Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a number of areas I want to make some general comments on before I ask some specific questions on the supp that is before us today.
I will start with Stanton Territorial Hospital. I am just actually speechless that the Minister and the Department of Finance could bring forward in this supp a deficit recovery program for that hospital. In my estimation, Madam Chair, that hospital is at least $7 million in deficit and this is the first that this House, the first that I, as a Regular Member of this House, have heard of this. It's either one of two things, Madam Chair. That hospital has been grossly mismanaged or it's grossly underfunded. I am almost speechless with the way this has been presented. I certainly do have questions about how the government is planning to recover some of this deficit at the hospital.
What I have seen is the Department of Health and Social Services having their hands around the neck of that hospital and choking it off. I believe it's been underfunded, continues to be underfunded and I haven't been shown any proof to the contrary, Madam Chair. That is one area in this supp that I will pay particular attention to.
Another major cause of concern for me is how the Human Resources budget in the 2005-06 revised mains, including both supps 1 and 2, goes from $19.6 million to the proposed main estimates this year, 2007-08, to $31.5 million. That's an incredible increase and one that I don't believe is justifiable. The Minister of Human Resources was in this House yesterday during Committee of the Whole defending the department's main estimates. He said there were reductions in staffing there. I think there were 17 reductions. Why, then, are we continuing to see these increases in transition costs to the tune of $2.1 million in this supp? Madam Chair, in my belief, this bears more scrutiny. I do have a number of questions certainly in that area of the supp as well. I just really do find it hard to believe that Members of this House have been misinformed about the status. It's Stanton this time, but are there other health authorities out there that are in a similar position? What are we doing about it, Madam Chair? What are we doing about it? We're coming back through this process hoping to put a band-aid on it to stop the bleeding. Well, that's not good enough, Madam Chair. It's definitely not good enough, especially when we're talking about the flagship of our health care service here in the Northwest Territories. This is the pinnacle, it's the flagship, Stanton. and we're letting it die. We're choking it.
That shouldn't be continued to be allowed to happen, Madam Chair. Thank you.