Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cooperation in the Envelope

For a year, we have been emphasizing the need for the Social Envelope partners to work together at all levels. The Ministers have provided assurances that this cooperation is growing. We encourage the Ministers and their management teams to continue to develop a partnership approach. Hopefully this will be reflected in regular meetings at the Minister and Deputy Minister levels and in increased cooperation among community level staff.

Financial Presentation

The Committee had concerns with the financial presentation. These concerns included:

- the lack of detail at the activity level for the Housing Corporation, and the Departments of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment

- the restatement of prior years' expenditures

- the lack of prior year information for certain capital items.

The very broad accounting structure used by Health and Social Services, the Housing Corporation and Education, Culture and Employment in the Main Estimates makes it very difficult to comment in any useful way. It is hard to have meaningful discussion and hard to approve financial activities which are this broad. We do not believe this level of public financial presentation is sufficient for departments which are responsible for almost 50 percent of the total GNWT budget.

Committee Members understand the accounting principle behind restatement of prior years. However, the Main Estimates is a document that serves as a reference point for Members and the public. There is no easy way to track from year to year in the Main Estimates what has changed in terms of the size and scope of departmental authority. You cannot tell what activities or programs have been added, transferred or deleted. In a sense, financial history is rewritten.

The limitations on when prior years are shown for capital projects is also confusing to the reader of the Main Estimates. Members know, for example, that there were prior year expenditures for items such as Building and Learning and BCC renovations/repairs. However, these show as new items in the 1997/98 Main Estimates. This reporting practice does not allow tracking of at least year to year expenditures for ongoing items.

Population Issues

Last year, when the Committee looked at the forced growth numbers in the Social Envelope, Members made fleeting references to the population growth. This year, it is becoming even more clear that our population is growing beyond our ability to provided services. This will be the single most important factor affecting our ability to live within our resources and maintain the level of services currently available. There is a strong need to take some immediate positive action in raising public awareness of what effects rapid population growth will have in the future.

With Health and Social Services taking the lead role, the Social Envelope needs to become proactive in education and information about what forced growth is doing to our services. We need to get this information to young people and to their parents and grandparents who welcome new family members. People want good education opportunities, they want housing, they want to be healthy, and they want jobs. Children having children and a birth rate three times the national average will affect our ability to deliver these items. They will bring more stress to a system which is already pushed to the edge.

The high number of births to young mothers also indicates an acceptance of sexual activity among many of our youth. As the committee responsible for overseeing the Department of Health and Social Services, we are also concerned about the potential to spread disease, particularly AIDS, in our communities. A recent national study shows an increase in HIV in young people. The median age of those with HIV in Canada is now 23 years of age. This means almost half of the people now affected are only teenagers. An increase in HIV infection and AIDS in the NWT will bring a heavy cost in pain and suffering, in addition to the medical cost.

This booming population places heavy demands on all parts of the social network. The housing shortage in many communities is compounded. Health services are stretched, schools are filled to overflowing, and the demand for daycare spaces increases. Children who are still dealing with their own efforts to become adults need extra support to be competent parents. There is no new pool of funding to build the houses and schools we need. There is no funding to hire more social workers, health care workers, teachers and child care workers.

The Committee is concerned about the societal impacts of a dramatic birth rate. We are also concerned about the consequences of children having unprotected sex and the resulting potential for both sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies. We believe that people should make informed choices and decisions, while recognizing the impact their decisions will have on themselves and their communities.

Recommendation No. 4

The Standing Committee on Social Programs recommends that the Minister of Health and Social Services, in consultation with the other Social Envelope Ministers, prepares a list of current services available to address the booming population, both pre- and post-natal, as well as the locations of these services.

And further, that the Social Envelope partners develop a joint approach to deal with the fundamental issues causing forced growth in social programs.

Response to the Committee

Recommendation No. 5

The Standing Committee on Social Programs recommends that, unless a specific date for response is given in this report, the government should provide a response to all recommendations in this report within 120 days.

Mr. Speaker, that concludes the Report of the Standing Committee on Social Programs. Therefore, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Report of the Standing Committee on Social Programs on the Review of the 1997-98 Main Estimates be received by the Assembly and moved into committee of the whole.