Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a two-part answer. As the Member knows, in a supplementary appropriation, there is some funding to deal with the accumulated debt of some of the authorities. Up until last year, Mr. Speaker, that was an issue. Last year, there was a significant rebasing done. We are now of the opinion, along with the authorities, barring vibrant forced growth and emergencies, that there is sufficient money in the budgets for the health authorities to be able to live with those particular budgets.
In the past, up until last year, there was approximately a two-year process of protracted negotiation between the boards and the department trying to come to some resolution of the outstanding accumulated debt issue that was not reached. Hence, the decision was made to go to the 60/40 split to move ahead, to clear that item off the books.
The rebasing was done. From here on in, the expectation is that, given our new processes and new accountability working as a system, the authorities and the department will make sure that we live within the fixed budget, still keeping in mind that there are going to be forced growth factors, such as union settlements, our Capital Health Authority contract when it is done, negotiated settlements with doctors, those type of things. Thank you.