Page 5, Municipal and Community Affairs, operations expenditures, regional operations, not previously authorized, $392,000. Agreed?

Total department, not previously authorized, $392,000. Agreed?

Moving on, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, program delivery support, not previously authorized, $1.136 million. Mrs. Groenewegen.

I think maybe my question is on something else, it’s not that number I’m questioning.

Okay. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, program

delivery support, not previously authorized, $1.136 million. Agreed?

Health services programs, not previously authorized, $4.269 million. Agreed? Mr. Bromley.

Mr. Chair, the payments for contribution funding of the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority for increased costs associated with the pension plan and so on, it’s been raised before, I think we’ve dealt with this before. Has the department done an analysis of whether it would be indeed economic to bring these employees into the fold and enjoy some reasonable payback and reduced costs over the longer term? Some of the figures I’ve heard, which were unconfirmed figures, suggested that, yeah, this might be a six or eight-year payback, after which costs would be reduced. So I guess I’m looking or have we done that analysis? Goodness knows we keep dealing with this every year it seems to come up on a supp. I’m not sure about that either, but again, where are we at on that? Thank you.

Deputy Minister Melhorn.

I would presume with that information that there are details to it and there must be opportunities over time narrowing down those options, putting a strategy together to do that on the lower end of the cost range. Are we looking at that, Mr. Chairman, putting that together? Thank you.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given the knowledge of the figures, the last serious effort to this was back in 2003-2004. Back then, the costs even then were considered excessive, given the money that was available, and have only increased since then. So we haven’t pursued this as an active initiative as of late. Thank you.

I wonder if the Minister could tell me how this situation developed and is it likely to continue to grow, and any chance that it would spread elsewhere as a virus. Thank you.

In regards to bargaining units, this is the one bargaining unit outside the UNW bargaining unit that is currently there for the remainder of employees, plus the NWTTA. Outside of that are the LHOs, which are a separate issue, but the Hay River Health Centre bargaining unit is the only one that is in existence. Thank you.

I guess I don’t have enough information to suggest a strategy to the Minister, other than I hope he will look at it and see if there is a long-term plan to resolve it. Thank you.

More of a comment. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the advice from the Member.

Okay we are on page 6. We are dealing with health services programs, not previously authorized, $4.269 million.

Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to echo the comments of my colleague Mr. Bromley. We have talked about the issue with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and their employees for quite some time now and my comment is simply just bite the bullet and do it and get it done. Thank you.