Glen Abernethy

That is correct, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with me today is, on my right, Debbie DeLancey who is the deputy minister, Health and Social Services, and on my left, Jeannie Mathison who is the director of finance, Department of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Chair. Mr. Chair, in the new model there are no public administrators with the exception of Hay River until such a time as Hay River comes into the single authority. There are board chairs and there are regional advisory committee members. Those individuals are intended to help us, you know, make sure we’re hearing from the people of the ridings, of the communities, bringing their information forward, helping us tailor programs to fit communities and regions. The chairs of the regional wellness councils are the board of the new authority. I’m answering the Member’s question. I’m not...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of it, $100,000, is going to Mental Health First Aid and ASSIST. $300,000 is going to addictions, aftercare, youth addictions prevention, youth detox models, mental health, and some into the Akaitcho health curriculum. To break it down into more detail, $17,000 is going to Beaufort Delta, $25,000 to Deh Cho, $5,000 to Fort Smith, $13,000 to Hay River. Now the lines are starting to blur. Sorry, those were last year actuals, so that sort of shows how it breaks out across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I indicated, we have two positions that have been sunsetted, one in Norman Wells, one in Yellowknife. We’ve got three new positions that have been created, two fulltime, one parttime for the Mental Health Act, and to help us with the implementation of that. Those three positions are in Yellowknife. We have some internal re-allocations. As I indicated, the Beaufort Delta midwifery positions, one parttime, one fulltime, and those are to help with the planning and design of the territorial midwifery program. Those are not in Beaufort Delta. We’ve brought them to...

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.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 122-18(2): Seniors Advocate, and Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 130-18(2): Hay River Family Support Centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.