Thanks to the Minister. So I heard the Minister say there’s not going to be an ask for more money for anti-poverty in the ‘14-15 year. You can correct me if my understanding is incorrect.

I wanted to ask a question – I think it belongs here – under the directorate. I don’t remember if it was last year or if it was a little further back than that, but my understanding is we now have I’m going to call it – it came from the French secretariat, I believe – a French position within the Department of Health and Social Services. I believe it was a pilot. I would just like to know from the Minister if I’m correct in my remembering and how that pilot is working. Is it beneficial and is it likely to be continued on a permanent basis? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Ms. DeLancey.

Thanks to the deputy minister. The French language services plan that the deputy minister references, is that just for the Department of Health and Social Services or is she referencing a plan across the government?

Thanks to the deputy minister. My other question has to do with insured services and things that are not covered under insured services. I mentioned one the other day when I talked about naturopathic doctors, but the other service, I guess, that I think and I believe there was a commitment from the previous Health Minister to consider bringing this in under our insured services, and it’s bariatric surgery. I’d like to know from the Minister, first, has bariatric surgery had any work done on it to bring it in under insured services and where does the department sit and the Minister sit in terms of bringing naturopathic doctors in as an insured service. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are a large number of services that have become available over the years that are not currently covered under our insured services. Our insured services coverage is fairly dated and it hasn’t really had a very comprehensive review in some time, which is one of the reasons why we’ve created the chief clinical advisor position to help us actually do this analysis to make sure that the types of things that are covered under insured services are really keeping with the times, and the fact that the health system does change and evolve and new programs and services come in.

We’ve had the chief clinical advisor on for a while. One of his primary tasks is to provide clinic guidance around clinical practice guidelines but also to provide advice and guidance on what we have and currently cover under insured services.

One of the things we are looking at, as well as many others, is bariatric surgery. It’s going to take a bit of time to make sure that we’re doing the comprehensive analysis on that and then we bring those forward for discussion.

At this point in time, there is no discussion about including naturopathic doctors under insured services.

Thanks to the Minister. So, my usual question, I guess, is in terms of timing. When might we expect this revision of the list to be done? I’m hoping that maybe there would be some communication with Regular Members as to what the department has decided on, and as part of that, is there a willingness on the part of the department

to look at including naturopathic doctors at some point and when might that be? Thank you.

Madam Chair, the chief clinical advisor is going to be working on this over the next year to look at different procedures that haven’t been covered, including things like bariatric surgery. That will be done over the next year and hopefully we’ll be in a position to have some discussions about what may or may not be added or included in the future.

At this point in time, there is no intention to include naturopathic doctors and the services they provide under insured services. I do have a meeting with the naturopathic doctors here in the near future, where we’ll have an opportunity to hear from them and hear what their interests are as far as providing services. We have indicated that we will make them our fourth priority for regulation for licensing purposes here in the Northwest Territories. So we are moving forward with a number of things with them, but at this point in time there’s no intention to make them an insured service. I’m looking forward to the discussions though.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $10.016 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m sorry, I lied, I do have another question that was hiding under a piece of paper.

In compensation and benefits there’s quite an increase, six and a half thousand dollars, six-hundred-whatever, from $7.8 million to $7.1 million. I have a note here, three PYs and I don’t know quite where I got that from, but can I get an explanation as to why the major increase in compensation and benefits? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It seems vaguely familiar. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly the same question that Mr. Bromley asked earlier. It’s six positions. If you average them out to about $100,000 per, it’s about $600,000 and we can provide the detail to the Member. We’ll print off Hansard.

Madam Chair, I just wanted to apologize. I must have gapped out when Mr. Bromley asked his question, so I’m very sorry for wasting everybody’s time. I’ll read it when we get it. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Page 8-13, activity summary, directorate, operations expenditure summary, $10.016 million. Agreed?

Page 8-14, activity summary, directorate, grants and contributions, $685,000.

Page 8-15, information item, directorate, active positions. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is where the Minister’s explanation kind of falls apart, given that there are a total of two new positions for the department plus one indeterminate part-time, which makes, again, the increase in compensation and benefits quite high. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. There are some ins and outs in this particular area. The anti-poverty position is one in; the Health Information Act is two in; there are some financial shared services positions being transferred out, three; there’s the full part-time senior policy advisor position in; and there are two Health Information Act positions in. So there are some ins and outs in this particular area. Thank you, Madam Chair.

That’s obvious, I would say, given that we’re only up two here net, but we’ve heard about six new positions. It suggests that two of those new positions must be paid in the order of $300,000 or something like that. Again, the math is fuzzy. I note that the other divisions do manage their compensation and benefits in just about every case. Just in the directorate we seem to have this issue. Thank you.