bit different. It’s combined in that report and I think we have to look at that from the broader context of the line of questioning on foster parents.
Just to go back to the member’s question, the transfer. The difference here was a transfer of functions and contracts for contribution services back to compensation and benefits to back to the government, and the mental health facility in Iqaluit was, in the past, contracted out and that has come back to Nunavut Health and Social Services.
I thank the minister for clarifying all of that.
Can the minister tell us how many shelters there are in Nunavut for women and elders’ facilities under this program?
There are eight shelter programs.
I thank the minister for that information. Can the minister explain to the House how each shelter in Nunavut...how it is determined how much money they will get for their operations?
The Shelter Program that we have contribution arrangements or agreements with would, again, depend on the size of the facility and the types of programs and services that are offered in those facilities.
I will give you an example. In the case of assisted independent living for elders’ facilities, there is some assistance provided by the Department of Health to assist our seniors or elders in living independently, and then there are other programs where we have elders that require 24/7 care.
So there’s a difference in that type of service arrangement so the cost would be factored around that and based on the type of facility that’s being operated that would basically outline what funding would be required to manage those facilities.
I thank the minister for that information. On the same page, there’s a program called ‘Alcohol and Drug Programs,’ funding to Nunavut municipalities to provide alcohol and drug treatment programs.
Can the minister comment on whether she has had discussions with the Minister of Finance to talk about using some of the taxes and fines collected through the Nunavut Liquor Act to redirect them directly to the alcohol and drug treatment programs?
Your time is up, if you have any more questions, you may let me know.
As the former Minister responsible for Liquor, it is something that I had explored or considered in terms of options of how we can address the whole area of prevention and abuse prevention, but it has not gone to basically directing the taxes collected towards that specific file because everything goes through the general revenue.
In relation or in ratio of how much we spend in prevention programs, there’s no connection made to that current sales of liquor in Nunavut.
So other than having some discussion around that idea, I have not taken that file further to the Minister of Finance and Liquor.
We are on page H-8, H-9, and H-10. The main estimates.
On H-8, there is a considerable amount of funds under Contract Services. Since 2004-05, 2005-06 has remained steady at around $13 million and now it jumped up to $15 million. I’m just wondering if I can get an explanation for that.
That increase is in residential care and that’s costs for in and out-of-territory placements of $1.14 million, an increase in the mental health for out-of-territory replacement of $729,000, and that would be the difference between the previous year to this year.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What other contract services fall under that category?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: The font gets smaller.
I can list and there’s a broad list of contract services that we provide under this particular section. Examples are out-of-territory placements that I mentioned, as well as the placements that we have in Nunavut within Iqaluit such as the elders’ facility, the youth facility, Rankin Inlet youth/elders’ facility, Baker Lake facility, Cambridge Bay; so all that falls under the same category.
I know my colleague touched briefly about the decrease in funding for the shelters, but another area I think isn’t here that should be touched on, and he has also mentioned the fact of $949,000 for alcohol and drug programs and that has been pretty stable, but also with the Status of Women and Family Violence core funding budget has just been stable at $250,000.
And I guess given the fact that we unanimously passed a motion here in the House in regard to family violence, I’m just wondering if there are any plans at looking at increasing funding there to help in that area.
Recently, in November or December, actually, sorry, in January, the members will know that for the very first time a symposium was held in Nunavut to bring a number of service providers in all around the whole issue of violence against women.
This symposium was held in January and from that conference, we are expecting specific recommendations on how we can improve providing services to victims of violence throughout Nunavut. Once we have that information before us, I will be able to respond to the recommendations that we are expecting that will come out of that symposium.
The symposium, of course, attracted a number of people across Nunavut, so there were a lot of individuals that participated, over 100, I believe, in that. We are anticipating that comprehensive recommendations will come out of that.
So having said that, in terms of responding to the $250,000 that the member made reference to, that specific funding goes toward the Qulliit Status of Women Council, the advocacy group, but does not go towards any programs for victims of violence or the five shelters in Nunavut that we operate for violence against women.
Mr. Tootoo: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know that the minister just indicated that there are five facilities across the territories for dealing with the violence against women, people that need a safe place to go.
Another place that is becoming unfortunately more and more apparent, especially here in Iqaluit, is the fact that there is a growing number of homeless women.
I’m just wondering if there are any thoughts of looking at ways to try and address that issue through the Status of Women Council or through the department looking at gearing any funds to try and help address that issue.
I know that the shelter here has turned away women. Women aren’t able to go to the homeless shelter here. I’ve had a few individuals in town mention to me that the men have a nice new shelter, and I know that falls under the Minister responsible for Homelessness, but as far as from the Department of Health and Social Services point of view, look at somehow trying to address that issue as well?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is a very good point. I know that in my meetings with the Qulliit Status of Women Council members, they have been very active in trying to push that whole issue forward as an advocacy group for women.
What those recommendations will be that that came out of their study, that’s something that we can certainly look into. Unfortunately, as it is right now, the shelters that we operate are strictly for victims of violence and not homeless women.
I can certainly meet with my colleague, the Minister responsible for Homelessness just on that issue and see what we can try and come up with to assist with that issue as issues affecting women.
I would like to thank the minister for that.
I’m sure the Homeless Minister will be more than happy to sit down and meet with you to try and come up with a palatable solution that can provide some shelter to women that are homeless here in the Capital.
Mr. Chairman, my next question is; I mentioned in a Member’s Statement earlier in the sitting about help for people with children with disabilities.
I’m just wondering, the minister mentioned under contract services for out of territory health and that, under any of those contracts or anything that there is there to help young people with disabilities, are all those contracts under this division here?
The facility such as the one in Chesterfield Inlet falls into that category.