Thank you, committee. Committee, we will take a recess, and we'll start with out-of-territory services when we get back.

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I'll now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we will continue on with Health and Social Services. We are now on page 189, out-of-territory services, and 190, 191. So those pages there. Are there questions from Members? Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is regarding the review of the $35 million here we spend on residential care. And my understanding is that, well, the last year's actuals and then there's increasing pressure on this area. Can I just get an update of when we expect that review to complete and the status of it? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you. This page, as the Member said, reflects increased pressure particularly in the adult services program. So we moved some money within the program from youth to adults because people aged out of youth care.

So the supported living review is supposed to look at whether there are feasible in-territory models that we could use to provide care for this client group. I'm going to ask the deputy minister if he can tell me when that review is going to be complete. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Cooper.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm very excited to hear that. I guess I don't ask too many more questions. I'll wait for the review. But I'm just wondering if the Minister could help me understand how long-term care fits into this picture?

We are bringing online, you know, hundreds of long-term care beds over the coming years, and I know Avens is expanding and we have Legacy Stanton coming online. I'm just wondering the overlap here between the people who are getting this treatment down south and long-term care, or whether there is any overlap at all? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you. It's my understanding that the people who are receiving out-of-territory services have a level of needs that can't be met in-territory. It's not a lack of beds. It's a lack of expertise to provide the level of care that some of the -- that these clients need. So the long-term care admissions are sorted out by the territorial admissions committee, which includes health professionals and a member of the public, and they look at the distribution of beds available and who needs them and makes recommendations on that basis. The admissions to out-of-territory care are not handled that way. But maybe I'll ask the deputy minister to provide some detail about how those referrals are made. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Cooper.

Thank you. Are there any other Members who wish to speak to out-of-territory services? Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I see the funding here from Health and Social Services -- or sorry, contributions for health and social services authority funding, and the main estimates for this year are $26.8 million, and last year, they were -- sorry, for the actuals for 2020-2021, they were almost $30 million. And so I know that that was above the main estimates by about roughly I think $3 million or so. Can the Minister speak to the increase in actuals to that line item?

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Yes, thank you. It's my understanding that this has do with the increase in the number of adults receiving services out-of-territory. But I'll ask the assistant deputy minister if he would like to provide a more complete explanation. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister Cooper.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm just wondering -- I know that we have quite a backlog, just from COVID, of needs for different services, and so I'm wondering why it's not expected that this line item will again exceed the budgeted amount because of increased demand for adult services? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you. My understanding is that this area is somewhat fluid in the sense that we know how many clients we have, and we can make a prediction about how many we're going to have in the future. But one of the really hard things to assess here is the acuity of the needs.

We have some very high needs clients who require not just 24/7 staffing but multiple 24/7 staffing. And so as the clients move from youth to adult services, they're reassessed. Their need for services and the kind of services is reassessed. And so that takes place during the year and that can make a difference to the -- the budget of how much money we need to spend in this -- in this area. So this is an estimate based on current usage, but it doesn't take into account what the actuals -- or sorry, it's our best estimate of the costs going forward but the actuals may differ, yes.