Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what audited financial statement is the Member looking at? Is it an NWT or NTHSSA audited financial statement, or is it the other books, and what date is it? What date, March 31?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today on my left is Bruce Cooper, who is the deputy minister of Health and Social Services, and on my right, Jeannie Mathison, who is the director of Finance.

Mr. Chair, they don't. Really, the only link between the supp-health benefits, extended health benefits, indigent health benefits, Metis health benefits, and NIHB, is that we mirror the program. Our programs mirror NIHB. NIHB, we administer on behalf of the federal government. It is a federal government program. We administer it on their behalf for our First Nations residents. Extended health benefits, indigent health benefits, Metis health benefits mirror that, but it is a program that we fund as the Government of the Northwest Territories.

We have estimated some costs for enforcement-related activities that Health and Social Services are responsible for, complaints-based reviews of cannabis use in communities and whatnot. We believe we have enough money in our existing budget to do that work. If the demand proves higher than we expect as far as complaints, we will certainly have to explore new options.

When it comes to advertising, we do have the application out to the federal government for $2 million. The federal government announced in their budget that they do have some money available for this type of thing. We are hoping to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to start off, I just want to be very, very clear. Not all residents of the Northwest Territories who require chemo have received care or chemo in the Northwest Territories. Many of our residents have always gone south for chemo, depending on the nature of the cancer, the type of treatment they receive. We did provide chemo services in the Northwest Territories, in Stanton in particular, for certain types of cancer and certain types of treatment.

Since we have come to a single authority, we have been reviewing operations and delivery of services in different...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The territorial health authority has a deficit about $67.3 million. That deficit is the territorial health authority deficit, but the territorial authority falls under the Financial Administration Act, so it ultimately is a GNWT debt. The Finance Minister has told me I have to pay it back. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We have a standing agreement with an airline to be the first airline that we go to in cases of medical travel. That airline has provided good services. We have a really good relationship with them where we get discounted rates and, if flights are cancelled at the last minute, we don't hit a financial penalty on that.

Recognizing that, we know that it doesn't always work, and we have the freedom to go to other airlines, but our priority is to go to the airline of our standing offer agreement. We do use other airlines from time to time if we see these cancellations occurring, because our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, honestly, I can't say. That would be presuming a solution. I don't think we have reached that conclusion. I think we need to do the work. Conceivably, yes, but let's do the work and figure out what we can do to address our challenges and develop a plan. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't have the actual usage rates in front of me, but I will endeavour to get that to the Member as quickly as possible. Thank you.

As I said, there are a lot of organizations out there like Drug Free Canada who have already done really, really good work as far as putting together information in a readable, usable format. The materials that the Member has referred to are actually available on the Drugs Free Kids Canada organization website where you see the brochure, but you can also order it online and get copies for yourself.

I do have a copy myself. I have talked to the department since the Member and I have talked to see what we can do to get a quantity of those materials to distribute among stakeholders throughout the...