We would be pleased to discuss it with committees certainly, if it is appropriate. I am just wondering. Our experience has been that sometimes it affects the input from people who are there, but certainly, I have no problem with it. We should at least have a discussion on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral Questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. They follow on from my statement yesterday about the Office of the Public Guardian. The Minister received a report and a stack of recommendations about the office about 18 months ago. Regional and central audits of this office haven't taken place in 20 years. The report writers say this oversight may raise liability concerns. What is the Minister doing to reinstate audits in the office? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our priority is obviously stabilizing the Office of the Public Guardian, which includes rewriting the policies and procedures manual and ensuring that the office is adequately resourced, staffed. We are looking at different possible models based on the recommendations, which could be a decentralized model. That is our first priority, but the Member has a point, and I agree with the Member that audits are necessary and required. I have given the department direction that, moving forward, an audit plan will be developed and implemented once the foundational work is complete.

I take from the executive summary I read from this report that the business of doing audits has some urgency related to it, so I would like to hear from the Minister when he thinks this audit plan will be in place and operationalized.

I understand the urgency, and the Member is not wrong. However, until we get an idea of what this office is going to look like and how it is going to be structure, and we are doing that work right now so that we can include it in the next round of business planning, it is a little awkward to say, "Go out and do the audit," when we do not have the resources or the design that will actually support the work getting done. It is necessary. I am committed to making it happen. We will be coming forward during the business-planning process for more discussions around the auditor's office. Like I said, there are a couple of things that we would still like to figure out, whether or not we go with a decentralized model or a more centralized model, recognizing that not all of the cases are in Yellowknife. This is important work. It will help us to have an audit mechanism that can be successful, regular, and efficient, so there is work that needs to be done. I have made that commitment to the Member already, and I will live up to it.

The report writer said this: "The budget for the OPG is just under $300,000 a year. Actual expenditures for the past four years have ranged from 8 to 40 per cent over budget. Projected expenditures for 2016-2017 are close to 50 per cent over budget."

So, given the extent of overspending in this office, I am unsure why the Minister feels he needs to make a business case to supplement funds. Can he explain why the budget has not been increased to cover the costs of these overruns before now?

The report and the Member's comments are contingent upon doing things the same way, which obviously does not work. We need to do the work to review the office. It will change in its operations, its design. We will find efficiencies, and, once that work is done, we will have a better sense of whether or not we are spending our money wisely and getting good value for money. We anticipate that there is going to be some changes. Those changes will help inform what our true costs need to be as opposed to what they would be. If we keep doing things poorly, we will keep getting poor results. We are looking at doing things better.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Mr. Speaker, it is often said that social services is the poor cousin in this department, and I am sorry to say that the treatment of the Office of the Public Guardian reflects that. It is also true from a legislative point of view the Guardianship and Trustee Act is 20 years old. It is out of date with respect to what the best practice is in this field now in Canada. Can the Minister tell us what his plan is to update this legislation? Thank you.

I think our actions on this file since it has come to our attention show that we do take this seriously, that we want to make changes. It is not particularly fair to suggest that this office has been ignored. If it was being ignored, we would not be having this discussion today. We are making the changes that are necessary to make the improvements. As far as the legislative changes, let us finish the work around the operationalization, which may address the issues that are out there. We are not a hundred per cent sure that they will not. Let's do the work. If legislative changes are required, we will make chose legislative changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about the challenges of medical travel, and I have some follow-up questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Yesterday, the Minister said that the department does not track flight cancellations, rescheduling, rerouting flights as part of the medical travel for people who are going out for appointments and that. Will the Minister direct his staff to start doing this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At a territorial-global level, no, I will not. We have a lot of people doing a lot of work, and I feel like this would be something that would take up time. However, when issues are raised, as they have been in the Deh Cho, yes, absolutely, we will contact the provider to try to figure out what is happening. We want to make sure that we are providing quality services to our residents. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, we have relationships with airlines. We have standing offer agreements. They have scheduled flights. We book based on scheduled flights in good faith, expecting that the airlines will live up to their obligations. There are many things that would sort of interfere with that: weather, mechanical, flights, those types of things. When that happens, we work with our patients to rebook them as quickly as we can to get them the appointments they need.

I thank the Minister for the answer. I heard that yesterday. It is about patients. It is about their care. That is my concern, is that I understand we rebook, we reschedule, but the thing is that I have people who go out for appointments who miss. It could be a week, a month, it could be two months, three months down the road, and this is a huge concern for these people. They brought this concern to me, and I appreciate the Minister is going to look at it for the Nahendeh, but can the Minister tell us if he has contacted the Department of Infrastructure, who is responsible for providing this contract, to see if they can look into this concern, as well?

Once again, the Department of Health and Social Services' responsibility is to provide care to residents of the Northwest Territories. Medical travel is an incredibly important program, and we rely in good faith on airlines who have scheduled flights. We have to make choices about when to book people and how to move people into their appointments as quickly and appropriately as possible. If appointments are cancelled, we take immediate action to rebook and to arrange flights accordingly. If there is urgency, there will not be a three-month delay; we will find ways to make it happen as quickly as possible. If there is less urgency, we will work with the patient to make sure they get the service in a timely way. I hear the Member. There is no question that, you know, there have been some impacts on residents of the riding due to a number of things that the airline has experienced over the past year, but, frankly, I am not sure what to say. We do not control the airlines. We are not an airline provider. Can the Member tell me what he thinks we need to do?

I appreciate the Minister actually asking me a question. That is kind of a new role for me today, so I appreciate that. So I guess the thing is that I would actually reach out to the contractor to see how they can alleviate these concerns and not put our patients out and put them into disadvantage. Because I know in my riding, in Fort Simpson, the airline contracted who has the bulk of this, is changing their flights. It is a regular scheduled flight, but it seems that sometimes we have got to go from Yellowknife to Hay River to Fort Simpson. Sometimes we get the unique flight of going from Edmonton to Fort Simpson to Inuvik to Yellowknife. So I guess will the Minister reach out to the contractor to see what they can try to come up with to alleviate this situation?

We have already done that. I have already said that. We reached out to the airline based on the fact that the Member had brought this to our attention. We were told by the airline that it has been a very difficult winter. There have been a lot of weather issues. They have had a couple of mechanical issues. They need to make sure that their planes are flying safely. If there are changes in one community, it may affect their ability to get to the communities that are originally scheduled, so they change their structures accordingly. We have registered our concern. They are aware, but they have to run a business, and they have indicated to us that they have set scheduled flights, they try to maintain them, sometimes they have to change. When they do change, we work with other airlines if necessary, other providers, and we try our best to get our patients to their appointments as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess this is just going to go around and around in circles here, but, again, my constituents are not getting a fair treatment. We are seeing this, and it is consistent, so maybe the airlines are out on mechanical and they are having that problem. So, if this service continues, will the department look at alternate solutions to provide these services, i.e. local airlines or another airline company? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We have a standing agreement with an airline to be the first airline that we go to in cases of medical travel. That airline has provided good services. We have a really good relationship with them where we get discounted rates and, if flights are cancelled at the last minute, we don't hit a financial penalty on that. Recognizing that, we know that it doesn't always work, and we have the freedom to go to other airlines, but our priority is to go to the airline of our standing offer agreement. We do use other airlines from time to time if we see these cancellations occurring, because our priorities are to get the patients to their appointments as quickly as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to Commissioner's opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. The Honourable Premier.