Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So is that a yes? Thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services.

I want to follow up from my statement that I made earlier about the Dene Ko Day Shelter here in Yellowknife, and whether or not there’s going to be funding once we come to the end of March of 2013, whether it’s going to be able to continue its work into the next fiscal year. So I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all – it wasn’t referenced in the Finance Minister’s budget address – what amount of money is identified in the 2013-14 budget for the Dene Ko Day Shelter in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has identified their portion of $125,000 plus the portion that has expired from BHP. So that would be, I guess, $175,000 we would be putting into it this fiscal year; and if there was an agreement to continue beyond March 31st ,

then it would be $175,000 the following year. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the information. He said if it’s determined to go beyond, then it would be that amount in ‘13-14, I think is what he referenced. So my question to the Minister is, if we’re putting in $175,000 in this fiscal year, is there something which has yet to be determined for

‘13-14 to allow the Dene Ko Shelter to be funded. Thank you.

We were just having a couple of little issues here with the contribution agreement year-end report and proposal. So we need to get some of this administrative stuff out of the way and then the department, seeing all those things and everything being in order and finding somebody to run the facility, if the organization is still prepared to do so, then we will fund for the following year. Thank you.

Thanks. I’m still confused. The Minister said we will fund for the following year. I would really appreciate it if he could give me some numbers so I’m sure of what years he’s referencing. I would think if the money is identified – and I would hope that the money is identified – I guess I want to hear from the Minister that, yes, the money is going to be in the ‘13-14 budget or, no, if we can’t get a contract by the end of March, it’s not going to be there. I would like that clarification. Thank you.

Thank you. The Department of Health and Social Services is earmarking $175,000 for the fiscal year ‘13-14 for the operation of that facility. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that clarification. I’m very glad to hear that.

I would like to know from the Minister if it is the intention of the department to continue that funding over more than one year, or is this going to be a one year to one year to one year where they are always waiting for confirmation of funding. Thank you.

Thank you. No, we’re not sure that we will continue beyond ‘13-14. This was initially a three-year pilot project, and at the end of the three-year pilot project, which would end on ‘12-13, there was supposed to be evaluations and a year-end report and proposal for the ongoing years. None of that has been received. So we’re going to fund it for one more year. Hopefully, that will give us an opportunity for Health and Social Services to work with the society that runs the day shelter to be able to get that information together so that we could plan for maybe the longer term. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today will be for the Minister of Health as well. A valid health care card is the difference between getting service and getting no service if it’s

invalid, and I have to applaud the Department of Health for recently putting a lot of emphasis on putting advertisements in the paper looking at updating the expired cards or health care cards that are about to expire. However, I must admit that, as of late, some of us are hearing some noise from our constituents that those people whose health care cards expired in January did not receive notifications from the Department of Health or from Inuvik as well.

Can the Minister of Health indicate did he indeed hear that very same message regarding the fact that notices were not being issued for expiry dates in January of 2013? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

I appreciate the Minister’s response to that; however, if everyone was receiving notifications, I guess our phones wouldn’t be ringing off the hook from people upset that they did not get a notification card.

My question again to the Minister is: There has been a glitch in the system with respect to notifications being issued for many health care card users across the Northwest Territories, systematically causing disruptions in services for those people who require those updated cards to receive such services in the Northwest Territories. Has the Minister or the department made provisions for basically causing a little bit of a backlog here and has the department made provisions for this backlog?

If there is some bit of a backlog because people were not notified through the regular notification system, then the department will do what it can to get that caught up as soon as possible. If we have specific individuals that have not received notification advice either through their MLA or one of the authorities or even Stanton to let people know in the system that they haven’t received their health card, then we will get on that and try to get the health cards to individuals as soon as possible.

Again, I do stress the integrity of the health care system is paramount and with these delays. I can assure you there is going to be lots of frustration out there in the Northwest Territories for receiving such services. Further, it has been brought to my attention that we have got some other issues with respect to information. With everything that we’ve heard about keeping of information, people’s information, and the privacy, there appears to be some files, from what we have been told, from patients that have been lost from the Inuvik office. The fact that these files are in the process of trying to be retrieved, can the Minister assure this House and the people of the Northwest Territories that, indeed, no patient files have been lost and the integrity of our system is intact?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. That is a new line of questioning, but I’ll give it to the Minister if he wants to take it. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, I thought that everybody had received notice. There was an attempt to try to make people personally responsible for their health care cards. If the individuals have sent in information on their health care card and have not received anything, I’ve advised the office in Inuvik and they said the information was lost. Naturally, we’re going to do all we can to recover the information. I heard that there are people who may have information lost, but I haven’t received any specifics. If I can get specifics from the Member, I will follow up on it and try to find that information.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. It wasn’t quite a new question because it was regarding the health care card information being lost. I tried to tie them together, but I do respect the Speaker’s point on that.

What I’m asking here from the Minister, quite clearly, is there are obviously some issues here involving people’s health care card renewals and now information. Can the Minister actually assure the House and assure the standing committee here in the future that the integrities are in place, and can we get something back in writing from the Minister of that integrity?