Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. I see no other questions. Sorry. Madam Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’m going to try and see if I can clarify this here. I have a question to the Minister. Is this money that is being asked for for these two group homes, is that money because the contractor has asked for an increase in the contract price for this particular fiscal year, or is the money going to the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to deal with their deficit?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The money is a target adjustment to the budget that reflects an underfunding situation for this contract that has been there for some time that has helped contribute, as the Minister of Health and Social Services pointed out, to the significant current deficit of the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority. This is recognition of that gap, that deficit in their base funding.

Thanks to the Minister. If I can put it another way: The contract is let for a certain amount, but the GNWT funds the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority at a lesser amount. Is that correct?

Yes, they absorb the costs that contributed to their deficit reaching the point where we need to recognize it and do this base adjustment. But it’s because they didn’t have the appropriate amount of funding in their budget to cover that cost.

Just one last question here. To the Minister, I would hope that if we are adding money to the base funding that we give to the health and social services authority, is it correct that we should not see this kind of a request for a supp approval in ’13-14?

Yes, as we pointed out, there has been a base adjustment, a target adjustment of $850,000 to the ’13-14 budget.

That’s all.

Moving on with questions, I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister mentioned a base adjustment to the programs and specifically the contractor who’s taking care of the Charlotte Vehus Home and the Billy Moore Assisted Living Group Home. Can he give me a percentage on the base adjustments of the overall contract and what were the possible final numbers or where I can find the final numbers in both contracts that were, I guess, admitted?

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is not a base adjustment to the contract per se. The contract, as the Minister pointed out, has been fairly consistent in its cost. What this is, is an adjustment to the program area in the budget of the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services where they had a certain amount of money for a contract that was inadequate to the tune of $547,000, roughly, and has helped contribute to the accumulated debt of the authority. I’ll ask Minister Beaulieu to speak to the… He already mentioned it, but I’ll ask if maybe he’ll go over the cost over the last number of years for the contract. It has been consistent. What has been underfunded, as we’ve just discussed, has been the budget amount in the Beaufort-Delta’s overall budget that had money to cover this particular program area that was inadequate.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don’t have the calculations on a percentage basis; however, the amount paying out to the Charlotte Vehus Home, $1.459 million, and the total funding allocated to this line object was $912,000. It was necessary to put $547,000 into it. The change, I guess, in percentage would be moving from $912,000 up to $1,459 million.

In the Billy Moore Home the change is from total funding of $383,000 up to $686,000, for a total adjustment or increase of $303,000. We’ve never had less, this has never cost less than the total funding since what we have recorded here. Even since 2005-2006 it was higher. The cost of running these two homes was higher than what the total funding provided by the system was doing. They’ve been accumulating deficit for these two homes ever since then.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In order to maybe try to provide clarity, if I could just point out the information that we have, the existing base budget for the Charlotte Vehus was $842,000. They put out a bid for a contract that came in at $1.459 million. That contract was awarded. The amount of money they had in that program area, $842,000, a gap of $547,000 that has been recognized as a base deficiency, and we are here to seek funding. Currently, there has been an adjustment to 2013-2014. Up until now the authority has been absorbing that cost and running a deficit which is no longer sustainable. The contract amounts have been fairly consistent. This is not a case where there was a contract awarded for $842,000 and the price was subsequently recognized to be inadequate on the contractor’s part. It was just the

funding in the organization wasn’t there to cover that $1.459 million.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So the awarded contract to the Charlotte Vehus was $1.459 million and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority was the authority running specific programs for the Charlotte Vehus Home, or was it Charlotte Vehus running those programs and Beaufort-Delta covered them up, and now that Beaufort-Delta is in debt because they were kind of supplementing the Charlotte Vehus Home when Charlotte… Can I just get that clarity?

Yes, the Member is correct; the contract was for $1.459 million. The amount of money in that program area that the Inuvik Health and Social Services had in their budget was $842,000, so a $547,000 shortfall that they have been covering off as an authority and running a deficit to do that. They’ve reached a point where it’s no longer fiscally sustainable, and as we try to adjust and have realistic budgets, this funding area, clearly, was underfunded. Hence this request and an ongoing target adjustment of this same amount for both facilities of $850,000.

I guess my next final question is: Why hadn’t the authority or department noticed this back when it started, when we first started getting our deficits and addressed it then, rather than addressing it now? Especially this year when we had this big controversy with the contracts. Why did the department not catch this ahead of time and adjust it then, instead of continuing to put this authority and government further and further in debt?

There has been, speaking as the former Health Minister, an ongoing struggle with the authorities and deficits. Clearly, as they go through their operations items like this, program areas like this that are unfunded and the authority can no longer afford to carry that without incurring a deficit are coming to light and being identified, and we’re coming forward to clear them off. The same as we’ve done with some of the costs, if I refer back to the Stanton issue, as well, with their dietary, laundry, and those types of service areas.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Moses. Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, community wellness and social services, not previously authorized, $1.385 million.