Julie Green

Madam Chair, I am here to present the Department of Health and Social Services' main estimates for the fiscal year 20232024. Overall, the department's estimates propose a net increase of $15.5 million or 2.6 percent over the 20222023 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the Department of Health and Social Services while continuing to meet the GNWT's fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of these proposed main estimates include:

$21 million for initiatives, including:

Resources to fund operations at the Stanton Legacy...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think there's a misunderstanding about what this figure is for. So I'll ask the deputy minister if she can clarify this.

Yes, thank you. It's important to us to offer equitable service. With only one staff member, I don't know if it's feasible to expect that person to both travel and keep up with the waitlist that is ongoing here for the whole territory. So the way we're trying to achieve equitability is to have people travel into the FASD clinic. Thank you.

Yes. I'm sorry that I'm not explaining it. We have federal money. We don't have assurance of how much it is. So it's not in the budget. Hopefully everything works out by the end of the month and it comes into the budget and we add it to this line. But the actual cost is what you see in the revised estimates for 20222023, $24,240,000. That doesn't include the NIHB amount. The total amount of medical travel is in the range of $43 million. Medical travel is an asandwhen situation. When people need medical travel, we pay for them to go on medical travel. And if there is not enough money...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, what we've been what we did was create the health system sustainability office and the plan that goes with it, and their task is to find ways in which we can contain or reduce costs for the services that we provide to the population. And that has produced some initial results. We are not looking at how we can pay this deficit back. That is not part of this budget, and it's hard to imagine when it will be. What we're trying to do is to ensure that the deficit slows in its growth so that the overall deficit doesn't get any worse. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there are three health and social services authorities in the NWT. There is the NT Health and Social Services authority, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, and the Tlicho Community Services Agency. Each of those entities has its own administration, its own budgeting function, its own finance. And so I believe that the Regional Wellness Council, which exists in each of the regions, would have information specific to the region that they could obtain through their local their local management. But this is not something that is in this...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the program is still going. It was evaluated last year and found to be useful. We have funding for one additional year, and then we're going to be faced with a decision about putting it into the business plan for ongoing funding and whether we can afford to scale it up. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a real health success story. The NWT Family Medical Residency Program was launched in connection with the University of Alberta in July of 2020 as a way to train and retain potential candidates for family doctor positions within the NWT. So the first two residents started the program in 2020. Then two more were added in 2021 for a total of four. In 2022, two more were added and two graduated. And this year two more will be added, and two will graduate. So it's a twoyear program with two residents in each year.

So I also want to say that this same...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't have a breakdown in front of me, but I can say that there are about 1200 children in the Northwest Territories receiving some kind of service from social services. Thank you.

Yes, we do cover those costs.