Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, when we started this process back in January, there was a recognition that there were some clear structural system problems that had to be fixed in order to improve our ability to provide services to individuals. We have, as was widely recognized, high turnover. We had retention-recruitment issues. We had organizational relationship problems where the boards, the authorities, and the department were not working as cooperatively together as they could be or should be. We had significant...what is the term I like to use...we had significant systems problems in terms of how we did human resource management, how we did our staffing. We have a high turnover rate, not only in nurses and doctors, but in staff across the board. We were not very effective. There was significant confusion over the type of model that was being used for trustees when they sat on boards. I speak specifically of the confusion over Carber, not Carver, and how things were to be run.
When I came on board, we dealt with issues of significant deficits because we have financial systems that were not clearly compatible. Simple things like common chart of accounts, so we had to make sure that we had the trustees on line in support of the process. We have to acknowledge that they turnover regularly. We have to provide a system to provide them training.
We have come up with ways to integrate our services, or our management functions with the joint senior management committee, that brings senior managers from the authorities and the department together to start doing some of the systems-wide planning.
We are coordinating better our recruitment and retention issues. In addition to this, there are a whole bunch of other just systems issues in terms of financial systems that are not all the same. Not all people, not all authorities are on the same human resource system.
We are trying to put some of these systems in place, fixes in place at the same time as we put money in towards long-term care, addictions, and all other funding for foster care and all the other program costs. We have to start fixing the system as well. That is what some of these dollars are focused towards doing. Thank you.