Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A short question on the department's policy as far as bill payments. Could the Minister advise us under administration how this is handled within the department? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Debates of Feb. 23rd, 1998
Topics
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1032
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1032
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1032
Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
I will ask Mr. Ramsden to speak on that issue. Thank you.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1032
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1032
Ramsden
Mr. Chairman, as I understand the Member's question, we have a means of making commitments, receiving invoices and paying on those invoices in a way that is consistent with the Financial Administration Act and the
financial administration manual. Typically, those commitments come in the form of either purchase orders, contracts, local purchase authorities or local contract authorities. Again, I limit my comments typically to matters of expenditures that we incur directly. We do not pay bills for boards. We do pay bills for the service fee for physicians and we pay bills for out of territories hospital expenditures as well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank Mr. Ramsden for that. On the question of paying fee for service for physicians, reimbursing physicians, has there been any delays experienced in those reimbursements for fees and if so, what is the department doing about it?
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Ramsden
Mr. Chairmen, from time to time, there are delays. This government made a decision to shut down a significant amount of its service through a five-day period over Christmas and, of course, that always, when we send most of the people home for five days, affects some of what we can do. The other thing I am struggling to understand is why we take these private clinics, essentially businesses, and some time ago we agreed to payroll their invoices differently than any other business in the Northwest Territories. While it is a contractual obligation, sometimes I question the approach we took there and it caused over a period of a Christmas break to have this system performed differently than it does for any other business in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Than you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate the comment that systems which are in place should be evaluated, but I think it is important that the people who are affected also participate in this evaluation. I heard Mr. Ramsden say that any delays were probably over the Christmas holidays, if that is the case then I suspect things should be back to normal by now and any of those concerns would be cleared up. I was wondering if Mr. Ramsden could assure me that those things are cleared up and any changes to the system that is in place right now, any re-evaluation Mr. Ramsden talked about, would include the people who are affected. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Ramsden
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We work very closely with the clinics and my sense is that we most often bend over backwards to try to keep ourselves in sync with these clinics. The only issue outstanding between our department and a few of the Yellowknife-based clinics right now is that they want to know why sometimes the cheque arrives on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. We have conveyed to them very seriously that we cannot control the postal system, but short of that we are doing almost everything humanly possible to make our relationship quite smooth with these private business people. Thank you.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Seamus Henry Yellowknife South
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can appreciate Mr. Ramsden's, or the department's inability to certainly control the post office. Something they may wish to consider is to make the option available for clinics to have access to picking up these cheques in the event that you cannot, rightfully so, control the post office. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Ramsden
Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned before, no other business in the Northwest Territories is able on a routine basis to pick its cheques up and so we are caught in terms of the expectations of some of these private businesses run by doctors and every other business in the Northwest Territories. I do not think we have the latitude to arrange any further degree of special pay provision than they have succeeded in negotiating with the department so far. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
The Chair Vince Steen
Thank you, Mr. Ramsden. Page 6-6, activity summary administration, operations and maintenance, total operations and maintenance, $29.538 million. I have on my list, Mr. Erasmus, Mr. Picco and Mr. Krutko. Mr. Krutko.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Regarding the whole area of program evaluation and monitoring of what is happening within the government with the changes that are taking place. One area I would like to know from the department about is in regard to the alcohol and drug programming where there was a cancellation of Delta House, the Tl'oondih Healing Program in my riding. I would like to know, from the government, exactly the number of funds that were spent in the past in the Inuvik region which I believe is a lot less versus what is presently being spent, they have opened southern facilities in Hay River and Yellowknife. I would like to know from the department have they evaluated the program to see if it has been more accessible to the residents of the Mackenzie Delta Inuvik region versus what it was in the past because of the closing of Delta House and the Tl'oondih Healing Society?
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman the alcohol and addictions funding is under Community Health Programs on page 10. If we want to skip to there it is certainly at your discretion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
The Chair Vince Steen
Thank you, Mr. Ng. I believe the Minister is right. Mr. Krutko, you want to hold your questions until we reach 6-10 in regard to the community health program. Of course, we could address any other questions under administration if you want if they are not specific to an activity.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1033
David Krutko Mackenzie Delta
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, how this government evaluates its expenditures and how it operates, I would like to be assured that it is evaluating and monitoring the programs that it does pay for, regardless whether it is being paid through a regional health board or through a contribution agreement. It is an administration matter, unless the Minister is trying to avoid answering the question so be it I will ask him every opportunity I have. I think my question was valid. It is an
administration matter where the question about evaluation and monitoring of expenditures of this government has to be monitored in some way. You know basically what you had before, basically what we have today. Has there been evaluation of exactly the changeover from the previous programs in regard to Delta House and the alcohol programs and Tl'oondih Society in the Inuvik region with these closures? We are funding programs in Hay River and Yellowknife which I believe is probably more costly than it was previously.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1034
The Chair Vince Steen
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Minister I believe it was a valid question under administration.
Committee Motion 20-13(5): To Amend Clause 19 Of Bill 10: Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, 1998
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Page 1034
Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we do evaluations of the programs on an ongoing basis and it is my understanding that individuals still have access to alcohol and drug treatment programs as they require. Thank you.