Curley: Nunavut to make children’s needs a priority

Tagak Curley, the Nunavut health minister, said March 8 that his department wants to make the needs of children a  priority this year. (FILE PHOTO)

Tagak Curley, the Nunavut health minister, said this week that his department wants to make the needs of children a priority in 2010.

This means revamping Nunavut’s Child and Family Services Act and looking at “the most appropriate ways to support Nunavut’s families, and to protect our children in our communities when they are living in unsafe conditions,” Curley said, speaking at a committee of the whole meeting March 8 in the Nunavut legislature.

Curley said the health department wants to help those at risk, address “social concerns at their roots” and improve health through prevention measures in the communities.

Some of the measures that Curley cited, such as the development of territory land-based and facility-based treatment programs and tobacco reduction have been tried in the past.

“As with any physical addiction, we cannot make people want to stop smoking, “ Curley said.

This year, the health department asked for total spending of $264.5 million, including $541,000 for more surgical nurses at the Qikiqtani Regional Hospital.

Compensation and benefits comprise the largest portion of the budget, adding most of the additional $6 million the department says it will need in 2010.

But Moses Aupalutuk, chair of the standing committee on social wellness, which looks at budget requests from the various departments of the government of Nunavut, said the committee wasn’t convinced the health department asked for enough money.

Supplementary appropriations from the department “are brought forward by the government with disturbing regularity,” he said.

“It is difficult to compare budgets from year to year when the actual costs for each fiscal year are consistently higher than the budget that was approved,” Aupaluktuk said.

The committee also told Curley and his officials that the health department needs an overarching strategic plan for the department so that it doesn’t duplicate the work of other government departments.

As well, MLAs want to see a larger role for community health committees, noting their mandates remain “unclear and there is a lack of guidance, support, and monitoring for their activities.”

James Arvaluk, the MLA for Tununiq, said he wants to see more nutritional advice for families.

“Some people don’t even understand when their children keep crying, they would give pop and chips to their baby, and they don’t understand why the child is hyperactive,” Arvaluk said.

MLAs also want to see fewer agency nurses brought into Nunavut so that Nunavummiut will have access to more stable — and less expensive— health care.

But with a 38 per cent vacancy rate and growing needs in the health department, MLAs didn’t get any promises from the health department to reduce the use of agency nurses.

“The perception is if you have a vacancy of 38 percent, then the department should be saving money. However, what happens is we still have to deliver the services. To deliver the services at the 38 per cent vacancy rates actually costs more money,” Debora Voth, the department’s executive director of corporate services, told the standing committee.

The health department also faces “incredible pressures” from the growing number of patient referrals to southern hospitals, Voth said.

Since 2000, referrals to Ottawa have increased by 63 per cent, she said, while population growth was only 11 per cent.

“So we have population growth, but that’s not the only pressure that we have on health and social services. We also have actual usage by each individual member of the population has increased,” Voth said.

Alex Campbell, the deputy minister, said the GN has hired 61 nurses since 2007, but at the same time there have been 25 resignations, so the net difference is only about 30 nurses.

Campbell admitted his finance staff are already projecting a shortfall for next year.