Thank you. Minister.
Debates of Feb. 26th, 2021
This is page numbers 2163 - 2198 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 services.
Topics
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you. I would like to refer this question to the director of finance.
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Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The department gives the $26 million to the authority in a contribution agreement, and then the authority enters into individual contracts with each of the facilities in the South. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Okay, thanks. Yes. That helps me a lot. I appreciate that. The contract services line, can someone explain to me what that is? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not seeing that my page has any detail on it, so I would like to refer the question to the director of finance. Thank you.
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Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is where the department enters into contracts directly for the child, for the southern placements for children. The authority currently administers the program for the adult southern placement, and the department does the children. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful to understand. I see back in 2019-2020 it was a little bit higher, by half a million dollars, but then it's just a constant amount. Do we sign, I don't know, two- or three- or five-year contracts or something? I just would have expected that this would fluctuate a bit more than the numbers here seem to show. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Thank you. That is another question for the director of finance, please.
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Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There has not been a forecasted need to further increase the budget in this area based on what we currently see. On the side for children, it does fluctuate between years and over months even because some children go in for a month and then they come back for short-term treatment periods, but the budget has not needed to be extended at this point. We did overspend, and we did forecast an over-expenditure in 2019-2020. I went for supplementary funding at the time. If we were to incur a similar situation at this point, it would be something that would be one-off, and so we would take that same approach next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Now to the last line here, fees and payments, this one does jump around a fair bit. Back in 2019-2020, it was $15 million, which is $10 million more than what is anticipated next year. If I can get an explanation of what this covers, let's start with that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Julie Green Yellowknife Centre
Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The explanation is that we historically have shortfalls in this area where we exceed the budget. In 2019-2020, that shortfall was $11.8 million for hospital services and another $2.4 million for out-of-territory physician services. That combined shortfall was addressed through a supplementary appropriation. I don't see that that has been necessary in the current fiscal year that will end next month, but I think that further detail could be provided by the director of finance. Thank you.
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Mathison
Thank you. The $40 million there that you see ties directly to the $40 million above for medical services. This is fees and payments specifically for the services we pay to other jurisdictions, the invoices we receive from them for their service to us in hospitals and physician services. Correct, we have added $4 million to the budget for 2021-2022 based on our assessment of the forecasted use of those services next year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks. That's really helpful to understand. I presume, then, that this section of the budget, there is nothing in here that really deals with after-care. Is that correct?
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