Could the department give us more details? Is this the long-term contract we have gone in with Blue Cross? Are there measures reporting for performance? Maybe a little bit more details in terms of what this new relationship with Blue Cross is all about.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.

Madam Chair, the contract is achieved through competitive tender. We don’t have the term of the contract with us here today.

Madam Chair, I would just assume that the Minister and the department have no problems sharing the terms of the contract with the Social Programs committee.

The department has no problem sharing that information with Social Programs.

I appreciate it. Thanks to the Minister for providing that. Extended benefits or

extended health benefits has gone through its ups and downs over the years with the obvious relocation of the office to Inuvik. The Minister has no doubt heard discussions that I know I have had with the Minister in terms of improvements that could be done with extended health benefits. I agree moving the processing of this to the Alberta Blue Cross Adjudication Program is definitely a step in the right direction, but there is an approval process for those items that don’t fall under the formulary. These are so-called special items. Can the Minister indicate what improvements have been undertaken to streamline the process for the people of the Northwest Territories who are waiting for items that are not considered on the formulary but are definitely needed for either disease condition, medical condition or prosthetic or medical device? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I appreciate the Minister making comment to that. Further to that, would the Minister agree in principle to work with the Social Programs committee to work on solutions, communication, profiling that with community to get feedback from community as we make improvements to help streamline this service for the people of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, the department agrees that we will work with the Standing Committee on Social Programs to make those improvements.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We are on page 8-25, supplementary health programs, activity summary, Health and Social Services, operations expenditure summary, $26.243 million.

Thank you, committee. Page 8-26, activity summary, Health and Social Services, supplementary health programs, grants and contributions, contributions, total contributions, $15.772 million.

Thank you, committee. We will move to page 8-29, activity summary, Health and Social Services, community health programs, operations expenditure summary, $87.998 million. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just some clarifications on some of the numbers on this page under the term “contract services and other expenses.” Can we get an explanation to the decrease of slightly under $2 million? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Beaulieu.

Madam Chair, I will have the assistant deputy minister respond to that question.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Elkin.

Thank you, Mr. Elkin. Mr. Dolynny.

Madam Chair, again, I don’t want to belittle the situation again here, but I’m trying to deal with a set of books that prevent us from having to come back time and time again for supps and supplementary asks from the government. Do we foresee that this is going to be a continuum for the supplemental on contract services year to year during the life of the 17

th Assembly? Thank you,

Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Beaulieu.

Madam Chair, we would agree again to put this item into the base, in consultation with the Financial Management Board.