Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We’ll treat that as a comment. Thank you. Page 8-31, activity summary, community programs, operations expenditure summary, $99.116 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Pages 8-32 and 8-33 are combined. Ms. Bisaro.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here on 8-33 under family violence funding. The Family Violence Coalition a while ago put forward 19 recommendations. I know the Minister has said that the Health department is working on them.

Is the Family Violence Coalition money in this budget or is it in another department? I can never remember quite where it is. If it is in here, is there a focus on the 19 recommendations from the Family Violence Coalition? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The dollars identified here are the dollars that are provided to the authorities to provide services in regions and communities.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Committee, we are on 8-32 and 8-33. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see a number of supports here in the area of child and family services. I know the Minister is firm in support of the principle of keeping children in the homes with their families to the extent possible within the obvious guidelines of safety and whatnot. Can he tell me what progress we’re making? What proportion of children are we putting in care these days outside the homes versus figuring out a way to keep them in the homes? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Abernethy.

Mr. Chair, there are some statistics in the annual report. On page 29 it actually refers to the percentage of children receiving services in their home community under the Child and Family Services Act, and the baseline on that is 80 percent. For 2012-13 we had set a target of 83 percent, but in that same fiscal year we actually succeeded to hit levels of 87.5 percent. That information is in the annual report.

That sounds like good progress to me. I’ll try to score a few minutes to look at that report.

Just on page 33, the non-government organizations residential care programs and services related to addictions, mental health, disabilities and chronic illnesses, quite a decline over the last few years. Does the Minister know why this is happening? I noticed quite a difference between the main estimates and the revised estimate last year or this fiscal year. Is there not an uptake from our community organizations here? If that’s the case, $2.9 million approved, $835,000 in expenditures… This is quite a drop and I’m wondering if there is less uptake because of capacity. Is that something the Minister is looking into or would look into to try and give these organizations the support they need to deliver these sorts of programs? Thank you.

One of the main reasons for the reduction here is the dollars from here, some of these dollars were the dollars that went to Nats’ejee K’eh and we’re not providing that in the same way. Those dollars have now been reverted into the department. We’re using them to fund the four facilities, or portions of the four facilities that we’re contracting with in the South plus the mobile treatment program that we’re exploring with Poundmaker’s and some of the other programs related to mental health and addictions.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Committee, we’re on 8-32 and 8-33, activity summary, community programs, grants and contributions, $73.704 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Page 8-34, information item, community programs, active positions. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 8-35, information item, details of funding allocated to health and social service authorities. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question with regards to the numbers on this page. When I looked at them and considered the results of year over year for the last number of years and the fact that our authorities tend to be in deficit, I wondered how close these numbers are to actuals. I know the Minister mentioned the other day that we do have authorities that are still operating under deficits. I don’t necessarily need to hear the numbers right now, but if the Minister would commit to providing us with a list of these same authorities and some actuals so we can see how much authorities are in deficit. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We will provide some of that deficit information.

Also, recognize that these dollars that you see here are not necessarily the only dollars that the authorities are getting. They’re also getting additional revenue from other sources. We can provide some additional clarity around that as well.

Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Committee, 8-35, information item, details of funding allocated to health and social service authorities. Any questions?

Thank you, committee. Page 8-36, information item, lease commitments – infrastructure. Any questions?