Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Braden.

So the error or the problem occurred under the operations of the Lac La Martre Development Corporation. I am seeing them now there, Madam Chair. Don't we have things like bonding or insurance or some kind of liability protection in place for this type of circumstance? In this day and age when the government has historically taken a lot of hits for similar situations, why, in this case, did we not have some back-up for us, Madam Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the contracting processes do allow, for example, the tendering process would allow for a holdback that we could deal with that. In fact, there were some areas here where that were done. Back in January, a special warrant for the work to repair the flooring came up, it was done but FMB directed MACA to recover those costs through the warranty repairs from the Lac La Martre Development Corporation. That didn't happen. They needed to step in, so different steps were taken at that point. There was some funding initially that was used through that contract to try to do some of the initial repairs that failed. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Braden.

Madam Chair, I am not going to belabour the point other than to, again, try to bring to the attention of the committee and the Assembly that, when things go wrong, there is a tendency if not a practice around here just to come back to the taxpayers' pocket and cover over mistakes, errors or flaws that should be covered by somebody else in the due process of getting this work finished. This floor repair here along with information that the Minister has provided, we have a floor repair now of half a million dollars against a building that was originally projected to cost just over $2 million. So 25 percent of it has gone into fixing floor. These are proportions. I understand that things will go a little bit off the page here and there, but this is just another example of how we are not paying attention to what is going on. I hope the signal is getting very clear here that, at least my appetite, if not committee's appetite, for accepting these kinds of things and just reaching into the taxpayers' pocket and paying off another set of mistakes when we could be using that money for other things much more valid and appropriate than correcting mistakes. It is probably where I will be going when and if I see more of this kind of downloading where other people and other mechanisms should be in place to take the responsibility. My time is up, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I should, as well, for the record, state that the work that was done by MACA and Public Works, they are also now working with Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations and the Tlicho Investment Corporation that took over the Lac La Martre Development Corporation and work is still ongoing as to actually come up with who was at fault with this. Was it design or contractor related? So that end of it hasn't shut as of yet. We are still working in that area of potential recovery of some of the costs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. We are on page 8. Mr. Braden.

Madam Chair, thank you. Part of the request under this is in community operations and $1.16 million requested to provide funding for road repairs and disaster assistance claims due to the spring flooding in Aklavik. Madam Chair, in a committee tour, I had the opportunity to visit Aklavik during the summer. I can

certainly understand the impact of the flood on the community. I wish the folks in Aklavik all the best in recovering from that. Madam Chair, the notes to this $1.16 million request say that up to 85 percent of the costs will be recovered through the federal government's Disaster Assistance Program. Madam Chair, on a previous supplementary, we have already put $1.7 million, I understand, into Aklavik flood recovery, I think, under the same circumstances. My question, Madam Chair, is have we invoiced the federal government for the first $1.7 million? Has any of that money come back yet? I just want to be certain that we will be seeing hopefully up to 85 percent or very close to it that the department is claiming we will get back, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Member is right; this has gone through a couple of different supplementary appropriations. The total amount as we have identified to date is $3.6 million. We expect, after the 85 percent reimbursement, a net cost for ourselves will be $551,000. We haven't received the funding yet, a portion back, but we believe that it will be coming back at some point here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Page 8.

I have to read it again. Municipal and Community Affairs operations expenditures. Directorate not previously authorized, $741,000. Community operations, not previously authorized, negative $5.032 million. Lands administration, not previously authorized, $342,000. Regional operations, not previously authorized, $610,000. Total department not previously authorized, negative $3.339 negative.

Thank you. Page 9, Public Works and Services operations expenditures. Asset management, not previously authorized, $140,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $140,000.

Thank you. Page 10, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures. Health services programs, not previously authorized, $9.860 million. Supplementary health programs, not previously authorized, $1 million. Community health programs, not previously authorized, $623,000. Total department not previously authorized, $11.483 million. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I really don't know where to start with this one. This is one of the worst things I have seen happen here since the time I came here three and a half years ago. I don't know when the government was planning on telling us. In terms of what the Stanton Hospital is in deficit, these are from 2005-06. When was the government going to tell the House that this was the case or this was the issue at Stanton? I would like to know if they are in contravention of the FAA or the FAM by not advising Members of this House that the hospital was in the financial status or state that it was in. Madam Chair, like I said earlier in my general comments, it is like the government, the Department of Health and Social Services is putting its hands around the neck of the Stanton Hospital and choking it to death. I would like to know how many times the hospital came to the Department of Health and Social Services with requests for funding and got denied time after time. How many times did the Stanton Territorial Hospital go to the department looking for funding? Does the Minister have any of that type of information? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First off, let me state that, no, FAM or the FAA were not contravened. The budget planning and facilities is allocated here and announcements get made and accounting is done so the records are there. The amount of times the department or the Stanton health authority would have made a request, I don't have that specific detail. I do know that the department has made requests on behalf of Stanton, as well as other health authorities, for additional funding and at times were told to go back to the drawing board to re-evaluate and come back with more substantiation. At times, as has been with a number of other departments when requests come in, if we feel there isn't solid substantiation we'll tell departments or, in this case, it would have been the Department of Health and Social Services because they carried forward the request to work a whole year through the program to come up with a solid number, not just come with some estimates. As we've worked through this as it is now and we are now in the position that it's going to have to be dealt with and the target is that Stanton are dealing with 50 percent of the deficit and they're going to have to come up with a deficit recovery plan for the other amount.

Further to that, we are going through an exercise at Stanton to see if in fact there may have been some underfunding or ongoing underfunding. That falls in a number of areas, whether its patient services, different acute care programs, or other O and M, regular services that occurred. But that work is ongoing now in cooperation with Stanton and the Department of Health and Social Services, as well as the Financial Management Board Secretariat. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll try to be as clear as I can here. This hospital is in all kinds of financial trouble. It was two years ago. This only covers, the $2.9 million, Madam Chair, only covers half of that deficit. That's half. That's almost $6 million, $5.8 million. Also on this page, Madam Chair, there's provision for $732,000 for increased costs resulting from the job re-evaluations. There's also $563,000 anticipated utilization of maternity and paternity leave. I'd like to ask the Minister, why are those two numbers not rolled into the debt? Why don't we get a clear picture of where we're at and what is the current deficit at this flagship of our health care system? What is the deficit today? I think the Minister should provide that information to the House immediately so we can make plans to correct things there. Thank you, Madam Chair.