Thank you for that answer. So with this authority, are you going to be--because right now, we have all these authorities and they don't actually report to the Minister. Will this authority now be reporting to the Minister and with these other authorities, or is it a chain of command where it goes to the boards and it was just a relationship with the chair and the Minister. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I've committed to providing the Standing Committee on Social Programs or Social Development, or whatever it's called today, sorry, a comprehensive briefing on health transformation, at which point we'll be describing this. But in short, and we will certainly go into more detail, some of the changes that we're seeing are a result of an audit that was done by the Auditor General of Canada that said basically our system lacks all accountability and that there is no real solid reporting mechanisms, just streams.

The board reports directly to the Minister. The Minister does have an ability to provide direction to the board in the new model, which means the Legislative Assembly has the ability to provide some direction to the board on a territorial model. There are some direct links as far as reporting information, data, and answering questions from CEO through the Minister and through the department. So there's more lines of accountability, more clearly articulated lines of accountability in this new structure, but we'll go through all that detail in much greater detail when we meet with Committee.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Hopefully, this will be my last question. I realize that you will be trying to get a briefing. But there seems to be about three or four other briefings that you'll be in front of us on, so I think that one may be a little bit behind. I'm just a little concerned with this authority. If we have issues, will we be still going to a public administrator or will we be able to fix issues beforehand, and so we continue to, you know, have a better system in place so we don't have to bring in public administrators? Because that does concern me. Then the regional boards do not have the say and the power to do things. So is that the rationale or is it one of the rationales to making sure that we don't have to bring public administrators in? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Chair. Mr. Chair, in the new model there are no public administrators with the exception of Hay River until such a time as Hay River comes into the single authority.

There are board chairs and there are regional advisory committee members. Those individuals are intended to help us, you know, make sure we're hearing from the people of the ridings, of the communities, bringing their information forward, helping us tailor programs to fit communities and regions. The Chairs of the Regional Wellness Councils are the board of the new authority.

I'm answering the Member's question. I'm not sure I totally understand the Member's question. But there are clear lines of accountability outlined within the legislation, who's responsible for what, and it's articulated in the legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Maybe I didn't explain myself clear enough. With this new authority and that, will we be required to bring public administrators in? Because I know right now you've said we're getting regional boards and that, and Hay River has the one until they become part of it. In the past with authorities you've had to go in with public administrators. Will this new process ensure that this doesn't happen again? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. I'm going to allow a reply, but we seem to be leaning more towards page 168 and 167 on the organizational chart and getting beyond and outside page 176 and 177. I'll allow the Minister to reply, thank you.

Still not 100 per cent sure I understand the question, Mr. Chair. Under the legislation there will be board chairs for each of the Regional Wellness Councils. Those board chairs are going to form the territorial authority, there is one authority. Other members will form regional wellness councils. In the legislation it allows us to basically keep Hay River as they are until such time as we roll them in. As a result, there will be a public administrator who is technically acting in the capacity of chair of the Regional Wellness Council that we've established in Hay River, but will still maintain the public administrator role until such time as we bring Hay River in.

In all other authorities, with the exception of Tlicho, which is defined under the Community Services Act, it's going to be board members and Members providing advice and guidance on the regional operations and chairs providing advice and guidance at the territorial level. There won't be any more public administrators, except for Hay River.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Further questions to page 176? Moving on, 177. Go ahead, Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. French-language services in 2014-15 had an amount of $215,000. Last year and this year is $856,000, an increase of $640,000. Can the department speak a little bit about what is included in French-language services, maybe why there's nearly a million dollars required every year to deliver French-language communication? Maybe we'll start there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. These dollars all flow to the authorities for the provision of French-language services during the provision of health care. This is a direct result of a court case against the Government of the Northwest Territories which the GNWT lost, and it was negotiated how we would meet that ruling in that court case which resulted in significant dollars following into not just Health and Social Services, but all the departments; Education, Culture and Employment, to ensure that we can provide services to our residents in French.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I guess that explains, to some degree, why the increase to $640,000 from 2014-15. Would it have been that the court case ruling came after that 2014-15 fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.

I can't remember the exact date of the court case, but it was actually a number of years ago. It took the Government of the Northwest Territories a couple years to actually figure out how we're going to bring in this or meet our obligation under that court ruling, and we rolled it out during the 2014-15 fiscal year.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Does the department have any particular obligation as it relates to Aboriginal language communication services throughout the department? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have an Official Languages Act here in the Northwest Territories that recognizes 11 official languages, and we attempt to provide services as much as we can in those official languages. If you go Stanton, by way of example, if you move around that facility you'll notice that there's signage for all the official languages in that facility. We try to ensure that official languages are posted in facilities across the Northwest Territories, health facilities. We attempt to have interpreters available to provide language services to individuals who request them. It can be challenging at times, but we do our best to provide those services in the official languages.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.