Agreed. I will ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d like to again introduce his witnesses, for the record. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. With me today are Jeannie Mathison, director of finance with the Department of Health and Social Services; and Debbie DeLancey, the deputy minister.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Again, if I could turn your attention, please, to page 8-9, Department of Health and Social Services, information item, revenue summary. Are there any questions? Agreed?

Thank you. Page 8-10, information item, active position summary. Agreed? Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Minister could just clarify, we have 173 full-time positions in this activity summary. Are these funded active positions? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Mr. Abernethy.

Yes, Madam Chair.

I appreciate the Minister’s comment. Are there any of those 173 positions that are inactive positions? Thank you.

No, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Page 8-10, information item, active position summary.

Thank you. Page 8-11, information item, active positions, health and social services authorities. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Minister has publicly stated some signals in terms of the movement of the regional boards and how they fit within the organization of the Department of Health and Social Services. I just want to clarify whether indeed his comments were in the context of assessment mode where the department is undertaking or has there been a cost-analysis of cost-savings measures for downsizing regional boards. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When I was responding to opening comments from Members, I talked about some of the things that were happening. There is no intention to downsize staff in communities or regions with respect to any of the work that’s going on trying to provide a more streamlined approach for our residents. So there is no intention of downsizing any of the positions in any communities or regions in the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to thank the Minister for clarifying that. I know there has been some discussions or perhaps overtures in trying to at least come to the point where we recognize we are fiscally challenged in meeting the objectives of providing quality care and programs and services to the citizens of the NWT. Has there been an assessment or cost analysis in terms of savings having been done?

We don’t anticipate savings through the exercise we are going through. What we’re trying to do is streamline services so we can provide the best results to residents of the Northwest Territories in all communities and regions. That includes having some back office functions where shared activities can be done at a territorial level regardless of the region it happens to be located in. Authorities and boards can work together to get economies of scale. We don’t believe it is going to save us money, but it will give us greater control over future spending because we will be able to get some economies of scale.

In that process of streamlining, I think you’ve outlined the scope and parameters of the

efforts and activities associated with that. Have there been perhaps some figures that have been determined on some fiscal strategies to ensure, indeed, there are enough revenues to address the expenditures of delivering programs and services? Mahsi.

Currently all of our authorities are running deficits and this is something that’s been ongoing for a couple of years. We believe by sharing and collaborating on things like procurement and physician services, IT/IS/IM, some financial aspects, we’ll be able to coordinate efforts across the territory and have a more responsive, streamlined approach. But at the end of the day, as I said two days ago now, our focus is on the care that the patients receive and we want to make sure that our patients have a seamless flow through the system. We’ve all heard people talking about how frustrated they are coming from one authority and trying to gain services in another authority, so like from the Dehcho to Stanton. We’ve created these silos, these independent authorities and our patients can sort of bump up against the structures that we’ve created and we want to have a seamless approach.

Having said that, we absolutely recognize and we want to continue to have regional functions as far as advisory capacity at a regional level, so like an advisory board or something, advisory council. We’re still working out the details on those types of things. We are going to work with the current structures that exist. We’re going to work with Aboriginal governments, community governments, Members and everybody to try to find a solution for improving the health system to benefit all people of the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to thank the Minister for what’s in that outcome in terms of furthering my understanding of the process.

There has been some discussion of streamlining. It’s fairly obvious that the department is internally assessing its resources. At what point would there be a formal decision in terms of amalgamating boards? As you’ve indicated, departments and divisions, or divisions mainly are, or district offices are mainly working in silos and there needs to be linkages.

At what point would there be a formal decision point that the department will be undertaking to look at moving towards amalgamating boards? Thank you.

Madam Chair, we’re not actually talking about amalgamating boards, we’re talking about creating a central approach, a unified approach to providing health and social services and having shared functions coordinated across all the entities, possibly with a central territorial body that would be more of a virtual organization. It doesn’t really need to be located in one particular area and it could have individuals

from what are all the authorities now participating. We’re not talking about amalgamation. We know and we believe, and I believe, that there still needs to be regional entities providing advice and guidance on the provision of services, but we do need to find a way to have a territorial approach to some of the back office stuff and standards so that we can set standards of care for all residents of the Northwest Territories, and our patients can have a seamless flow through the system and not experience barriers that we’ve created by design.

Initially my intent of asking questions is to seek some clarity. Again, if this streamlining effort is in the spirit of amalgamating, which the Minister says it’s not, then are we in fact in an exercise of centralizing the health authorities?