Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my questions to start are about medical travel benefits. I am looking here at the line item on page 218 of the mains, and I can see that the actuals in 2023-2024 were just below $30 million, and then the revised for 2024-2025 slightly over $24 million, and now we're estimating for 2025-2026 going ahead at $8.8 million. So my question is if this is another one of those items that we have a base amount and then we adjust as necessary, or are we restricting benefits? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Debates of Feb. 13th, 2025
This is page numbers of the Hansard for the 20th Assembly, 1st 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 know.
Topics
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I can get the ADM can explain that. Thank you.
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Jeannie Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this one is a little bit of a varied answer. So in 2023-2024, we had an almost $30 million expense, and part of that was related to getting supplementary funding because our costs were higher. In 2024-2025 Main Estimates, the budget we have is $19 million. The revised main estimates show $24 million because it reflects $5 million that was added to the budget for federal funding. The territorial health investment fund allocates $5 million for medical travel. The change to 2025-2026 is because of the negotiations that the Minister spoke about with Indigenous Services Canada related to the non-insured health benefit and where we were able to negotiate additional funding into that agreement which allowed us the opportunity to move $15 million to address other pressures within the health care system. So that $15 million is now funded by third party, and the money is moved elsewhere in the budget for authority pressures that had been historically impacting their deficit. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kate Reid Great Slave
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you for that answer. I do have one more question about that line item. Can you please provide the rationale for the budget reallocations from medical travel funding to the health and social services authorities funding. Just curious how this will help with the administration of medical travel. Thank you.
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Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I mentioned earlier that the reallocation of the medical travel funding at the NTHSSA to other pressure areas throughout their authorities is because we were able to get the funding through the NIHB agreement to actually pay for things that were for NIHB. We have been offsetting NIHB costs for many, many, many years, and so this last -- this last couple years, we were able to negotiate a special allotment fund to pay for a big portion of that, and so we were able to use -- because that's one of the things that was a deficit driver. When we got that additional funds from NIHB, we took the money that we had always allocated extra to pay for NIHB as a government, as GNWT, and then put that back into the health authorities where those pressures were historically happening in their system. Thank you.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Kate Reid Great Slave
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm misunderstanding or misstating my question. The item on page 218 is listed as an HSS expenditure but then on page 219, it looks like it's shifting to the health authorities, so the -- to my mind, this $8.8 million is moving from the department to the authorities to deliver, or am I misunderstanding? Thank you.
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Jeannie Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so the money that's identified in the medical travel benefits line there, where it's the $8 million, it is money that's going to the health authorities for the -- to NTHSSA for the delivery of administration of medical travel. And if you look down below the line under expenditure category grants and contributions, you see the $8 million. That's reflective of the contribution that's going to the NTHSSA which is repeated, then, on page 219. It's the same. So the money is actually staying within the health authority within the NTHSSA. It's just being redirected from medical travel where it's no longer needed because ISC is now filling the gap to those other pressure areas in the authority where there had been historically deficits. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
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Kate Reid Great Slave
So the $8.8 million is going towards other deficits. What are we spending on medical travel? I'm lost in the sauce, Mr. Chair. Thanks.
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Jeannie Mathison
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $8 million is going to medical travel. The $15 million, that's the difference between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, has been shown elsewhere in the budget. And I can let you know about the things that those things moved to, which we've kind of already passed over, but there are things like leases, occupational health and safety positions, infection prevention and control positions, records management, some of the increase staffing in ICU and the emergency departments for Inuvik and Stanton. Those are things that have been, for a number of years, contributing to the historical deficit in the authorities which we've been monitoring, and so they were things that rose to the top when $15 million was identified and we were able to reallocate that funding over to those pressure areas. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kate Reid Great Slave
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And great, I'm so glad that you're able to relieve some of those pressures. My question specifically is the $8.8 million which is allocated from -- what I understand from HSS to the health authorities, that's always allocated that way? It was never administered by HSS; it's always been administered by the health authorities? Thank you.
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The Chair Richard Edjericon
Okay, thank you. Are there any further questions from Members? I'm going to go the Member from Yellowknife North.
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Shauna Morgan Yellowknife North
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask just about the medical travel review that is underway of the medical travel benefit policy. I understand that there's much bigger questions to be asked about what drives medical travel, and sometimes unnecessary medical travel, and that work is being done more by the health care system sustainability unit and maybe also the public administrator. I'm not sure. But this is an attempt to modernize the policy. So one thing that has been suggested to me could help save some costs is letting those who want to or are able to book their own medical travel, book their own flights or accommodations. Often they could do it further in advance and get a better deal or, you know, just save the trouble of having someone in government do all the bookings that they could just do themselves. Is that something that's being considered as part of the medical travel policy review? Thank you, Mr. Chair.