Julie Green

Thank you. I am going to give two kinds of answers here. The first is specifically to family violence shelters. That's what this line item is for. In 2019-2020, there were new standards adopted for family violence shelters and a new funding model. While it looks like it hasn't gone up much, it actually did go up just right before the numbers that are in this budget. This pot of money is spent on the five shelters that we have in the NWT.

In terms of family violence prevention, that issue is really a whole-of-government issue. Health and Social Services has started to have conversations with...

Thank you. It's my understanding that the point of this RFP is to find out what is possible in terms of creating alternatives for the level of needs that people have, which is the reason that they live out of the territory in the first place. I would like to refer to the deputy minister for additional detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a Cultural Safety Action Plan in effect at this time, and there have been a number of pilot projects that have determined what the best method is of providing this information to Health and Social Services staff. Now that there have been 13 of these pilots that have taken place, there is a model that has been settled on. It will be compiled into a framework, and the framework will be available to us this summer, the summer of 2021. I just want to say that, before it is rolled out to us, this framework will go to the NWT Health and Social Services Authority...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These four positions are funded under the First Nations and Inuit Home and Community Care funding. The first is a senior nursing consultant. The second is a project manager. There are two health planners in continuing care. All of these positions are located at headquarters where the rest of our policy functions are located. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm not going to get to the right page in time, but I am going to say that it is within health and social programs, and I see the deputy minister is nodding.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this point, we have expressions of interest from two Indigenous government organizations, and the lead on that is the territorial director of Child and Family Services. It's my understanding that, at this point, there isn't a need for additional staff, but we certainly don't want to hold up the process. The legislation provides timing for coming up with agreements once the negotiations officially start. If it turns out that we are not adequately staffed, we would certainly address that with a supplementary, if necessary. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. Once again to the deputy minister.

Yes. Thank you. We recently completed a long-term care bed study, and for that, we used 10 years of data that tracked what age people were when they went into long-term care and what level of acuity they were at in terms of service need. We have a pretty good idea of when people need to move out of their independent living. We also, of course, provide homecare throughout the NWT, so there are metrics about how many people require homecare and what kinds of services they need. For more detail, though, I'll ask, Mr. Chair, if I can refer this question onto the deputy minister.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The explanation is that we historically have shortfalls in this area where we exceed the budget. In 2019-2020, that shortfall was $11.8 million for hospital services and another $2.4 million for out-of-territory physician services. That combined shortfall was addressed through a supplementary appropriation. I don't see that that has been necessary in the current fiscal year that will end next month, but I think that further detail could be provided by the director of finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make sure I am on the right page. Could the Member please say which page she is referring to?