Glen Abernethy

Yes, absolutely, Mr. Chair. August 1st is still the golive date, but I want to be very clear that this is a date in a process, in a timeline. As we move forward, we go live. There is still going to be some changes, some evolution that’s happening at the regional and community level as we’re formulizing and making this new relationship a reality. I anticipate there will be some growing pains. I anticipate that it will take a couple years to really roll things all the way out to make sure that we’re getting all the benefits of a single unified collaborative system, but the boards, the wellness...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, it falls under this area. You’d find some of it under community mental health and addictions, health promotion and community wellness. It’s certainly within this area.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, our main estimates are only slightly down from last year. We had some revised mainstream in the last fiscal year as a result of some cost pressures. Much of this is a result of the pension top up that we have to provide to Hay River. We imagine that there will likely be a supp again during this fiscal year once they’re able to quantify what they’re pension top up might need to be to keep Hay River’s pension viable.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is a direct result of the Tlicho Agreement, their land claims agreement, land claims and self-government agreement. It’s articulated in the legislation. This is us meeting our obligation under that legislation. They’re the only group in the Northwest Territories that has finalized selfgovernment negotiations. This could be something that exists in the future, if negotiated, with different Aboriginal governments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sense the Member’s frustration. I have indicated that we have already raised this at a federal/provincial level. We are certainly on record at the federal/provincial level during our last FPT. We are waiting to see what some of the other provinces and territories want to do, because a united front on this is certainly going to carry more weight than individual fronts. Having said that, I do know that the Minister of Finance is going to be in Vancouver to meet with the other Ministers of Finance I think it’s this weekend coming. I have assurances that the Minster intends...

No, Mr. Chair. I mean, at the end of the day, we’re redescribing existing positions, some reprofiling some positions out of the department that are going to now be territorial health Authority positions. This isn’t about growth. This isn’t about creating a whole bunch of new positions. This is about utilizing what we have in a better way in a more collaborative way to meet the needs of the residents in the Northwest Territories. In the future, what you will see is a smaller department, more as a ministry function, and an authority that actually has some of the functions and roles that are in...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m assuming the Member is talking about the independent living unit that’s being developed for or put into Fort Liard. The facility is an independent living unit. It will have some program space dedicated for some day programs and whatnot that can be delivered by home support workers or other staff that exist within the community.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the total for region allocation in 201516 was $241,000 and it’s $240,000 for this year, so it’s down one thousand. There has been some additional positions added for other reasons, and some internal reallocations, positions that existed, but maybe weren’t in the previous capital. They would have been unfunded. They’ve brought some of those in to be established.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. . These dollars cover things like basic administration, client support services, some of the direct costs by way of individual authorities, some facility maintenance and support across the different authorities, their finance costs, human resource costs and some of their system support costs. These are things that are happening in the authorities today. I don’t anticipate that these dollars are going to go down with a single authority because, as I’ve said several times, this isn’t centralization or taking anything away from the communities or regions that exist today...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this section is not the section that would be in, but I could see why people would think it would be in this section. There have been some changes of where things lay out as we come in line with how CIHI report, so I totally appreciate that. In previous budgets, there was some money allocated to the Beaufort Delta for the roll-out of a midwifery program in the Beaufort Delta. There was supposed to be some positions established. They were never ultimately established but the money was still there. We are basically eliminating those dollars that were to be spent...