Is the Minister saying, so I understand, that there is availability at all times and we are not refusing clients or we are not booking them further down the road for treatment or therapy, whatever the particular case may be, because of the availability of staff? Is he saying that there is more than enough staff and capacity built into our Stanton facility to address for those types of anomalies? As I understand it, they will travel for a week or close to a week servicing these things. That said, I just want to make sure that our residents aren’t waiting unnecessarily, aren’t able to book timely appointments at a cost, in essence, because we are serving other clients that are not residents.

Mr. Chair, as I indicated, they staff based on demand, and demand does include Nunavut residents who are coming for services. Granted, those numbers are fairly low. Most of our residents, the vast majority, are obviously from the Northwest Territories. If there were no Nunavut patients, we may be in a position where there would be fewer employees at Stanton because we would have less demand. Stanton bases their employment structure and how many people they staff based on their demand.

I think I’m saying what the Member is saying. It doesn’t have an adverse effect on our residents because, if you took Nunavut out of the mix, our staff size would decrease and we would be providing the same level of services to our northern residents.

Just changing gears, same kind of concept though. I understand we have a team that does an amazing job at fixing that equipment over at Stanton, that tech crew. I’m not sure what the exact name is and I almost feel embarrassed that I don’t know the name of it, but the tech crew there that works on all the fancy equipment in Stanton certainly provide regional support and they get out to our regions. In essence, do we bill for other regions on that? Do we bill across authorities on that? Who picks up the cost of that? One of the Stanton folks who is a tech, who is an expert in fixing some of these heart monitor machines, has to go to Inuvik or has to go to Cambridge Bay or has to go to Rankin. How do those costs work? Maybe if they can explain that and the concerns about capacity and ability.

On the last tour we had as MLAs there, to say it bluntly, they looked overwhelmed by the amount of work that they do, and with the amount of work that they do I’m impressed on the amount of quality they punch out. It looks like it’s a treadmill shop, that’s for sure. Thank you.

The bio-med team that does the repairs on medical equipment throughout the Northwest Territories are employees of Stanton. They do, through agreements between Stanton and the other authorities, individual agreements, go out and provide services on those authorities’ equipment as necessary and it is billed back directly. This is one of the areas that we talk about on a regular basis being part of the back office and the shared services, because we could certainly benefit from economies of scale by having them providing services at a territorial level with not having to bill every time they go to a different authority.

I’m curious. How do we know the capacity level there is appropriate? I thought we also worked and serviced Nunavut equipment as well. Can the Minister speak to that? Thank you.

Stanton manages their contract and their employees with respect to the bio-med services, I do believe. They do provide services to Nunavut but it’s the same way they provide services to the other authorities. They have contracts with those authorities and they staff based on the contracts that they have for provision of services.

Maybe just a follow-up on another perspective to Mr. Dolynny’s question. I think the Minister had pointed out we bill and we get paid for it. I guess he’s going to provide some type of spreadsheet information on what’s billed and what’s covered. Can he also include what is billed and refused on this stuff? Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair, that will come out in the report that we promised.

I appreciate the comment there that they will provide that information. Is the Minister in a position to speak about the disallowances in 2008-09? It looked like about $34,000 in 2009-10, $52,000 the following year. The following year of 2010-11 is $610,000 but there is no information or allocation for the years 2010-11 and 2012-13. Thank you.

I’m going to have to get that information from the Member because I’m not sure what he’s actually talking about.

It’s under Non-Insured Health Benefits five-year summary of expenses by authority and total revenue recoveries and it’s my understanding it’s actually from the Minister’s office. It’s an internal document. Thank you.

Mr. Hawkins, can I just get clarification what page you are referring to?

I think it all links back to the reciprocal billing.

Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’ve gone back to 8-37 on this. I think the information he’s referring to is some detail we provided after discussions on the mains with committee. We will get more information for the Member on that.

Obviously we are running out of time this round, but I wouldn’t mind some details as to medical travel. I would assume that we would have a revenue, if it’s listed here on this page, that points to, for example, third-party insurance coverage. If it isn’t on this particular page, I’m curious as to where it would show up and how much it would be.

To give a specific example, in my view the territorial government shouldn’t be picking up all the costs. Insurance companies should be the first whistle stop on some of these expenses. As far as that goes, whether it’s automobile accidents or, for example, federal employees, they have individual insurance that should be covering some of these things. What it ends up having to be is it’s aggregated right down to the territorial taxpayer, which I’m not necessarily sure should be the first stop. It is, of course, the catch-all and that’s what it’s there for. That will be my last question on this particular one.

Where do I see how much money for a third-party billing when it comes to things like medical travel? I assume we have some revenue stream or line here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Mathison.

Thank you. Next on my list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

I have a question on the reciprocal billing. Do we also bill for the oil and gas and mining companies who have employees come into the North and use our facilities?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Abernethy.

Committee, we are on page 8-9, information item, revenue summary. Mr. Dolynny.

Just one final clarification on 8-9. You have a reference here on program called special allowances for $1 million. It seems to kind of repeat itself here. Can you describe what that is? Thank you.