Thank you. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that this is the unit that is kind of responsible for updating our long-term care projections. I know, in the capital budget, we passed a number, but the department is looking at adjusting some of the numbers. Also, I believe there are some lessons, perhaps, to be learned from COVID-19.

Every time we bring on a long-term care bed, obviously, there is more funding needed within the operations budget. Do we have increased funding for long-term care in this? Sorry if I'm wrong about where we would find that. Due to the capital budget requirements to build more long-term care beds, we increased the funding for the actual in operations budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. Long-term care is its own activity area. Could we return to that question when we get to that activity area?

We can. Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard the deputy minister say that we are just starting to conduct some of that staff survey work, and we are starting to roll out staff satisfaction. Do we have current staff satisfaction measures right now for the department? Thank you.

Minister.

Thank you. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this.

Mr. Cooper.

Thank you. Member.

Thank you. The human resources function here, which actually lies in the Department of Finance, is being asked to do a lot of very specific health information, including recruiting nurses, travelling, staff satisfaction surveys across the department. We plan to measure the decreased caregiver distress. There are a lot of metrics to be done in human resources. It's very specialized work for health. To date, I have been concerned that, perhaps, the general HR function is not up to that, and it really should be in the Department of Health and Social Services. I want to be confident that the $6 million here being sent over to Finance is the right amount. Can I get a commitment from the Minister that whatever current information we have on staff satisfaction can be provided to committee? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Yes. We are looking to the expertise of the Department of Finance to assist us in recruiting and retaining staff, per our mandate commitment to increase the resident work force by 20 percent within the life of this Assembly. That is a collaborative enterprise led by the Department of Finance but including people from Health and Social Services. I can't make a commitment to provide you with the information you're asking for because I have no concept of whether I'm going to give you a page or a library. I need to understand that level of detail before I make that commitment. Once again, not to belabour the point, this is not a budget item. We came prepared to answer budget items. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

I'll try again. When I look at the department's business plan in here, there are service level metrics to be devolved. There are employee engagement and satisfaction to be devolved. There is employee turnover to measure. There is long-term care to be measured. There is employment engagement service. Fifty percent of the department is supposed to be surveyed. I have no sense of whether that work has been done or is done. I have no sense of whether this is the adequate money to do it. Perhaps, as a start, if I could get the Minister to commit to what is being done by the Department of Finance in regards to, I'll call it, the priority to improve work force engagement and develop strategies aimed at improving hiring practices and retention. What is being done by Finance versus health? If we could get a commitment of the breakdown of who is doing what work, that would be helpful. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Minister. If committee can keep the questions to the budget itself, it would be appreciated, even though the Minister has somewhat committed to answering other questions, as well. Thank you. Are there any further questions on this section? No further questions. Please turn to page 173. Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $53,007,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Health and social programs, beginning on page 179, with information item on page 183. Questions? Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'll come back to my questions, I guess to start off, about languages. I am wondering: how much is spent on translations for Indigenous languages within NWT hospitals and health centres on an annual basis? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.