This is page numbers 2545 – 2580 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 4th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was expenditures.

Topics

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Community wellness and social services, not previously authorized, $5.9 million. Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In some ways similar questions with the adults in residential care. These are increased costs. What are our total costs, and while we’re at it, is this also sort of uneven year to year, or is there any kind of a trend here? Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The trend has been slow and steady

increases. The information we have here indicates that there was $1.2 million in 2006-07. In 2012-13 that number, from the information I have, is $8.6 million. In 2006-07 it was for 35 adults. For 2012-13 it was for 55 adults. Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I wasn’t writing and hearing fast enough, but did I hear $8.6 million was our base for this year and the $2.864 is on top of that? Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For clarification I’ll go to Mr. Kalgutkar.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Kalgutkar

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For southern placements in adults, the total projected expenditure is for ‘12-13 at $8.6 million. Also included in that activity is costs for psychiatric services associated with those clients, which is around $1.3 million. Total expenditures for that area are about $10 million for ‘12-13. For children in southern placements, total expenditures there are around $7.6 million for ‘12-13. Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. Obviously, it looks like, according to those figures, we’re talking about a 28 percent increase for adults and something along those lines for children. It seems like an extraordinary increase there to me. Is there any explanation for that? Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is another demand-driven area, but there has been a steady increase. The program review office, one of the tasks there that have been given is to look at these areas. One of the questions that has occurred in the past is, is there a sufficient capacity in the North or can the capacity be built in the North to have the facilities up here to repatriate those services. We put in facilities in Hay River, for example, to do that. Over the years, way back, Trailcross was built. There’s been other receiving homes built to try to repatriate services, the Territorial Treatment Centre up here and now we’ve done that with the thought that we would be able to minimize our reliance on southern placements, and that is the case for a period of time, but over time, as the statistics show, the demand creeps back up. So we’re looking at that area in terms of not only efficiencies, but is that a service when you look at the specific case requirements of all the individuals, adults and children, can we have and do we have the capacity to put the infrastructure in place, but also have the trained staff and keep that money in the North. Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I think it’s definitely a concern. I am aware, too, of the work we’ve done to repatriate people, adults anyway, and of course we did do a thorough look at this with the Child and

Family Services Act review during the 16th Assembly and made a lot of recommendations. Had they been in place, I suspect we shouldn’t have this increasing problem, at least with the children side and ultimately with the adult side as well.

Can we expect to see those recommendations put in place during ‘13-14 to start to deal with this? Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you. We are going to apply ourselves and resources to answer the questions that we’ve been talking about in the House today and we’ll be coming forward with the cost projections. We have to do the needs analysis almost on a client-by-client basis to see how different and how varied they are, to sort out those complexities, but we intend to do that in the coming year so we can make some hard decisions about the potential to first repatriate and try to identify with more clarity the trends, and what do we need to do on the prevention side. Thank you.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you. I appreciate that we’re going to look at this and figure out how to try and repatriate people, including children. I guess the frustrating part is the Standing Committee on Social Programs did have a close look at this, made recommendations. I don’t think the program review office needs to redo that work. What’s needed now is some implementation on those recommendations.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I’ll take that as a comment unless Mr. Miltenberger would like to reply. Go ahead, Mr. Miltenberger.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We are not going to reinvent the wheel here. We are going to look at the work that was done, but with an eye to trying to identify costs if we proceed with repatriation. The client base is constantly changing so we have to make sure and do that review, as well, to make sure we know what the needs are. We are going to make full use of the work that was done by committee.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

I appreciate the Minister’s comments there. I just would observe that many of the recommendations were of a systemic nature and totally in line with the prevention side the Minister had mentioned. I hope the Minister will take account for that and put some of his effort into implementation.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I believe that was asked and answered already. Page 7, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, community wellness and social services, not previously authorized, $5.9 million, total department, not previously authorized, $15.165 million.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Page 8, Justice, operations expenditures, community justice and corrections, not previously authorized, $316,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $316,000.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Some Hon. Members

Agreed.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Page 9, Education, Culture and Employment, operations expenditures, education and culture, not previously authorized, $1 million. Income security, not previously authorized, $956,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $1.956 million. Mr. Bromley.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Bob Bromley

Bob Bromley Weledeh

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The million dollars, is that to look after Nunavut artifacts at our cost? Is that what that’s all about?

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

The Chair

The Chair Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Miltenberger.

Committee Motion 22-17(4): Concurrence Of Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 2011-2012, Carried
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters

Michael Miltenberger

Michael Miltenberger Thebacha

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s to compensate us for providing that service to Nunavut.