Michael Miltenberger

Madam Chair, with your indulgence, I would ask the Minister of Health to speak to that program issue. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The existing base funding was $2.527 million. The contract amount was $3.069 million. There’s a shortfall of $542,000 and the cost drivers of the increased costs for dietary, housekeeping and laundry services related to the contract. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t have that breakdown. Based on my recollection, we fought, on average, a normal number of fires. What we did have was an extremely dry season, a season where lightning started a month earlier, for example, a season that extended into September. We know that in just about every region there were major fires near communities requiring the mobilization of all our resources we had available, as well as importing resources from Alberta, Alaska, and any jurisdiction that we could get resources from, because every other jurisdiction in the country was facing the same...

Other than I think it was referred to as destructive testing to find out what was actually there, that was referenced yesterday, this is the only work that has been done in terms of the demolition and remediation. Thank you.

There has been, speaking as the former Health Minister, an ongoing struggle with the authorities and deficits. Clearly, as they go through their operations items like this, program areas like this that are unfunded and the authority can no longer afford to carry that without incurring a deficit are coming to light and being identified, and we’re coming forward to clear them off. The same as we’ve done with some of the costs, if I refer back to the Stanton issue, as well, with their dietary, laundry, and those types of service areas.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The money would be lapsed and returned to the government coffers.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In order to maybe try to provide clarity, if I could just point out the information that we have, the existing base budget for the Charlotte Vehus was $842,000. They put out a bid for a contract that came in at $1.459 million. That contract was awarded. The amount of money they had in that program area, $842,000, a gap of $547,000 that has been recognized as a base deficiency, and we are here to seek funding. Currently, there has been an adjustment to 2013-2014. Up until now the authority has been absorbing that cost and running a deficit which is no longer sustainable...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have with me the deputy minister of Finance, Mr. Aumond; and the assistant deputy minister of Finance and deputy secretary to the FMB, Sandy Kalgutkar.

Yes, as we pointed out, there has been a base adjustment, a target adjustment of $850,000 to the ’13-14 budget.