Julie Green

Helping communities and residents is what I'm here for. I hear the Member when he says not everybody has the tools to access Facebook, telephone numbers, and so on. There are some accommodations available through the health centre with respect to using the phone, as I understand it. Where communities don't have resident counsellors, there is a travelling team that comes in from time to time with assistance and sees people over a more intense period. I don't know if they would consider sending those teams to Nunakput. I am not sure how well-staffed the resources are there, but that's something...

What my notes say here is that, in the 2019-2020 budget, the budget was not fully spent, mostly because of some federal funding that lapsed. Then in the 2020-2021 budget, we had funding from Health Canada related to cannabis, which has now sunset. There are some other details about what goes on here in public health, and part of that was covered with a supplementary appropriation that was passed during this fiscal year and included things such as $70,000 for meat inspection regulations; $94,000 for enhanced community-based monitoring of seasonal influenza; $40,000 from the Northern Wellness...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't believe that this is the right area. I think that this doesn't represent the entire grant to the health authorities, but I'll ask Ms. Mathison if she can tell us more particularly what portion of their budget this figure represents. Thank you.

Thank you. What I see here is that this budget has some fluctuation in it. In the current fiscal year, it bumped up because of COVID restart money. That's why it's at $79,841,000 for this year. We're not anticipating, or at least not budgeting, for the COVID money for the next fiscal year because that hasn't been firmed up yet. There is no reduction in services. This does not represent any loss of nursing positions or other services to community clinics and health centres. It's puzzling to me about why that budget is a little bit smaller than it was in the actuals, but also in the main...

Mr. Speaker, March is nutrition month, and I would like everyone to join me in celebrating next week. It is a time to highlight the importance of accessing and eating healthy food. The theme this year is "Good for You! Dieticians help you find your healthy." Dieticians support individuals to reach their nutrition goals, both to prevent poor health and to improve their overall health. I am encouraging residents to find their healthy by talking to dieticians if they have access to one. There are other sources of good dietary information, including traditional harvesters and healthy food experts...

I feel sure the answer is yes to that. I don't know if Ms. Mathison has that level of detail here, but let's see.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a Tlicho cultural coordinator who is listed in the same area, but to the best of my knowledge, there is not a separate coordinator for each Indigenous language. I'll just confirm that by asking the deputy minister if that, in fact, is the case. Thank you.

Yes. I understand the Member's question. As the Member may know, we are currently doing a mini-review of medical travel that will be done by the end of March, and it is looking at the question of escorts. It's looking at why escorts are sometimes approved and sometimes they are not approved until the appeal. It's also looking at things such as the knowledge base that medical staff have for recommending escorts. That is an issue that we are aware that we need to provide more clarity on, and we hope to be able to do that by the end of March. That's the intention. Thank you.

Again, I'll turn to Ms. Mathison, please.

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.