Thank you, Mr.

Chairman. As

I

understand it, the committee would like to

continue review of the Department of Health and Social Services and, if there’s time, continue with Aboriginal Affairs and Intergovernmental Relations.

Does the committee agree?

We’ll take a short break and then return with those items.

The Committee of the Whole took a short

recess.

Thank you, com-mittee. We'll be calling Committee of the Whole back to order.

Minister Lee, do you wish to bring witnesses in?

Yes, please, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Please have the Sergeant-at-Arms seat your witnesses.

Can you please introduce your witnesses to the Committee of the Whole.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Gregory Cummings. To my right is Mr. Derek Elkin, director of finance.

Thank you, Minister Lee.

We left off yesterday on page 6-19, Activity Summary, Program Delivery Support, Operations Expenditures Summary: $31.363 million. Are there any questions? Are we agreed?

Department of Health and Social Services,

Activity Summary, Program Delivery Support, Operations Expenditure Summary: $31.363 million, approved.

Page 6-21, Activity Summary, Program Delivery Support, Grants and Contributions, Contributions: $14.521 million. Are there any questions? Ms. Bisaro.

Sorry, Mr. Chair. Did we skip over 6-20, or you said 6-19 and 6-20 and I wasn't listening?

Thank you,

Ms.

Bisaro. Pages 6-19 and 6-20 are related,

similar content. So we were given 6-20 content on 6-19. Do you have questions you want to ask on page 6-20?

Yes, I do.

All right, Ms. Bisaro, please proceed on page 6-20.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of this might have been covered yesterday, but I did want to ask the question, since I raised it in my opening comment.

A number of the reductions for this department relate to professional development for nurses. I wondered if I could get an explanation from the Minister as to how we’re going to…. Sorry. First of all, whether or not there’s a full uptake on the professional development that is provided for our nurses for them to advance their learning and to

take educational leave and so on. If there is, by reducing these funds how are we going to encourage them to stay with us for long service, to advance in their areas of expertise and to, therefore, provide better health services for our residents?

There were discussions on this in the last two days. The reductions are mostly to do with bursary programs, and incentive programs that are administered by Human Resources on behalf of Health and Social Services. Historically there has been under-subscription. The reductions are much less than the new initiatives.

We are investing $1.5 million to expand the community health nurses program, as well as the Nurse Practitioner Program. So on balance, we are doing more than compensating for the reductions.

Ms. Bisaro.

That’s it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Are there any further questions on page 6-20? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I view this as the crux of the whole department, of course — program delivery support. I want to talk briefly about a subject I raised in general comments: the support of the voluntary sector.

People should note that the voice of the sector, Volunteer NWT, has been silenced, and agencies are being forced to reduce programs and services — for example, YWCA — or have second thoughts about much needed programs and services. For example, the Salvation Army is starting to back away from running the Bailey House.

As a government, our support for this sector is becoming emptier and emptier; no resources attached to commitments. Social and economic consequences of a collapsing voluntary sector will reverberate throughout our jurisdiction, and we’ll be picking up the pieces at even greater costs.

How is this Minister going to address this situation, which is, frankly, deteriorating further and further? Do we not realize that their costs go up at the same time? Do we not realize the efficiencies that they bring? These are largely volunteer people with credentials anybody would be proud to have in their organization, and they’re working at a fraction of the cost, and the wages, et cetera. So I’d like to know how the Minister is going to address this situation, and I’ll be talking to other Ministers about this as we go.

Thank you,

Mr. Bromley. Minister Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do agree with the Member that the work of NGOs is

crucial to the delivery of programs and services in the Territories. Obviously the volunteer sector, and I think the Member is including the NGO sector as well, has different categories of NGO groups in the Territories.

The Department of Health and Social Services has not reduced any grants and contributions to any of the groups the department is responsible for funding. Most of them are through health authorities, but we have over $1 million we do fund from the Department of Health. In fact, in the last year there were a number of situations where extra money was found to fund the YWCA, YACCS and organizations like the Salvation Army and lots of other organizations. They are getting funding from not only the Department of Health but lots of other organizations. I want to say that under the fiscal situation we are operating I have made it a priority to make sure that NGOs are treated very much the same way as the front-line services. We have to make great effort, actually, to maintain the funding for NGOs at their current level. I believe the Premier has stated in his budget statement that there will be some more work done on looking at the NGO sector and volunteer sector and work on a new initiative.

I don’t doubt that the Minister and the department have been helping out with the occasional bail out here. That’s exactly what it is. This flat level of funding does not address the situation these agencies face. An esteemed employee and a political and values leader in the North, Mr. Jim Bourque, had a saying I can’t fully repeat here, but he used to say, “You can’t eat like a bird and something like a horse.” That’s what we’re asking these agencies, these volunteer groups and non-government organizations to do. We’re asking them to continue providing these major services with decreasing resources. I’m not saying the Minister isn’t correct that they’re getting equal funding; the value of that funding is providing less and less support.

Again, this is hugely efficient. This is probably the most efficient use of dollars and resources for us. So I’m asking the Minister to do more than flatline funding.