Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm pleased to present the 20162017 main estimates for the Department of Human Resources, and I'll do my best to keep my remarks brief. Overall, the department's estimates propose a decrease of $680,000, which is about 2.8 per cent below the 201516 main estimates. These estimates limit nonprogram related expenditures and continue to support the longterm sustainability of the fiscal framework. In our role as a corporate service provider, $4.5 million or about 19 per cent of the department's 201617 funding, is allocated for direct support to departments and agencies through...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think I have a better understanding. I think the Member might be talking about systemic barriers or other things that may exist within the system and how we work to address that. We do have an Affirmative Action Policy that all departments are bound to utilize and apply. We do have the appeal process where an individual, if an error in process has occurred, they can appeal. I would suggest that if the Member is aware of situations where somebody is claiming that they were not given the credit that they deserve because they are P1, that is a discussion that I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if we were to take the main estimates and spread them out over a long period of time, you would notice in the Department of Human Resources in this particular area every four years or so you'll see an increase in the amount of contract services. It is directly related to collective bargaining. The Government of Northwest Territories is currently involved in a number of collective bargaining discussions with the UNW, the NWTTA, the medical association, although it's not completely related here, but those costs will spike every couple of years as those...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, ultimately the Ministers do have some responsibility encouraging their departments to complete and prepare their human resource plans. The deputies report to the Premier who also is responsible for giving the direction to them to meet those conditions. It's kind of a shared responsibility, Mr. Chair. I mean, I work with both the Department of Health and Social Services and Human Resources to make sure that they are developing theirs, and I know the Ministers are doing the same, but it's a shared responsibility.

The budget is before the House. We are going through the budget. Hopefully we'll do Health and Social Services in the next couple of days. There is no money for the implementation of a prescription drug monitoring program in this budget, but we do have the steering committee. We do fund the work they're doing within existing resources, and that work is going to continue. We are still moving forward; we are still quantifying what a prescription drug monitoring program will cost. We are looking at how to incorporate e-Health and electronic medical records, and we are working with pharmacies to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the appeal process is fairly strict and I mean fairly thorough as the Member's indicating and it is based on procedure. I think the Member's talking about something else and I don’t believe at this time we're putting any mechanisms to have that discussion. However, having said that, I'm a strong advocate and I'm encouraging the Members to have their constituents who approach them who have concerns about, you know, their inability to get a job with the Government of Northwest Territories to get in touch with some of the individual client service managers that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'm not sure what the rationale was for the increase in the main estimates in 2015-16. We'll have to go to Michelle for some detail on that. But what I was indicating is we've reduced the amount to what we actually spend and traditionally spend over time in this particular area. We may have had a spike in one year. I'm not sure what the rationale was there, I wasn't around at that time, but our traditional expenditures, what we actually spend, is about $35,000.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have developed a steering committee, as the Member mentioned in her Member's statement, to review options around prescription drug monitoring, and we've asked them to come back with recommendations on best approaches that would be appropriate here in the Northwest Territories. We do know that the most effective monitoring method needs to be consistent with the department's emerging suite of e-Health tools, such as electronic medical records. At this time, there have not been any final recommendations provided by the committee on how to improve or implement a...

Sorry, I'm a little confused. I thought we were talking about the fees and payment line. Which line are we talking about?