Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the Department of Health and

Social Services main estimates for fiscal year 2010-2011.

At the outset, I want to identify that our system and the whole of the Canadian health care system is stressed to capacity due to a number of evolving challenges. These include changing demographics of both patients and care providers, rising health care costs especially in pharmaceuticals and technological advances in health care, recruitment and retention challenges, and the increasing prevalence of chronic disease nation-wide.

The current spending rate of our health and social services system is not sustainable. If left unchanged, our ability to provide access to quality, timely and safe services in a way that is affordable for this government will be impacted.

The department’s initiatives under A Foundation for Change are a blueprint for action that faces this challenge head on. Sustainability, as well as wellness and accessibility to health and social services are three pillars of the Foundation for Change. This plan is based on the principle that while sustainability and bending the trend of the health and social services future cost trajectory is our primary focus, system change to reach this must be managed well to ensure service delivery and quality of care are also sustained.

We launched A Foundation for Change with the support of the Members of this House through the Standing Committee on Social Programs and I am committed to continuing to work with the Members as we move forward.

Mr. Speaker, ensuring sustainability and addressing the changes in our health and social services system will not be easy and requires the full support of this Assembly and our stakeholders. It will require support for a planned, managed, multi-year approach to change and a committed focus on long-term sustainability envisioned in the plan.

Under this budget, the department is requesting just over $326 million. This reflects an increase of approximately $13 million or 4.2 percent over last year.

Twenty million of this $326 million is forced growth which includes ratification of the physician contracts for $4.3 million and ratification of the Collective Agreement for approximately $10 million.

I would also like to note federal funding initiative sunsets of $7 million, which includes $5 million for the Territorial Health Access Fund (THAF) and $1.8 million for the Patient Wait Times Guarantee. The Patient Wait Times Guarantee was a federal government initiative and will not be re-established. The department and relevant authorities are looking at options for wait times monitoring and assessment to be provided within existing resources.

We, as a government, are continuing our discussions and lobbying of the federal government to continue THAF funding. It will, however, be some time after the federal budget in early March that we will learn if any THAF funding will continue and under what parameters and time limits. In the meantime, the department and authorities are developing plans for how we can manage without THAF funding or with a reduced amount. I need to be clear this is not something the system can absorb, so we are looking at what we may continue under new models with existing resources and what will end.

This concludes my opening remarks and I would be happy to answer questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.