Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank the Minister for his exhaustive and detailed introduction to the department. I guess it indicates that the Minister has recognized that the Standing Committee on Finance has expressed some serious concerns about the operation of the department. Without anything further, Mr. Chairman, I will get into reading our report.
Mr. Chairman, of all departments reviewed, this department is the one that gives the committee most cause for concern. Committee Members are extremely frustrated with the absence of leadership and the lack of responsiveness demonstrated by the department.
Although, on the surface, the department appears to be doing all right in a fiscal sense, committee Members are disappointed with many other aspects of the department's work. The department's management appears too clinical, too technical and lacking in sensitivity to the needs of their clients. Cultural values and traditional knowledge are often ignored. The department has not responded to recommendations of committees of the Legislative Assembly or the Auditor General. The management style of the Department of Health is characterized by reacting to crises, with no planning or policy development. The department appears, in fact, to be operating in a policy vacuum.
A specific example, brought to the attention of the committee, involves medevac policy. The Government of the Northwest Territories assumed responsibility for the delivery of health care in 1988. Medical evacuation flights are a key component of acute health care. It is, therefore, incomprehensible that the department is only now starting to create a policy and develop standards regarding medevacs.
The committee is aware that there are many people working on the front line, delivering health services, who are dedicated, committed and responsive to the needs of their clients. Members observe a growing sense of frustration among these people, as well. It is at the senior management level that drastic and immediate action is required.
Although the Minister indicated that departmental responses to previous recommendations are about to be published, they were not yet available to the committee at the time of this writing. Mr. Chairman, I should point out that there has been a document distributed to Members of the Standing Committee on Finance this afternoon which appear to respond to some of those recommendations. But, Mr. Chairman, countless recommendations have been directed at this department for years, with no satisfactory response. Many of the recommendations not yet addressed by the department are two or three years old and there is no excuse for the department's failure to respond. The Standing Committee on Finance is adamant about the need for the department to demonstrate significant improvement in the next fiscal year.
Since the budget presented for the Department of Health contains no apparent provision for responding to committees of this legislature, the Standing Committee on Finance will not recommend approval of this department's budget until an adequate response to the following recommendation has been received:
Recommendation 20
Mr. Chairman, the committee recommends that the Department of Health develop a concrete plan for implementing the recommendations of the following groups:
-the Auditor General of Canada;
-the Standing Committee on Public Accounts;
-the Special Committee on Health and Social Services;
-the Standing Committee on Agencies, Boards and Commissions; and,
-the Standing Committee on Finance.
The committee further recommends that the department report on how they plan to improve policy development capability within the department. Mr. Chairman, I reiterate, the committee expects the department to present its implementation plan as a prerequisite to approval of the department's 1994-95 budget.
Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would like to make the recommendation in the form of a formal motion.