Debates of Oct. 22nd, 2024

Mr. Speaker, thank you for the question. With respect to the last budget, there is more items in that budget than just the $10 million, but it's not necessarily because of a forced growth or new initiatives. Things do come up through the course of a year. There can be a number of different reasons why things would come up or that things might be approved and that they might even out. So every department is responsible for bringing forward their budget, for managing their budget, and bringing that to the financial management board. The financial management board then uses the information that's in front of them, does an analysis, has a discussion, and decides whether or not something is approved. These guidelines that we put in place and the fiscal strategy we put in place, including the supplementary reserve that is likely to come up at some point in this Assembly -- or in this session, these are guidelines, they're directives from the Department of Finance, and we do try to make sure that that provides guidance to departments when they're developing their budgets so that we can all achieve the goal of this government which was restoring balance. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm starting to see why the largest ever surplus has disappeared. Why are we not following guide -- or we only have guidelines but not controls. So how is the Minister going to ensure these guidelines are met? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not the finance Minister for the federal government where the budget comes from. In consensus government and in this government, the Department of Finance provides policy directives. We try to do the monitoring of our financial situation, and we support departments when they bring forward their initiatives. We provide analysis of initiatives through our management board secretariat, who is an agency that benefits all of the financial management board. But when there are items that come from a department, they come forward to the financial management board, an analysis is done, and a decision is made. So it is a responsibility of all members of the government, every department of the government, to, in fact, achieve the goals of the fiscal strategy or to try to achieve the goals of the fiscal strategy and to try to be aligned by it. So, Mr. Speaker, that's where this sits. It is a difficult thing when you are facing wildfires, floods, more wildfires, low water, to simply say that we're going to stick to $150 million reduction. It's a lot more complicated than that. That said, it was known that we'd have some challenges and so that large surplus that we work towards ensured that we had the capacity to meet those challenges. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, just under the wire. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a second set of questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

So in 2020, the department completed a physician workforce plan to lay out how many doctors and what kinds of doctors the territory actually needs. In their March 2024 letter, which was tabled in this House, the NWT Medical Association recommended that this plan be reviewed, analyzed, updated, and implemented, so that funding could be matched to strategic and evidence-based decisions.

So, first, can the Minister confirm whether this physician workforce plan was ever implemented in terms of establishing the right kinds and number of physician positions to match the plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will have to get back to the Member for that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The second question is is the department, or perhaps the new health care sustainability unit, working on a new workforce plan, including all health care practitioners, so we can establish the right number of positions that we need to have a sustainable health care system? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the health sustainability unit falls under the executive office under the Premier. What I can say is there is work being done within that unit to be able to look at what the core services are that we are funded for and are we adequately funded for those services through all the funding that we get. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And on that note, I have been told by some physicians in my riding that our primary care system is only funded to serve a population of about 15,000 people. Can the Minister confirm whether or not we have the right amount of funding in place for primary care to be able to serve the entire NWT population? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as anyone in this House knows, the trend over the last 20 years of the NT -- like, of the health authorities have had, you know, their own share of trying to manage a health system, operational system, for the residents of the Northwest Territories and have had deficits over the years to be able to continue services so that way when things are budgeted, that when the day they run out, those services don't stop. That's why they have a deficit budget. And so therefore where we are today is now since past COVID, we are seeing more people accessing the services of the Northwest Territories health authority. They are sicker. And they're -- and so when you say -- when there's questions of is the money enough for 15,000 residents, maybe it was five years ago but, like, when we talk about all of these things of forced growth and -- you know, and there's so much different things around this government that we are having to put on the table to pay for, health does have one of the biggest pots of money and yet we're still struggling to be able to provide services throughout the territory. And so whether or not this is the enough amount, is it today? Is it ten years ago? Will it be with changes that we make? It may be. But we have to -- that is why some of that work is being done, to see where we are, what's the right funding that we need, and it's not just in primary care in this, in the region. It's not primary care in how we're going to do it in the -- or sorry, in the capital or in the regions, and how are we going to provide primary care to our residents in the small communities as well. So it's a huge complex -- so we can't just look at it as one hospital, one community. It's a whole territory of how we're going to service our territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree that it feels overwhelming and that there might never be enough money, but we need an accurate estimate of how much funding we need to properly staff our primary care system. So my question is can the Minister estimate when we will be able to produce an accurate estimate of how much money we need? And this is not accounting for when we can actually get that money, but we need to start with having the right estimate. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, you know, today we might be able to come up with a number and that would meet today, and then we get something else that happens and the numbers change. You know, if we are -- like, I look at our priorities in this government and working on our accessing health care doesn't just mean fixing the issues that we have at our territorial hospital and our -- you know, and in our capital. They mean fixing some of our issues in our regional centres. You know, we have our own issues in the regional centres as MLAs from those communities are fully aware. And then we hear from the small communities that are saying, can we just have a doctor come to visit us, can we have our health centre not be on emergency services. You know, these are things that we continuously hear. And so how we get there, you know, it takes all of us as a territory and we need to start looking and that's what we're doing, is we're looking to health promotion. We're looking at looking at -- you know, looking at our health centres and how we're supporting residents in those communities and so that they're accessing the health care that they need in those communities and that they're not having to be in hospital and they're not having to always travel for health care. So it is -- it's very complex and we are working on it, and it is very -- it is a priority of this government. That's why we have the health sustainability unit that is going to help to do this work as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Colleagues, our time is up for oral questions. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to the Commissioner's address. Petitions. Tabling of documents. Minister of Finance.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2024-2025; and Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditure), No. 1, 2024-2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Tabling of documents. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a document entitled, A Ladder of Citizen Participation by Sherry R. Arnstein. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Motions. Notices of motion for first reading of bills. First reading of bills. Second reading of bills. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Tabled Document 193-20(1), Tabled Document 200-20(1), Tabled Documents 201-20(1), with the Member from from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh in the chair.

Good afternoon. Calling committee to order. I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee wishes to consider Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2024-2025. And Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2024-2025. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Does the committee agree?