Thank you, Madam Chair. We haven’t done that yet. We set up accountability steering committees with the authorities to develop this.

I would assume that the Minister and the deputy minister, who is here, are much in line that this is a very, very important part of delivering health care to the Northwest Territories. Giving authorities money without having any strings

attached really puts the delivery of patient care at risk, which leads me to my next question.

At the same time the Auditor General took an extensive look at how we deliver our services for diabetes and it was indicated at that time “that the department does not use administrative data to monitor diabetes programming, nor does it systematically collect data on diabetes prevention and treatment results.” With that comment, can we receive some assurances that disease states like diabetes, because this is an Auditor General report that has been in the hands of the department now for some time, have we made strides to deal with the comment that was just read? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Ms. DeLancey.

I do appreciate the response. However, I do have to make known that the department did agree with establishing a chronic disease model and having that first draft developed in the 2011-2012 budget year, and that there was going to be a primary community care draft and response back. It appears that the department made promises to the Auditor General back then and is being very slow on delivery.

Again, I appreciate what I’m hearing, but my question would be, if I picked another disease state, cardiovascular, or if I picked a myriad of cancer issues, would the department be in a similar position? Is the department making strides to make sure, as I heard earlier, we still don’t have performance agreements in place to deliver these programs, but can we get some assurances that we are working towards resolution, given that the Auditor General basically cleared a perfect path for us to follow? Thank you.

I’ll be coming back to the Auditor General report here later on in this budget process.

My next question has to do with medical equipment. In the line entry here we have as medical equipment under $50,000. There seems to be a slight increase. However, it is well known that we have, especially at the territorial hospital, a number of large pieces of equipment that are nearing their lifecycles. A lot of this major equipment was purchases in the late ‘90s, early 2000’s. Some of this equipment is now entering 12 years of lifecycle and needs to be looked at. I’m speaking specifically to things like the CT scan. I’m thinking about things like the large mammography units that were purchased back then.

I don’t see much in the budget here to deal with those large ticket items above that $50,000 mark. Does the department have a plan of action? Is there an approved capital list of these products, and if so, can they share some of those top line items that could be plaguing the people of the Northwest Territories in either replacing or enhancing the current delivery of health care services across the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Elkin.

I appreciate the details. Would the Minister or the department consider sharing the findings of this evergreen plan, sharing their approved capital list for outdated or near lifecycle of major capital equipment, and if this could be submitted to the Social Programs committee so we can keep a monitoring of this as these large ticket items appear over the life of the 17

th Assembly?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get a little bit more clarification on questions I had asked yesterday in regard to the seven positions. There were four positions that were allocated through the THSSI funding, and I believe that Ms. DeLancey mentioned that three were being staffed right now. I did have a question as to the plans that the department has after two years, 2014, when those jobs do expire. I know she mentioned, I think, there were some in the shared services and administration, and the work that they do, and that we just didn’t want to leave that onto the wayside. Can she clarify? What’s the plan the department has in regard to this funding and if they’d be willing to look at funding this position within their own department should the funding not come, when the funding expires? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Ms. DeLancey.

Mr. Moses has no further questions. Committee, we are on page 8-21,

activity summary, Health and Social Services, health services programs, operations expenditure summary, $192.989 million. Are we agreed?

Thank you. Page 8-22, activity summary, Health and Social Services, health services programs, grants and contributions, grants, total grants $40,000. Are we agreed?

Contributions, total contributions, $149.419 million. Total grants and contributions, $149.459 million.

We are agreed. Thank you, committee. Page 8-25, activity summary, Health and Social Services, supplementary health programs, operations expenditure summary, $26.243 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Madam Chair, probably a clarification in order. We know that the details of other expenses both come to the same total from the revised estimates of 2011-12 to $10.471 million. Could the department indicate why the insertions of the numbers and the mannerisms that we see here before us? Thank you.