Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wants to continue consideration of Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014. The committee would like to continue the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We will continue with this after a brief recess.

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Okay, I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. When we left off on Friday we were on the Department of Health and Social Services, page 8-13. I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to bring witnesses into the Chamber so that we may resume the consideration of Health and Social Services. Mr. Beaulieu.

Yes, Madam Chair, I would.

Is committee agreed?

Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.

Minister Beaulieu, one more time for the record, could you please introduce your witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right I have Debbie DeLancey, deputy minister of Health and Social Services. To my left is

Jeannie Mathison, director of finance, Health and Social Services. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. We left off on page 8-13, Health and Social Services, operations expenditure summary, directorate, $8.559 million, and when we recessed on Friday there was Mr. Bromley, Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Yakeleya on the list to speak. Are any of those three Members interested in speaking to page 8-13? Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to follow up on a couple of things on the Territorial Health System Sustainability Initiative. The Minister mentioned that was coming to an end. He’s responsible for negotiating, hopefully, a new one. What fiscal year does it end, will it no longer be active?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The current agreement is scheduled to expire March 31, 2014.

I think the Minister said we can’t just stop the program when this ends. We have to fund it. How much of the funding, the THSSI funds are being used to fund core programs?

We’re just going to quickly add up the number here. I think it is $6.5 million.

I just want to be clear. I know the Minister made a clear commitment not to drop these programs, if it’s not renewed that we would fund them. Obviously, if we get to that point, we’ll be asking some hard questions because the money has to come from somewhere. I just appreciate being on top of that and knowing what the timing is.

The emergency medical records, we’re hoping they will lead to some savings. I’m just wondering if that is still considered a potential as well as a more effective health care delivery. Is there a potential we will realize some savings from it as well?

We believe that the electronic medical records will provide some savings further down the road. The immediate benefit is to the patient care at this time. We’re doing it because we do see an immediate benefit to the way we care for our patients.

Really, that’s it. I can see that if we do care for our patients better, hopefully there will be some preventative aspects and the long-term costs will give us some savings as well. I will leave it at that. That’s all I have for this page.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll now go to Ms. Bisaro. You were on the list to speak to this page on Friday.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have some more questions on this page. My first one has

to do with medical travel and the review that is apparently ongoing. My first question has to do with when that review is intended to be completed. I think the Minister has spoken about it before, but I don’t think we’ve had a definitive answer. I’d like to know from the Minister when we can expect the results of the medical travel review.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will have Deputy Minister DeLancey run through the process and come down to when we can produce some results.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. DeLancey.