Masi. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't know what channel the Member was watching yesterday, but I certainly didn't say that. We walked away because they offered us zero on the territorial health funding, and we obviously settled because they offered more. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the Premier. What was reported in the news is that Canada offered 3.5 and that the leadership walked away from that deal although they had wanted 5.2. You got 3. You wanted 5.2. There's a gap. Why did you settle for less?

The federal government said, "Take it or leave it." We didn't take it until they came back and offered more.

Thank you, Premier. The problem is that healthcare costs are forecasted to rise significantly, and I gave some numbers in my Member's statement especially around the provision of long-term care to our aging population. That's on top of home care. What is the plan to ensure that healthcare funding is adequate to meet our needs? Because I don't see that this deal with $7.4 million in it will do it?

I'm not sure what $7.4 million she's referring to. I think she's referring to targeted funding of home care that the federal government raised. We spend approximately $420 million. We also get funding through the Healthcare Act which is provided on a per capita basis, which, on a per capita basis for the Northwest Territories, works out to about $40 million. This year, because the federal government reduced the healthcare funding percentages to 3 per cent, they offered targeted funding of $13.5 million over ten years for home care and for mental health. We still have to work with the federal government to determine how they want us to spend that money. Obviously, $13.5 million over 10 years works out to about $1.5 million a year. That's not going to help us with the long-term home care, but it was never intended to do so.

Prime Minister Trudeau, during the government election, now Prime Minister, wrote to us and indicated that there was some significant infrastructure funding that would be available, including social infrastructure funding. We are still waiting for details. In his letter, he pointed out that funding under those programs could be used for seniors' housing and other options to raise money to provide for seniors' housing. We are still waiting for that detailed information. We're looking forward to the federal budget, upcoming, where we expect to have more details of those programs.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Premier. It's my understanding, but this math really needs to be set out, that the reduction of 6 per cent to 3 per cent is not offset by the $13.2 million over 10 years. Infrastructure funding is good, but the long-term care beds cost $139,000 each per year to operate. By the Health Minister's own estimate, that's $33.9 million annually required to provide care to people in long-term beds. I'm still not clear. Where's that money going to come from? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The healthcare funding was not intended to provide for that. The federal government provided $7.4 million over 10 years from homecare, and we're still waiting for them to tell us how they wanted to spend that targeted funding. The housing for seniors over the long term will have to come out of whatever funding that our government comes up with and whatever federal government funding we can access through the social infrastructure funding.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Human Resources a couple of questions on the PeopleSoft report. I'd like to ask the Minister if the Minister can provide the latest full PeopleSoft report to committee? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Human Resources.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Human Resources, we do have a number of reports that we can access through PeopleSoft. I can work with the Member opposite and see exactly what his requirement is for a report, and I can work with the department to see if we can pull that information together for committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'm not expecting the Minister to maybe give me a definite answer in this, but if I recall the PeopleSoft reports did not identify unfunded positions, so the PeopleSoft report was essentially generated from the main estimates. I'd like to ask the Minister, while providing the PeopleSoft report, if the Minister could also provide a quick one-pager, or whatever it takes, to identify any positions that are not funded in the main estimates.

Again, as I said before, I will work with the Member opposite and we'll come up with exactly what the committee is looking for and then we will work with the department to put the information together to provide for committee. Through the PeopleSoft, as I said before, we can produce a number of reports and find out exactly what the committee is looking for, and I'm sure I'll have that conversation with the Member. We will pull the information together and provide it to committee.

Another interesting dynamic about the PeopleSoft report, as I said, essentially it's generated from the main estimates. There is something that is not in report that I would like to also request the Minister to provide, and that is the amount of casuals who we have in the GNWT, long-term casuals. Perhaps any casuals who have been on longer than six months. I'm not referring to casuals where they work for a very short period of time and don’t come back, but I am referring to casuals who meet the requirements to a certain degree and then get some break and then get back on, and I believe that there are many casuals who are in the system for a long period of time. So if in addition to PeopleSoft, which is generally something that's generated from the mains, if the Minister could the additional casuals that the GNWT has also?

Through some of the reports that do come out of the Department of Human Resources we've included some of them, I think, in the conversations we've had with committee. You know, we talk about the number of employees we have, the number of indeterminate employees we have, the number of casuals we have, which is, in the spirit of transparency, we have approximately 852 casuals within the government system right now. So those type of reports I think we've tried to make available. I think some of the information that the Member is looking for, committee is looking for, is in addition to what we already provide. So I've made the commitment before that I will work with the Member and try to provide all the information that they're looking for.

Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not really changing directions here. I'm trying to more or less talk about PeopleSoft, but at this point on April 1st there's going to be some changes to PeopleSoft as a result of any reductions that may be in the budget. I'd like to ask the Minister when there's reductions that the Minister refers to, and the number was given in here and I don’t want to get into the numbers things, but there was an interesting dynamic in there where indicated that many of those positions were not filled. I'd like to know if those positions were actually filled with casuals. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that level of detail I will have to work with the department and find exactly the information that the Member's looking for. So I do commit to working the Department of Human Resources and I will work in providing all the information committee is requesting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back to junior kindergarten. There's still a lot of confusion about this program, and I'd just like to try and clear it up for my constituents. I'd like the Minister of Education to just let us know what's the difference between junior kindergarten programming and, say, the programming at daycare and the difference between junior kindergarten and kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The difference is junior kindergarten will be a free play-based program that's offered to all communities across the Northwest Territories. Currently, there are 11 communities that don’t have any licensed daycare programming, and we want to fix that. Daycares and day homes, they do their own programming; we also work with them to provide some programs, but junior kindergarten will be one that's offered throughout the whole Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.