Masi. The motion is in order. To the principle of the bill.

Masi. Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 6 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 1, Western Canada Lottery Act; Minister's Statement 19-18 (3), Aurora College Foundational Review Process; Minister's Statement 32-18 (3), Update on the Northwest Territories Disability Framework and Action Plan; and Tabled Document 63-18-(3), Main Estimates 2018-2019. By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 7-18 (3), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House with Member Hay River North in the Chair.

I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Tabled Document 63-18(3), Main Estimates, 2018-2019, with the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. We will consider the document after a brief recess.

---SHORT RECESS

Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 63-18(3), Main Estimates 2018-2019, the Department of Health and Social Services, which begins on page 163. The departmental summary can be found on page 167. We see it's a $461 million department. I will open up the floor to the Minister of Health of Social Services for opening comments. Minister Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here to present the 2018-2019 Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services. The total proposed budget for the department is $461,563,000. Overall, the department’s estimates propose an increase of about $38.3 million, which is an increase of 9 per cent over the 2017-2018 Main Estimates.

Highlights of the proposed estimates before you include:

• Forced growth of $9.2 million;

• Sunsets and other adjustments of $25.5 million, including $12.6 million to address existing base deficiencies in six high-pressure program areas that have been experiencing significant growth; and

• Funding for initiatives totalling about $3.995 million.

The department’s proposed spending in 2018-2019 continues to support the priorities of the 18th Legislative Assembly.

Some specific funding activities in support of these priorities include:

• $2.863 million to operationalize the new Norman Wells Health Centre and Long-term Care Facility;

• $762,000 for the Yellowknife Sobering Centre;

• $653,000 to enhance rehabilitation services for children;

• $848,000 to enhance services for FASD and autism;

• $1.234 million to establish school and community child and youth care counsellors in the Dehcho and the Tlicho; and

• $498,000 to establish three positions to respond to the additional requirements for front-line inspections, advice and support to agriculture-related operators, food establishments and the associated policy, and regulatory work to support the multi-department efforts to implement the GNWT Agriculture Strategy.

Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening remarks, and I am looking forward to answering any questions the Members may have.

Thank you, Minister. I understand you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort those witnesses into the House. Minister, please introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today is Jeannie Mathison on my right, who is the director of Finance, and Mr. Bruce Cooper, for his first time at this table, is our new deputy minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you. Welcome to the witnesses. Committee, we previously agreed to forgo opening comments. Does committee again agree to forgo opening comments?

Thank you, committee. As is usual, we will defer the departmental summary until after consideration of the activity and detail. The first activity can be found on page 171, administrative and support services. Does committee have comments or questions about this? Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we spoke about the business plan for this department during the business plan meetings in November, there was some discussion about quality assurance and the potential of making a division of quality assurance within the department. Could the Minister please update us on the progress towards this action? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we don't have a quality assurance division in the department, and I suppose I will need the Member to remind me. I remember talking about quality assurance in the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority who is there at the frontline level to take input from residents who have concerns so that they can explore those and make improvements. I am certainly open to have the Member remind me if that is otherwise, but it has always been clear in my mind that we had been talking about the Territorial Healthy Authority.

Now, with that in mind, we do have positions in the Territorial Authority. We are working to have a centralized sort of support to that, i.e. a director or something along those lines who can provide some oversight at a territorial level, but we also need to make sure that we continue to have those supports at a regional level within the Territorial Authority to make sure that those are available to residents when they do have concerns.

The department itself as we continue to strengthen the single authority model will be more of a ministry as opposed to a program delivery, so there is going to be some role as far as writing policies, procedures, regulations, but not so much as far as monitoring the day-to-day quality. That would be the Territorial Authority.

Thank you, and I just ask the Minister and witnesses to indicate when you are finished talking so that our tech team knows when to change the microphones. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, according to the notes that I took at the time, there is a need for greater clarity of roles between the department and the authority, so this would seem to be on point to the discussion we are having now. How does quality assurance in the department relate to quality assurance at the front line? Who is driving the bus there? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in the department, we have a number of different functions, including our policy division. We've got nursing consultants. We've got the chief public health officer. We have a number of responsibilities that are responsible for developing policy related to particular activities, such as nursing or midwifery and those types of things. When operationalized, those are operationalized through the Territorial Health and Social Services Authority and our two other partner boards. The quality assurance that I have been referencing is quality assurance at the authority level, which is responsible for taking any complaints or concerns from a resident and investigating those concerns and making recommendations on the operations to ensure that these incidents, as they occur, do not occur again.

We do have to have, and we do have a close relationship between the authority and the department. When the department is working on policy, territorial-wide policy, they absolutely engage frontline providers and staff within the authority who can provide information and help on the design because, bottom line, they are front-line providers. As far as quality assurance, I mean, there are many different ways of looking at that. We do collect data so that we can make evidence-based decisions. Much of that data come into the department for analysis so that we can all, in this room, in this building, as well as in the department, work to make evidence-based decisions.

Thank you, Minister. I just ask when you're done talking, just to mention it. Ms. Green.