Masi. Tabling of documents. Colleagues, pursuant to Section 40.23(2) of the Public Service Act, I wish to table the Annual Report of the Equal Pay Commissioner for the Northwest Territories for the period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. Masi. Item 15, notices of motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 I will move the following Motion:

Now therefore, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Deh Cho, that the Government of the Northwest Territories make a commitment to reducing the level of core need for all NWT housing by two per cent per year for four years so that we meet the national average; and further, that the government make investing in social housing a priority; and furthermore, that the government increase lobbying efforts to restore CMHC contributions for operations and maintenance, and that the GNWT organize its own spending to take maximum advantage of federal funds available. Furthermore, that the Government develop a comprehensive and fully-costed strategic plan to achieve these goals and provide the plan to the Standing Committee on Social Development within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters with Member for Hay River North in the chair.

I'll now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee would like to continue its review of the Department of Health and Social Services.

Does committee agree?

We'll take a short break and resume with a discussion with Health and Social Services.

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I'd like to move on calling the committee to order. Thank you, Minister. Would you like to bring your witnesses into the Chamber please?

Yes, please.

Okay, thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chamber. Would the Minister please introduce the witnesses?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today is, on my right, Debbie DeLancey who is the deputy minister, Health and Social Services, and on my left, Jeannie Mathison who is the director of finance, Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Proceeding on page 171, Health and Social Services, departmental total, $414,234,000. We will defer this page until after consideration of the activities detail. Moving on, page 172, Health and Social Services, revenue summary, information item. Any questions? Recognizing Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on the revenue summary I see where, under transfer payments, shows a couple of lines here, hospital care, medical care for status Indians and Inuit. Presumably with the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on Metis, would we expect to see additional transfer payments from the federal government for Métis healthcare? I think somewhere in here I think I saw the figure of about $2 million is what we seem to spend on Metis healthcare in a year. Can I ask our witnesses about this, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on Metis health benefits, we're hoping that that is in fact the case, but we actually have no details on how they plan to move forward to address that particular court ruling. We will be following up with the federal government to see what, if any, dollars will flow our way.

The Member is correct, we spend about $2 million plus dollars a year providing Métis health benefits. So we're hoping that those are the type of dollars we see from the federal government. At this time, we have no indication from them what they intend to do or how they intend to address the Supreme Court ruling. We will monitor and follow-up and let Members know when we know.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't want to jump ahead to page 198, but that's where it looks like we spent $2.08 million last year on Metis health benefits. Can the Minister tell us when we might hear something from the federal government, during 2016-17 or in time for the next budget or do we have any sense at all when we might hear from the federal government on this? How is he following it up as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, some of that will actually be followed up with by the DAAIR and Department of Finance. We have indicated that we're prepared to have a conversation with the Minister of Health, but ultimately it will be discussions between Finance, DAAIR and the federal government. I do meet the federal Minister of Health and Social Services with all the other health ministers across the country. I believe our meeting is going to be later this summer. I'm confident that this will be a topic of discussion during that meeting as well.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm just trying to understand what our government has actually done on this file. Have we actually written to federal Ministers on this issue to find out when it might get resolved and when we might expect to see some money flowing? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.