Thank you. Page 8-32, Health and Social Services, information item,

community health programs, active positions. Are there any questions?

Being none, page 8-33, Health and Social Services, information item, details of funding. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to point out here, the main estimates from 2011-12, 2012-13, for the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority as well as Stanton Territorial Health Authority, they are both significant I think. One is just over $3 million and the other one is over $5 million. We discussed this earlier in previous discussions earlier today, but those are significantly high numbers. I just want to get confirmation whether the department will commit to addressing this issue that has been ongoing regardless of trends, but we need commitment that they will make commitments so we don’t continue to see these deficits as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Beaulieu.

Mr. Chair, we have agreed and we have agreement from all of the authorities that we will make deficit adjustments and that we will… The term alludes me right now but we will be taking money from authorities that have surpluses, and with the amount of money that each of the authorities that have surpluses are allowed to keep and then we will have the rest of the money moved around to put money where the deficits are greatest, make those adjustments. The plan at this time, if there continues to be deficits in Inuvik and Stanton, or in Beaufort-Delta, pardon me, and Stanton, we would continue to make those adjustments, moving money from other authorities.

Ultimately we are hoping to right the budgets to put the budgets in the right places so that we are not always making these foreseen adjustments so that we would try to work with the governance issue is one thing. The shared services, those are the type of things we wish to do in order to adjust the budgets to the appropriate budget in the future.

Mr. Chair, I am going to put this out there. We have already practiced that policy once, where we took money from other authorities. We put into Stanton, so we put into Beaufort-Delta Health Authority. Sure, they weren’t very happy that because they are doing good practices they were to give up some of their budget. Looking into the future, knowing what just happened from history and that money that they would be not spending will go to another authority, they might just take the initiative to spend all of their money. What does the department have as a plan of action should there not be any surpluses in other authorities to move that money around? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Ms. DeLancey.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My questions are on the same line as Mr. Moses. I, too, am quite concerned about the deficits that the health authorities, particularly Stanton Health Authority and the Beaufort-Delta Health Authority have incurred over quite a recurring number of years. It may not have been on this Minister’s watch, but it has been a number of years that we have been hearing about we are going to look at the operation of these two hospitals. We are going to determine what they really need in terms of funding. We are going to fix it, but it hasn’t been fixed yet. I have to agree with Mr. Moses that the Minister said that we are going to take surpluses from one authority and we are going to use it for the ones that are in deficit. As he said, that has been done already. I don’t think that is any way that we can plan in order to get authorities on an even footing.

I really think that there needs to be, and I presume from the DM’s response that there is, some work being done to try and figure out just exactly how much money is needed at these authorities so that they can break even, what services and programs they should be providing and that they should be funded to that level. Again, it has been a long time coming. I don’t hear that it is going to be coming in any short order.

I was struck when we were discussing the numbers for NWT hospitals. There was a reference to the revised estimates for 2011-12 were almost $95 million and the estimates for 2012-13 is about $88 million, so we have a difference of some $7 million, and the explanation was that is the surplus that we moved from the authorities that had extra money

and we moved it into the ones that didn’t. But we are going to be left with a $7 million hole again in 2012-13. We know that it is costing us to run these hospitals more than what we fund them for. I have to ask the Minister – this has been asked of previous Ministers – what is the plan apart from, yeah, we’re looking at it? What is the plan and when is there going to be a definite plan and a solution to this problem of deficits within our health authority? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. DeLancey.

Thanks to the DM for that thorough explanation. I certainly would like to see what’s been done to date. I’d also like to see the cost-drivers that the department is anticipating attacking and going after. I would like to request that information, but would also like to request an update every six months on where things are at.

I think part of our problem is we see these numbers once a year and kind of freak out. It would certainly be helpful to us as Members if we realize that there’s, as you say, chipping away at the numbers and it’s gradually going down. So any information that we get, if it provides historical information as well as current information, that would also enable us to know whether or not progress is being made. Thank you. That’s all I have.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Page 8-33, Health and Social Services, information item.

Details of funding allocated to health and social services authorities. Any questions?

Thank you. Page 8-34, Health and Social Services, information item, lease commitments (infrastructure). Any questions?

Thank you. Page 8-35, Health and Social Services, information item, lease commitments (infrastructure). Any questions?

Health and Social Services, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Any questions?