Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do rely on some historical precedent. I mean, some of the authorities such as the Sahtu, by way of example, are… The wellness council is going to be made up of roughly the same geographical region that the Sahtu health and social services board members were actually on. For areas where there was a question, I did have conversations with some of the leaders in communities to find out what their interests were, where they thought might be most appropriate. In most cases, they deferred to having input into the region or health authority or, sorry, health council that was...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it’s a bit more than that. We have $1 million forced growth for outofterritory hospitals; we have got a $47,000 forced growth on supplies, and we have a $1.23 million in forced growth for the dialysis requirements in Stanton.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are a number of changes. We have two positions that were sunsetted. That’s an environmental health officer in Norman Wells as well as a midwife consultant in Yellowknife. We’ve got some initiatives where we have added some positions: two fulltime, one parttime, for a total of three as a result of the increased funding and changes to the Mental Health Act. We have some internal re-allocations, one fulltime, one parttime within the Beaufort Delta, midwife positions, and we have some reductions as a result of our reductions exercise, strategic human...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the Member described it pretty much exactly right. The department will become a true ministry focused on bigpicture policy, big Ptype initiatives. Anything that is considered operational or will have direct impact on client delivery will become authority. It’s not a matter of shrinking. It’s a matter of aligning it in the appropriate area. Ministry will be smaller. Authority is going to have some additional functions, some things that are currently delivered either at Stanton or in the department, which really should have been operational to begin with.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I missed that part of the question, obviously. The evaluation framework is going to be developed and finalized this fiscal year, and then data will flow over time. The evaluation framework will be done this fiscal year, so we should have some initial data. With this type of analysis, we need a couple of years of data to really be able to make informed decisions and opinions about what’s happening. I can provide the more immediate stuff to Members, up to date, from what we have.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the encouragement actually came from the Premier who asked the departments to do everything they could to try to attain last year’s numbers. Ultimately, the hires are the responsibilities of the individual departments. If we do get resumes of individuals with particular skill sets, we will forward to the department if they match the type of work that the department is doing. We’re trying to get the information out there, let the departments know who’s out there, know who’s working, who wants to work for the Government of the Northwest Territories. I do have...

Thank you. For clarity, that’s the Professional Development Initiative Fund. That fund is available to help professionals in the Northwest Territories to do non-required training, training that is beneficial but not required for their jobs to help them be more well-rounded and offer them some skills sets that aren’t part of the normal job.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have the dollar figures that were expended in previous years for medical travel and medevacs. I’m sure I can get the department to break it down on what the cost per region was for medevacs. Would that suffice?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe there’s a mistaken belief out there that we provide Metis health benefits that are different than the NIHB, the Non-Insured Health Benefits. In fact, the Metis health benefits we provide here in the Northwest Territories are an exact mirror of NIHB in every way, it just happens to be funded by us rather than funded by the federal government. Moving forward, we anticipate, given the Daniels ruling, that the federal government will simply include Metis people under NIHB. The benefits that they receive should be identical, unless there is a decision by...

Not yet.