Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it was initially considered that we would wait until all deficit recovery plans were received so that we could consider some of the initiatives in light of the overall health care system. Subsequent to that, it was decided that we would not want to hold back some of the boards who had made more progress on this planning exercise. There were a couple of deadlines that had come and gone, but at least a portion of one of the boards' request to this government and FMB did receive consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in responses to questions posed by Mr. Lafferty earlier in this sitting, the Minister left the impression that there might be board inefficiencies which had led to these cost overruns. Can the Minister provide us with some concrete examples of inefficiencies that have been found as a result of these proposals to eliminate deficits? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in order to deal more knowledgeably with some of the deficits, because this is a relatively new thing for health boards to get into this degree of deficit that we have seen with four of the boards this year, in order to make decisions based on the best knowledge possible, the department is undertaking an operational review of the boards which had a deficit to be able to more clearly identify where there were unavoidable cost drivers, where there were unavoidable costs associated with volume of travel or work. Hopefully when we receive those, we will be in a better position to identify what the source of some of these issues are. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Final supplementary, Mr. Dent.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Also, when responding to questions posed by Mr. Lafferty, the Minister suggested that recovery plans could not include service reductions. I would like to ask the Minister how that is possible, given that we are looking at millions of dollars?

Thank you, Mr. Dent. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Heath and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is referring to something I previously said and asked me to answer based on the...I would have to see the exact wording that he is referring to. I guess the spirit of what I am trying to say is that if a board came forward with a proposal to recover their deficit, which was going to significantly and negatively impact the level of service that was being received in that region or in that community, that is probably something that the department would not approve. Where there would be efficiencies created where it would not negatively impact on the service, that is something we probably would look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question today goes to the honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and it has to do with the Human Resource Strategy for Non-Renewable Resource Development that we discussed in committee of the whole, Mr. Speaker.

I spoke about it yesterday and I commended the department and the Minister for coming up with that strategy. I believe that it gives a really good picture of the number of jobs that will be created by the industry and the number of people that should be trained in order to take those jobs. However, Mr. Speaker, I did point out the lack of information in that strategy having to do with programs available for women. The deputy minister of the department answered the questions. I am not sure if I am happy with that answer in that he focuses on the role of the employer and not the government in setting out priorities to make sure that women are able to take advantage of those employment opportunities as well as men.

So I would like to ask the Minister again, what is he doing to ensure that women can take advantage of the training opportunities, especially in the trades area, with this industry? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Unfortunately, I am going to have to disallow the question by the honourable Member because this matter is now before committee of the whole. The honourable Member will have the opportunity to address that document there. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Heath and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we as a department, through our work with the health boards, do ensure a certain level of service in the communities. If we were to entertain deficit recovery initiatives from health boards that were going to eliminate a sector of that service, thereby creating hardship for constituents in that region or that community, we would have to seriously look at that because that would in turn impact another area or region in our overall system.

When I used the example of the very much publicized amalgamation of the pediatrics and surgical wards at Stanton, for example, that proposal was presented to the department, which we in turn presented to the MLAs. It was stressed to us very clearly that it was an efficiency measure and as a result of changing numbers and changing ways of delivery services, it would not negatively impact the access of people requiring that service. That is why we were entertaining that. Subsequently, of course, we found out that there was consultation that had been missed in that process.

So without the Member giving me a specific type of service he might be referring to, we do not want to diminish the core services delivered currently in the various communities and regions. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In one reply to my colleague, Mr. Dent, the Minister indicated that this deficit reduction situation was relatively new for boards. I am assuming that it would be relatively new for the department as well. Can the Minister tell this House, do they in fact have a clear plan or criteria that flushes out the significant or negative impacts on programs and services so that the communities and boards would be clear when they are doing their deficit reduction plans? What is acceptable and what range of options would be acceptable or not acceptable? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Heath and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we devolve a lot of the governance and delivery of services for health and social services to the boards. We think that the boards are in a good position to identify to us efficiencies that may make sense, that would not create undue hardship for their constituents.

The kinds of things that we would identify that would be unavoidable kinds of costs would be things like forced growth that would be beyond the direct control of the board, one-time extraordinary costs. Over-expenditures within the control or the discretion of the board would be something that we would look at. Also, if the board has changes in anticipated revenue or changes in anticipated access to the services, those are all things that we would take into consideration when considering any specific initiatives that we have brought forward.

The department does work very closely with the boards, although they do have a board support unit within the department that works very closely with the boards to help them put these kinds of things together. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of those points raised by the Minister strike me more as factors that in fact cause growth or forced growth or added expense. The concern I have, or the question was, given the fact that there are deficits in a number of boards and possibly more in the coming months as deficit reduction plans are developed, will the department in fact have a framework of what is acceptable when they do deficit reduction plans with the fundamental goal to protect service delivery levels in the communities and in health centres? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Minister responsible for the Department of Heath and Social Services, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that we would be in a position as a department to more clearly indicate those kinds of things to boards after we have undertaken our operational reviews to see what the main contributing factors to this are. As I said, this is a relatively new problem that we are facing with significant deficits this year. Thank you.