I have heard it was as high as 26 at

Stanton, but I guess I’ll wait for the Minister to get us that information.

I would be interested in knowing, not just at Stanton but in the rest of the authorities, what the unfunded position level is.

I’ll get that for the Member.

We’re on page 6-10,

Active Positions – Health and Social Services Authorities.

Department of Health and Social Services,

Active Positions – Health and Social Services Authorities, approved.

Moving along to 6-11,

Department of Health and Social Services, information item, Health and Social Services Authorities, Active Positions – Community Allocations.

Department of Health and Social Services,

Health and Social Services Authorities, Active Positions – Community Allocation, approved.

Moving along to 6-12,

information item, Revenue Summary. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair. My

understanding is that the Government of Canada has a fiduciary and legal role to provide health care services for aboriginal people in Canada, including the Northwest Territories, but that there is an agreement for this department to cover those services in the Northwest Territories.

I understand that the federal government compensates the department with about a 3 per cent annual growth for increasing costs, but we’ve been experiencing something like a 7.8 per cent, or thereabouts, average increase in annual costs. I’m wondering, if I’ve got that right: what is our current estimate of the accumulated debt that the department views is owed by the federal government and over what period of time does that apply to?

Thank you,

Mr. Bromley. Minister Lee.

Mr. Chairman, the Government

of Canada under supervision of DIAND department is responsible for funding for insured hospital and doctors’ services to our Inuit and Indian peoples of the Territories.

That’s in line with the practice before the health programming and service delivering was transferred to GNWT in 1988. At that time there was an agreement in place that put a 2 per cent cap on the funding they would provide. How we would do it is that they would provide the services to our aboriginal peoples and then we bill DIAND for those programs. The stats we have available is that since 1999 the expenditure has been a lot larger than 2 per cent, obviously, and the accumulated deficit there is about $95 million.

I’m wondering what the estimate for

this particular year will be for the addition to that debt and where that shows up in the budget here and where we’re at in the process to recapture those costs.

We estimate that this year’s

expenditure will be at about $41 million, and the expenditures we could claim as per the agreement will be about $25.6 million, which gives us a gap of about $15 million a year.

I’m wondering where we’re at in

negotiations with the Government of Canada or DIAND to recapture those dollars and the accumulated debt. Also, does it show up here in the book somewhere?

It does show up on the page that

we’re on, 6-12 under the Hospital Care and Medical Care for Indians and Inuit. Those are the expenditures we are incurring. Then we submit our reimbursements. We will be submitting last year’s reimbursement this year.

We have been going back and forth in the House about some of the actions and interactions the Premier has had with the DIAND Minister and the Prime Minister in his previous role as Minister of Health and Social Services. There are two federal departments involved in this issue. The major one is the DIAND Minister and the Prime Minister, obviously, and then on the side is the federal Minister of Health, Tony Clement.

I think we need to renegotiate, and the Member may appreciate that in order to negotiate you need two parties to come to the table. We’re asking the federal government to come to the table and negotiate a better term and to remove that cap, but I believe the federal government feels that some of these fundings are being provided through other means — their transfer payments and such. We will continue to pursue this issue and see if we can renegotiate and raise the cap.

Thank you, Minister

Lee. Any other questions on page 6-12? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I must be

having a tough day, because I’m confused again with the numbers. Page 6-12 is titled Revenue Summary, yet the two amounts that were referenced by the Minister add up to about $25 million to $26 million, which I thought she said was the amount we incur in expenses, and we only get $15 million back in revenue. If I could have a clarification, please.

Okay. I am having a bad day. I did

have a question, as well, on this page. There are two numbers, a 1 and a 2, that reference notes, I presume. But I don’t know where those notes are in the document. If they’re important, I guess I need to know. What are they referencing?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro.

Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I have

the same copy as the Members do, so I can answer that. I will undertake to get that information for you.

Thank you, Minister.

Further questions? Page 6-12, Revenue Summary, information item.

Department of Health and Social Services,

Department Summary, Revenue Summary, approved.

Moving on, under

Directorate, page 6-14.

Department of Health and Social Services,

Activity Summary, Directorate, approved.

Page 6-15, Operations

Expenditures Summary, votable activity: $6.780 million. Questions? All agreed?

Department of Health and Social Services,

Activity Summary, Directorate, Operations Expenditure Summary: $6.780 million, approved.

Page 6-15. We’re

agreed. Moving on, page 6-16, information item, Directorate, Active Positions. Questions? Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you. Not so much a question,

Mr. Chair, as a comment. I was just noticing the staff at the headquarter level and something I’ve been telling the departments I’ve been speaking to. Taking more staff from headquarters and leaving the program staff on the front lines is something I appreciate. I think more of the departments should have been looking along those lines and saving a lot of people on the front lines, especially if they’re positions that are not really needed or vacant positions. I just wanted to comment that I thought this was a good move on Health and Social Services’ part.