Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These particular circumstances with children in southern placements and adults are constantly being assessed. There is a changing variety of presenting problems, multiple needs, many in high need categories, and the challenge is that you may only have one or two clients that have very specific high needs that can only be met in a specialized facility. If you have a number of those clients across a number of very expensive facilities, it limits our ability to meet all those different needs under one program area.

We did take a look at this, as the Member pointed out...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the advice from the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given the knowledge of the figures, the last serious effort to this was back in 2003-2004. Back then, the costs even then were considered excessive, given the money that was available, and have only increased since then. So we haven’t pursued this as an active initiative as of late. Thank you.

The two that are related, most directly related, are the aging workforce and the growing number of referrals. While we know we have an aging workforce, it’s hard to anticipate the amount of referrals. We tend to base our budget numbers on the previous year’s expenditures and the other thing as we go from budget year to budget year the number of employees we try to budget are based on actuals and not projections. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, Margaret Melhorn, deputy minister of Finance; Charles Tolley, the director of the Management Board Secretariat.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 26, 2010, I will move that Bill 13, Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), 2010-2011, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 26, 2010, I will move that Bill 14, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures) No. 3, 2009-2010, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, February 26, 2010, I will move that Bill 15, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures) No. 1, 2010-2011, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present Supplementary Appropriation No. 3, 2009-2010 (Operations Expenditures). This document outlines an increase of $13.326 million in operations expenditures for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The major items in this supplementary request include:

A total of $8.3 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for increased costs primarily associated with the adults and children receiving care outside the Northwest Territories, the provision of supplementary health benefits, the vaccination program implemented by the department in response to the H1N1...

I’d like to point out that while there are certain challenges ahead of us, that this project is 50 percent done. We have made a lot of significant changes. The Member may disagree with the timing of the decisions that were made and when they were made, but we are in fact moved forward on this.

The GNWT has taken over project management design, as we have indicated. With our ongoing discussions, the lenders are leaning towards the GNWT assuming a greater role and we have been stepping into that role. The Cabinet here duly assembled was put in place by this Legislature. We are accountable. I...

This is a daily practice that managers deal with throughout their various mandates and authorities. If circumstances come to light, if they are considered to be illegal or criminal, there’s a process. If there are steps that haven’t been followed or steps that have been missed, there is a different process that comes into play. We table all the contract documents on a regular basis. If there is a concern in this House that they want to assert that there’s flagrant wrongdoing, that’s a whole different matter than the normal practice than we have here of making sure that we are accountable in a...

I apologize for the poor copy. We’ll send this electronically to all the Members so they can see it clearly. With your indulgence, I’ll ask Mr. Neudorf to respond to that question.