Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we will go to Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to be clear, is that for total costs for health care services for residents outside the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We just want to clarify the numbers that Mr. Aumond was speaking to, or for insured services for non-NWT residents, so now we will respond to the question that Mr. Bromley had asked. I will ask the deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Aumond.

Thank you, Mr. Aumond. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know these costs are always going up. Is this amount generally going up from year to year, the $22.9 million, for example? Are we always requesting these extra dollars for the increased costs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Across the country, the health costs are going up on an annual basis. In some cases, it’s a

modest amount, a few percent. In many cases it is 6 to 9 percent. Yes, as this supp indicates, these costs pressures are consistent and inexorable. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. Does our budgeting process allow us the flexibility of saying we’re going to assume a 5 percent increase this year when we’re budgeting for these costs, or do we have to basically go on what it was last year and deal with the extra costs through a supp? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, there’s going to be a target adjustment and this money will go to the base that we’re requesting. As opposed to taking 5 percent, we know that there is a $3.7 million shortfall, so that’s going to be approved now and then added to the base for next year. Thank you.

Thanks for that information. It sounds like we’re never allowed to get ahead. We’re allowed to count for what the actual costs are this year through this unfortunate process, but wouldn’t it be great if we could do it at the beginning of the year so that we actually knew what our costs were roughly? We might even feed back a few thousand bucks at the end of the year, who knows? But I would be happy with a conservative estimate of increases based on our experience. It would just greatly reduce these sorts of costs, or at least adjustments. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, the Legislature and the Government of the Northwest Territories have learned over the decades that what seems to be the best way to manage the money is putting a base budget, and if you are over, come back when you can justify the expense as opposed to anticipating at the beginning of the year a number, however big it would be, and then hoping it’s enough and that the things don’t expand, just spend the money available in the budget. Hard practice has shown and I know, if I can use fire fighting for example, they used to have a very rich budget. It ended up, when there was a small fire season, a lot of other things got done but the fire budget stayed the same even if they didn’t use the money. So for this and other program areas, it came to practice to give them a good base budget, and if there are costs over and above that, then come back and we will make the case to the Legislature why we should get paid for that. That’s the approach that has been consistent in my time here in this Legislature. Thank you.

It sounds like that’s the hard reality and our budgeting system does not have flexibility to do this and redefine that base even conservatively. We know typically this year the numbers I have have increased about 5.5 percent. I think in the order of 4 to 6 percent is typical across Canada, so we could adjust it by 3 or 3.5 percent

theoretically, but it doesn’t sound like we have that flexibility. So, onwards.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. I will take that as a final comment. I do have Mr. Nadli on this page as well. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just an observation in terms of this section of the budget, it seems rather high, but I realize that patients that have serious injuries in some circumstances have to be sent down south because we don’t have the specialized care here in the NWT. I just wanted to get the Minister to perhaps share his vision in terms of trying to curb the costs but at the same time looking at perhaps a concept of at least a legacy in terms of ensuring that we have homemade solutions here and we have institutions that are tailored to deal with industrial-type accidents, whether that is perhaps the vision that the Minister has in his department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister of Finance, we put forward a budget that has a very hard cap on forced growth and we’re trying to control our supplementary appropriations. We are trying to make sure that we manage those expenditures.

In regards to the vision of Health and Social Services to address some of the issues that the Member talked about, I’d ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he wanted to make some comments as the Minister responsible and the man with the plan.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. We will go to Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I understand the question correctly, it’s about expenditure control within the department and the authorities.

Just to get clarity, Mr. Abernethy, we will ask Mr. Nadli to summarize his question one more time. Mr. Nadli.