Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there would not necessarily be minimum guidelines outlined by us. We do try to give the boards the flexibility to determine where they feel the most needs are and the least needs for that matter. They have that flexibility. We just provide them a budget amount based on historical usage for the region, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I guess a lot of it would depend on the individual circumstance of each case. If there was an issue of health requirement that was of urgent nature, then the board would ultimately be responsible for sending that individual out to obtain the treatment. If it is something like a regularly scheduled appointment, obviously a lot of the responsibility rests with the individual to make their appointment. If they miss it they would have to wait until the next time the doctor would be available. If it is a matter of the individual missing an appointment because the doctor was overworked or had too many appointments or for whatever various circumstances were there, that would be something that would be taken up with the board. If there is a significant backlog of need that is not being met in the community because there is not enough service to that community, then the board would be responsible for addressing that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. On this area of support in health and social services administration, 6-13, earlier we had discussed the Med-Emerg contract by this government. Mr. Ng, earlier today, introduced the terms and conditions and references for this agency. I understand that last week the Med-Emerg group were in Fort Simpson to meet with local leaders there. The leaders only had three days notice before Med-Emerg came in with the Department of Health people. There was little time spent in consulting with those people in Fort Simpson. I am wondering if this is going to be the case of Med-Emerg doing this consultative, this large body of work in other regions, in other areas of the Territory. What happened in the Fort Simpson example where Med-Emerg went in, had lunch, the presentation on addiction seniors forum, and then did not bring anything else up. What is going on here? Thank you, Madam chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As I have indicated in the past, this first phase of the consultation is more of an internal one for our departmental personnel to give the Med-Emerg consultants the opportunity of their experiences of what they feel works and what they feel are the problems, what they feel are potential better ways of doing things within the current operating system of environment that we operate under. It was not meant to be a broad-based consultative process with the public and groups. That, as I have indicated in the past, will come after we have a draft strategic plan that I feel comfortable we can take to the public, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. On the same area of support and health services administration, policy, planning and evaluation or development and financial management services providing budgetary accounting and management services to the Department of Health and Social Services; could the Minister just update me and the House on this new policy on funding for the health boards in a little more detail? Does it mean, for example, historical numbers or expenditures by the health boards will now be factored in and this is what they will get for their yearly funding, a prorated amount based on their earlier amounts received, Or is it based on some type of per diem formula? What is this new program area for funding health boards based on?

Madam Chair, the boards have been funded by the department on an historical basis and it has moved in that way for several years. The approach that the department is proposing, and the work that has been developed with boards so far, is essentially a population-based formula distribution approach. There are some modifiers that are there. It is not simply a population approach. Needs of the population are key issues that need to be factored in. There are some cost realities there, in terms of the cost of essentially operating or doing business in each region and there are differences. There are some differences in terms of access to various services that will vary that as well. Then, the challenge that we will have as system is one of transition or phase in, because of the differences in terms of the revenue that would be available to a board. We have to move from where we are today to where that formula would indicate over some period of time. We cannot see significant dislocations in the amount of revenue a board has from one year to the next. There has to be a phase in period. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the reductions and cuts to our health board in our region has had some very serious financial implications for the Baffin Regional Health Board. Can the Minister tell me today when this new way of funding health board will come into place? Are we looking at April 1, 1998, or are we looking at March 31, 1997? What is the date? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Ramsden.

Yes, Madam Chair. The work that we have done so far will provide for each board to be aware for planning purposes of the revenue that would be calculated on the basis of the formula 4, 97-98. But the only pieces of their revenue that we are proposing to have in place for this coming fiscal year will be in the areas of home care and addictions. We need to phase the formula in over a period of time, so we will only be dealing with those two areas. The homecare will be year two because the boards this year already get a formula based distribution of funding for homecare programs. Thank you.

It seems that my questions, Madam Chair, seem to add up to five very fast. Thank you, Madam Chairperson. My question, my final supplementary of my five questions and I will have to make sure that it was five. No, I did not challenge the chair. My question is continuing on the same line of questioning on the funding for health boards. I have had, like I said, some very major concerns with the financial cutbacks to our health boards, with layoffs of employees and trying to cover off these essential areas. Now, under the formula financing that we are talking about here, this new formula for health boards, does that also factor in the forced growth amounts for the communities? For example, in my community because it is going to be the capital of Nunavut, we can already see an increase of population. Will those types of things be factored in, so that the monies are available for the health board so they can do the job to take care of people? Yes, thank you, Mr. Roland. It is not in the flippant manner at all because we are looking, for example in our case, our hospital serves 13,000 people with the lowest vacancy rates in the Territories. So, it is a very serious concern with the monies available to provide the essential services. So, my question again is, are they based on the historical amount plus a factor for factoring a forced growth for those years that the formula will cover? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The formula will distribute existing funds, although there would be some indicators of needs that would be able to make some amendments to the formula. It would not be all adjusted based on needs of forced growth, although there would be some factors in there that would allow for that. Thank you.