Thank you. Member.
Debates of Feb. 25th, 2021
This is page numbers 2121 - 2162 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was health.
Topics
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
I'm going to say it's on the same basis, that, undoubtedly, because of the lag in billing, we have some outstanding debts. We pay our bills.
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Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. That's good news, and that's what I like to hear. My next question is in regard to population health. I see that population health has had a significant decrease, and I'm wondering what this decrease accounts for. Thank you.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
What my notes say here is that, in the 2019-2020 budget, the budget was not fully spent, mostly because of some federal funding that lapsed. Then in the 2020-2021 budget, we had funding from Health Canada related to cannabis, which has now sunset. There are some other details about what goes on here in public health, and part of that was covered with a supplementary appropriation that was passed during this fiscal year and included things such as $70,000 for meat inspection regulations; $94,000 for enhanced community-based monitoring of seasonal influenza; $40,000 from the Northern Wellness Agreement; $10,000 from the On the Road to Wellness during- and after-cancer diagnosis funding; substance abuse and addictions program, $174,000. The biggest portion of this is the COVID Safe Restart funding agreement, which provided $2.472 million, and so we don't have an equivalent amount of COVID restart money in these main estimates. I don't think that the number for COVID funding has been settled on for the next fiscal year. Thank you.
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Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. One of the things that catches my ear on that one is the cancer diagnosis funding. One of the things that I find we are hearing about and reading about a little bit more is the amount of people who are not seeing physicians on a regular basis with COVID. People are avoiding doctors' offices. They are avoiding health check-ups, especially in the North where our health check-ups mean that we have to travel. Sometimes, people have to come to regional centres, sometimes Yellowknife, and sometimes, they end up having to leave the territory. I am wondering if there is discussion about increasing this line item kind of in anticipation of people not being diagnosed and potentially having to be treated farther down in cancer diagnosis and the additional cost of that or if there are discussions around that happening at the Minister's tables. Thank you.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My recollection is that this fund is going to sunset at the end of next month, and it is federal money. I am not sure if an additional or new fund with a similar focus is being contemplated. I will ask the deputy minister for that information. Thank you.
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Cooper
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was one-time funding for a very small project, and so, no, there is nothing else being contemplated in that space. However, to the broader question of cancer prevention, chronic disease management, and ultimately, diagnosis and treatment, the diagnosis and treatment side would show up in the broader growth within the healthcare system should that happen. Being mindful of the dynamic of people avoiding or not going to physicians or nurse practitioners for check-ups, there was a lot of work done earlier in the pandemic for people to review their panels and to be doing outreach and to implement virtual care. I know the primary care team have been very mindful of the risk that has been articulated and are working to try to prevent that from happening by good connections with their folks. Certainly, we are not waiting for it to become a treatment issue, trying to use good triaging and good connection with patients to do outreach. Thank you.
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Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I am going to end up leaving the conversation of the deficit to somebody else because I am just trying to be mindful of the clock here. The adult support services line item, I see that that's fairly consistent with what it was last year, and I am wondering if that line item includes the FASD diagnostic clinic.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
I don't think this does include the FASD diagnostic clinic, but I will turn to Ms. Mathison to confirm that.
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Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it does not. This line item is funding that we give to the NTHSSA to support contracts that they enter into with NGOs for support services for adults. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake
Can the Minister let me know where the adult FASD clinic falls within the budget, please? Thank you.
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