Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The deficit of Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services started as far back as 1998–99 and grew. At that point it was in the range of half a million dollars. It fluctuated. They came out of the situation for a couple of years, but back in 2003–04 it started again, and they continued to grow a deficit. At the same time we, as a government, over a number of years through supplementary appropriation, funded half of their deficit situation.
Some of this, for example, is when there are utilities costs that go up on an annual basis that were not budgeted for at the beginning of the year. They grow throughout the year, and we have to look at addressing that. We’ve done that with departments a number of times. When you look at, for example…. Fuel costs that were not budgeted for at the beginning of the year have risen; there has
been a number of supplementary appropriations that came back. From time to time we’ve — not only health authorities but departments — told them we would pay half of it and they would have to fund the other half. As we see costs continue to rise, we’ve realized it is not in the ability of the authorities to pay down those costs, which continue to climb and are out of their control.
Some of these are due to the fact they’ve also gone for a number of years having revenue owed to them that was not collected. That is where we, as FMBS, have become involved — in the collections side of the authorities as well.