EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
My understanding is that, annually, there’s a program for renovating these older houses all across the territory, but I’ll have to confirm with the member.
Could the minister provide me with the number of houses that need renovations or how many houses they anticipate they will need to renovate this year?
Question 426 – 2(4): Status of Disaster Assistance Policy for the Government of Nunavut (Curley)
As the minister is aware, prior to division in 1999, the Government of the Northwest Territories had a formal Disaster Assistance Policy.
This policy enabled the government to provide financial assistance to community governments, small businesses or residents who suffered damage as a result of a disaster.
It is my understanding that the GN’s own Disaster Assistance Policy expired in 2001.
Can the minister indicate to the House today the current status of her department’s efforts to develop a new Disaster Assistance Policy for Nunavut?
Our department has been continually working on the disaster policy with the federal government.
To date, we’re still working on the framework. Due to it being such a huge task, we haven’t completed it yet.
We do have something for the communities, but we’re still working on the Disaster Assistance Policy.
It is my understanding that this issue was scheduled to be discussed at a meeting of the Nunavut Association of Municipal Administrators held in Iqaluit last September.
Can the minister indicate to the House today what feedback her department received on this issue?
The regions are working on this issue along with the hamlets and the Nunavut Association of Municipalities.
I had asked them to set up a report and once it’s completed, I will table it in the House.
As you probably know, there might have been some loss of property or other items in Rankin Inlet after the recent disaster. Can the minister indicate to me what financial assistance may be made to residents and businesses in Rankin Inlet that have suffered damage or financial losses as a result of the recent state of emergency in Rankin Inlet?
Just a brief note, there are slight differences. There is a Natural Disaster Fund, where we have to go through the federal government. The one in Rankin Inlet was a local emergency and I’m sure that there has been damage or financial loss.
If there are any claims, they can submit them to Community and Government Services, and again, in the community, we set up an Emergency Preparedness Plan and it also goes through the Emergency Measures Act that was passed in November 2007.
In the fall we just dealt with Bill12, and as I stated earlier, we had a Disaster Assistance Policy under the Government of the Northwest Territories but it expired in 2001, so I would like to ask my final question to the minister.
As the minister will recall, the Legislative Assembly recently passed Bill 12, Nunavut’s new Emergency Measures Act.
Can the minister indicate to me today the status of bringing forward new regulations under the Act?
We are still reviewing the Emergency Measures Act and I’m sure that it will be coming back. There is a process that we have to go through in bringing up new regulations and once they’re ready, we’ll make sure that the copies are available.
Question 427 – 2(4): $89.1 Million Contingency Fund (Tootoo)
Mr. Speaker in the minister’s Budget Address, he indicated that he was pleased to announce that for 2008-09, the government expects a $4.5 million surplus and he indicated that while this was good news, he cautioned us that as we pass important legislation in this upcoming fiscal year, we will need to set aside monies for implementation.
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Education had indicated that the proposed Education Act would cost $14 million.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance: if the Education Act was passed, would that then change the $4.5 million surplus into a roughly $10 million deficit?
We have $89 million that is in the contingency plan and we don’t know exactly what is going to happen at this point.
We will have to wait until the bills are enacted before we can make any assumptions.
We won’t go into a deficit; we have a contingency plan should those bills be enacted in the House for their implementation.
I know I had asked earlier during the session what that $89.1 million contingency was, and in his statement, he said that they have also set aside that contingency amount of $89.1 million, but when I read, “I caution members, as we pass important legislation this upcoming fiscal year, we will need to set aside monies for implementation.”
I would have read that as that $89 million was set aside already and his comments, “We will need to set aside monies for implementation,” that that money had not yet been set aside.
Can the minister confirm then that monies have been set aside for legislation and they are included in that $89.1 million contingency money?
This $89 million is for three purposes.
One is for the implementation of the bills and we have three on the table right now. Once those are enacted, the monies for the implementation will come out of the $89 million.
The second is that we have the contingency plan for emergency cases, for example, where one of our facilities should go up in flames.
The third is again a contingency plan for employees and if the government has to deal with something to do with negotiations.
There are three specific purposes under the $89.1 million contingency plan.
I thank the minister for that and I’m still waiting for a list or a breakdown of the amounts for each area that he committed to providing to us earlier in this sitting.
Mr. Speaker, the minister indicated three pieces of legislation. I would assume that the other two are the two Language Bills that are before the committee. Can he indicate how much they have set aside for those two pieces of legislation?
Once the Languages Bills are passed, we have $1.2 million from the Languages Commissioner’s Office and we will provide $6.9 million every year for teachers that will provide Inuktitut language training throughout Nunavut.
The government employees will need to be trained to speak in Inuktitut, so the $23 million will be put in for training and for interpreters and translators.
The hamlets in the communities will also be receiving $4.85 million every year to assist them for their council meetings and for their signs and everything that is pertaining to the offices and signs in the community.
So we will be using approximately $16 million.
I just wanted to confirm then if my hearing was correct, if there’s $16 million for those two Language Bills and $14 million for the Education Act; that’s $30 million for those two pieces of legislation.
Hon. Louis Tapardjuk (interpretation): That $16 million is for the Language Bills and not for the Education Act.
The $16 million that I mentioned, it states in the Act that it will be used for the people that are learning to speak Inuktitut, and $6.9 million will be set aside for teacher training, ETEP.
That $16 million would be for languages and we would not be using the funds all at one time for those things, but as we go along it will be obvious that we wouldn’t be using the money right away but it’s going to be a progress and those are the funds that we have set aside.
Member for Nattilik and Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Aglukkaq.
Tabled Document 184 – 2(4): Foster Parent Handbook (Aglukkaq)
As per my commitment to the Members in Committee of the Whole, I’m tabling the Foster Parent Handbook which details requirements for foster homes and is provided as information to foster parents as well.
>>House recessed at 15:15 and Committee resumed at 15:42
Chairman (Mr. Arreak): Welcome back, Members.
Mr. Kattuk: Mr. Chairman, we wish to continue with Bill 23 and the review of the Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services.
If time permits, we would commence with the review of the Department of Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Kattuk. Are we in agreement we continue with the Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services?
(interpretation ends) Welcome back, Minister.
For the record, please introduce your witnesses, minister.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is Alex Campbell, the Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services, and to my right is Raj Downe, the Assistant Deputy Minister for Health and Social Services.
We’re on page H-6 of Health and Social Services. Branch Summary.
Public Health. Are there any questions on this page? There being none, Public Health.
Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted. $6,637,000.
Page H-7. Branch Summary. Health and Social Services.
Treatment. Mr. Mapsalak.
I have a fairly short question to this section and I’m sure my colleagues will also have questions.
Mr. Chairman, we are all aware that, particularly in our constituencies, the people we represent come to voice their concerns, especially with regards to medical travel patients and people that are going to southern hospitals from their home communities.
In the Kivalliq region, as an example, in Repulse Bay, medical travel patients have many stops in a number of communities before actually arriving in Winnipeg and sometimes they arrive in Winnipeg late at night, even after midnight. So I would like to ask a question in this regard.
When there is a person who is very sick and they’re travelling on milk runs, they either have to stop in all or most of these communities: Coral Harbour, Rankin Inlet, Churchill, and Thompson; until they finally arrive in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
If the plane experiences any issues, or if it goes mechanical, they end up having to stay overnight at one of the stops along the way.
I would like to ask the minister this question: is there a poster posted at the airports, along with phone numbers where they can call in case of emergencies if they require assistance at all of those scheduled stops?
I do know, in centres where we refer our clients, there are signs in the airports for phone numbers, but every other stop, I’m not aware of that. I would have to check that.
Mr. Mapsalak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to thank the minister for her response.
We have been experiencing problems with this issue with more than one patient.
When the plane cannot make it, they have to leave some patients behind at one of those stops and they get into a predicament because they don’t know who to call when this happens, especially in Thompson, Manitoba, because that’s one of the communities that the planes stop in.
I don’t think there is even anything in Churchill, Manitoba. If a patient got stuck on their way or coming back from the hospital, there’s absolutely nothing for them. They don’t know where to call and there’s no telephone numbers provided.
Some patients can’t even afford to make the phone call when they get into that situation and they don’t know what to do. They get totally confused because they’re not in their home community.
Perhaps you should provide a toll-free number where the patients can call when they get stuck and don’t know where to go. If there’s no such thing at those stops, would she be able to provide them with that?
I forgot to mention earlier in my response; we now have handbooks for every person that is travelling on medical travel under the revised Client Travel Guidelines that outline information for the patient that is travelling. I believe there are phone numbers in that booklet; I had them at my desk this week but they must be upstairs.
So I don’t know if there’s a 1-800 number there or not, but there are contact numbers for everyone who is travelling from the Baffin, Kitikmeot, and Kivalliq that is given to every patient that goes out.
It also explains what to expect as a patient from the services provided by the Department of Health and/or by the boarding homes. So there is that booklet.
I also tabled not the final print of it but the actual policy in the House and the new formatted version is also available. I forgot to mention that earlier.
I’ll double-check to see in the booklet if there are those 1-800 numbers as you suggested.
It would be beneficial if you could provide a toll-free number in their handbook.
Perhaps I’ll ask another question.
If patients go down on medical travel and the plane goes mechanical or is grounded for any other reason, regardless of the airline, do patients pay for their own accommodations when they are unable to continue their travel or does the Department of Health and Social Services cover those costs?
There are two responses to that.
In cases where a person is travelling and a flight goes mechanical en route, normally, the airlines would cover the hotels for those travelling passengers.
Once they are able to travel again, they’re on that flight to continue on or they’re rebooked on a different flight to go.
In cases where your boarding pass, when you travel, like everyone else, if it’s stamped that you may not land because of weather and you land at the alternate, then we would cover that.
Mr. Mapsalak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to thank the minister.
Does the department inform the patients when that occurs, or are patients informed prior to them having to stay in a community?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: In cases where it’s due to weather at the airport, yes, they’re advised as they board the plane and that’s when they stamp your boarding pass.
In cases where it’s unexpected mechanical, of course, the airlines would then have to contact all of the passengers on the plane of the delays and so on when it occurs.
I’ll talk a bit about billeting. I know the boarding homes are provided with 1-800 numbers but I don’t think they are provided that information on their way back.
Nowadays, we use computers to talk with each other and it’s free when they have an email account because they can email each other.
Do they provide Internet services in the boarding homes?
Regarding hospitals providing Internet services, I don’t have an answer for that.
I do know, in some boarding homes, that they have taken the initiative to install Internet and that’s the contract service providers that do that on their own initiative as far as I know.
I think that there’s one that I am aware of. I don’t know if they all have Internet access in every boarding home and those are contracted services.
I would have to contact the service providers to find that out.
I also would like to thank the minister.
This is my last question. The Internet service is very beneficial and is in the interest of the public. The patients provide information to their family members using the Internet, so it’s being used widely.
Maybe the minister can consult with the boarding homes to see if they can provide wireless Internet services.
We will review the contracts and see if that can be included in the new contracts.
As well, we’ll find out which boarding homes presently provide that service and get that information to the member.
We’re on page H-7. I have no more names.
I have questions in regard to this page. Sometimes we don’t really understand Inuktitut but my question is in regard to medical treatment.
They have a priority in the business plan on page H-22. Their first priority for this coming year is “To increase physician recruitment” in the department.
I would like to ask the minister how they will proceed with their priority to increase physician recruitment in the Kivalliq region. How will this occur?
I will have the deputy minister respond to that as part of the overall implementation plan for the Kivalliq region.
As we have stated earlier in the presentations, we do have the implementation plans approved now for the three regional facilities in Nunavut.
As part of that process, there’s going to be recruitment of health professionals to the regional centres.
We continue to be challenged in recruiting for doctors like we do with nurses, so we’ll continue to provide strategies to attract doctors.
Yes, it would be ideal if we can be informed about the regions, not just the headquarters or not just in the department’s recruitment plan, but if you can make the copies available for recruitment plans in the communities.
I believe that the municipalities have to be informed about the strategies. Due to a lack of consultation with the municipalities, the problems increase. Perhaps, you can change the way in which you provide information, such as coming up with a plan so that we don’t work in a centralized fashion.
As long as the ministers know and the deputy ministers know, (interpretation ends) what about the rest of the population?
(interpretation) That centralization has to stop.
For that reason, the minister or your deputy can elaborate to us about their fist priority, “To increase physician recruitment,” so that the public or the communities can be better informed about the plans. So I was wondering if you could provide that strategy to us.
The implementation plan for the three facilities; we had just finalized that in early February and I will commit to having information sessions at the municipality level through our executive directors in the regions.
The three directors in the regions have been working really hard to put the plan together that outlines what services will be in place, what resources would be needed, and what kind of services would this result in with the expanded services or expanded facilities.
So I agree with the member.
I will commit to having a communication strategy established on the implementation of that plan amongst the other programs that we have also in place.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. Yes, I appreciate that response.
I think it’s critically important that we begin to understand. I’m not a 100 percent sure whether or not the local health committees in communities have any role in that, but if they do have any role, then it is also important to communicate with them.
Someone would have to communicate that responsibility to pass that information on to local communities; I will not get involved in that one.
The second point that I wanted to address is that, and I alluded to it earlier in my opening comments, the government appears to enjoy this very centralized administration of whatever - health delivery or even medical.
I have tried and tried to ask the minister, in my comments a few weeks ago, that: would it not be timely now to assess whether or not the administrators should be considered for each region and separate politics from delivery so that the health centres as well as hospitals would have a more independent administrator who looks after all the concerns of the medical profession and nurses, so that we, in the regions, don’t interfere with their work when there are public complaints and so on?
I wonder if the minister or her deputy could explain whether or not the current system is working or not.
To some of us, it appears to be one of our biggest weaknesses because we haven’t modernized it to today’s reality.
There’s always room for improvement in the delivery of any program in the territory.
Presently with Health, I would say the opposite, that we’re very highly decentralized. We have facilities and services in every community - there are 25 communities - and then we have three regional centres that deliver those programs with the support from each region - Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet, and Pangnirtung for the Baffin - and so on.
So that was a model that was approved through NIC, and so on, in those days and the one that is in place.
In terms of centralized, headquarters is in the area of policy and we try and deliver programs at the community and regional levels.
That’s the only way we can deliver our programs and services.
Perhaps, I do not understand exactly what the member refers to in terms of centralized services but I believe Health and Social Services is very decentralized in its services at the community level.
I believe my point, made more than once, has been quite clear.
I’m not at all asking questions about the facilities as they are because medical facilities and treatment centres are required anywhere.
What I’m talking about is decision making and management of health and medical in terms of the way in which who decides, and even if we have a complaint right now, if the complaint were to come in that a medical patient is coming out and didn’t get on the plane, it could easily get political because we don’t have any health administrators or local concerns of health centres in the smaller communities.
The issues can go directly to the deputy minister in a very short time when it shouldn’t even be so. That should be addressed, in my opinion, by having a better system and by having arms length health administrators in the regions.
I’m not asking for a response immediately but it’s worth thinking about so we depoliticize the role of the administrator who would deal directly with the nursing profession concerns and day-to-day issues, and we, as politicians, deal with the policy issues.  I gave an example the other day; the minute I email the director in the region, he won’t respond to me.
And, I need the response immediately. So that’s the kind of thing I’m asking.
Would it be possible to have a review, or at least an exercise go on, to see whether or not we can improve the efficiency of administration and response to serve not only our politicians but nurses and physicians as well as the local concerns?
(interpretation) That’s all.
I will commit to reviewing what he has suggested to us.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. The second priority that you have in there for 2008-09 is to “Develop and implement a Nunavut-wide quality assurance framework.”
Can you explain to us exactly what that means?
I’ll have my deputy minister respond to that.
Mr. Campbell (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) When we talk about quality assurance, we’re talking about, first of all, the level of service that the hospitals, the regional health centres, and the community health centres provide, and the standards of those facilities and the standards of the programs and services that are delivered at the regional health centres as well as the hospital here.
We’re talking about accreditation of the hospital here primarily over the next year - the Qikiqtani General Hospital.
So when we talk about quality assurance, we’re talking about making sure that our standards are being met across Nunavut.
As I said as well yesterday, we have developed the Programs and Standards Branch now of the department with an ADM responsible for that branch.
Part of our priority is to make sure that the policies and procedures that we have currently in place in the department are reviewed and revised according to national and territorial standards.
I addressed that issue sometime ago; I think it was last year and I’m not sure whether the current deputy minister was there then.
By the fact that when it deals with the issue of health services accreditation, I believe for the Baffin region, this local regional hospital here is the only one that is subject to that issue, but it is a voluntary service provided by the professions in Canada.
So I’m wondering why a voluntary initiative like that would have to involve so much of the department’s concern when they, in fact, could continue the volunteer service, unless you have plans to expand it to the other two regions. Is that the case as well?
The accreditation, the member is correct; it is a volunteer service that we participate in and it sets standards that are recognized across Canada. For us to participate in that is a method of measuring where we stand as it relates to other jurisdictions in the various standards identified in the accreditation process.
Some of the initiatives within that also impact our recruitment. There are some physicians that would prefer to work in hospitals that have been accredited, and so on, so there’s some merit to it in that way as well.
As part of the whole Accreditation Working Group and our partnership with the Canadian Accreditation Organization, we’re also looking at passing that assessment. The territorial quality assurance framework is being developed to extend that to our health centres in Nunavut once the accreditation review for here has been completed.