Julie Green

Yes, thank you. If there was that kind of a person, I would suggest they apply to the United Way to obtain funding to deliver their service. I'll just say again that this is prioritized to Indigenous governments and Indigenous governments in partnership with community organizations. So they have a lot of leeway in deciding who they hire, what kind of services they want to offer with the pot of money, where they're going to offer them and so on. So it may be that if there's a person who's interested in working with an Indigenous government, they could find a way in that way. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Department of Infrastructure is in charge of the building and the renovation at this point. So any deficiencies or need to address deficiencies would be questions for them. We're the end user. So we get the keys, and at that point we sincerely hope it is trouble free.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the human resources unit that deals with staffing for medical professionals in the NTHSSA is working to finalize the process for hiring licensed practical nurses from Aurora College, and we know that there are 12 possible hires in that group. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, these are Department of Health and Social Services staff. There is only the one location. It's in Yellowknife. And it provides the policy, legislation, financial, and service support for NTHSSA and for the Tlicho Community Service Agency and Hay River Health and Social Services Agency. So the service delivery is decentralized but the policy and planning is located in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. This particular fund was new in this fiscal year, and the object of the fund is to build capacity within the NWT to provide mental wellness and addictions recovery support. I don't have any information yet on how much of that was taken up.

With respect to treatment, there are in territory and out of territory options. It's really up to the individual to speak with a counsellor and look at the options and decide what's best for them. And we don't have any limits on that fund. People can go to treatment more than once. They can go more than once in a year. They can go to a...

Yes, thank you. I don't think there has been that kind of an assessment of the facility in Hay River. Generally speaking, we had moved away from facilitybased care for people who need supported living and instead have them in family groups or near family groups rather than in group homes. So I don't think anything will happen with that facility in Hay River. I mean, there are no plans to change it but I don't see either that we would expand it.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the deficit for the last fiscal year is $33.7 million. It was driven by the following factors:

Compensation and benefits, including overtime. Staff relocation and removal and call backs;

Secondly, physician services;

Thirdly, chemotherapy drugs;

Fourthly, foster care and voluntary service supports; and.

Fifth, health services that were transferred to the correctional facilities during that year.

We don't have that broken down by percentage. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, for the record, most of these funds have a onepage application and the reporting on it is as simple. But what I've heard at the bilateral tables with Indigenous governments is that they often even lack the capacity to come up with a proposal. So the paperwork is not really the problem. It's once they get the money how are they going to spend it.

One thing that the NWT Council of Leaders asked the Department of Health and Social Services for was to create block funding with some of these funds, particularly mental wellness and addictions recovery, peer...

Thank you. I'll ask the director of finance to answer, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let me say initially that this isn't just a Hay River problem. With a 45 percent vacancy rate, there is a doctor shortage throughout the whole of the NWT. We continue to actively recruit doctors, and we have had some success but, ultimately, we still do have a large vacancy rate. So there's no way I can commit to immediately providing the seven doctors allocated to Hay River Health and Social Services. The best thing that can happen here is for word of mouth from existing physicians and medical people to their networks to encourage them to give the NWT a...