Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t have that information from the Ledge, but we can request that information from the Legislative Assembly and provide it to committee.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would point out that if it was in the base or if it’s here as an over-expenditure in our supplementary reserve, we would still be paying the costs that have been incurred for these programs and services, and we come back on a regular basis. This is my 19th budget, and the Health and Social Services big ticket items that we constantly come back for are hospital care services and for children and adults, usually in southern facilities. In addition to the supplementary reserve, which is going to go into the base in those areas, we also have forced growth that we try to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The way I read the amendment to the amendment, would basically allow those larger communities that have the trained people to have junior kindergarten right away, and those communities that don’t have the benefit of meeting the terms of this motion would get delayed or postponed until, in fact, they have those trained people there. The way I am understanding this would disadvantage, once again, the very communities that we’re targeting to start first, which would be the small communities. So, to me it is very problematic and we wouldn’t support the amendment to the...

No, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Motion 6-17(5), Strengthening Municipal Enforcement of Liquor Laws.” Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will accept the Member has the right to make his comments. I would take exception to the characterization of shoddy and irresponsible. We take this work very seriously. This is a $1.6 billion operation. It’s very complex. There are many variables we can’t control. There are many demand-driven services. I have and this Assembly has full confidence in the Department of Finance and the budget because we just approved it in the Committee of the Whole yesterday, I think, with the exception of one vote against, everybody else supported it. So we will have the discussion. Yes...

We’ve, in fact, added a couple of auditors to the Finance operations to enhance their capabilities. We continue to monitor the whole chain from the wholesaler up to the retailer. We want to try to work, as well, with other departments as we try to track the impact and look at what Stats Can can tell us.

I would point out that when it comes to measuring 42,000 people amongst the 30-some million Canadians there are, we tend to be referred to as statistically insignificant and it is problematic when they do make their numbers available. Oftentimes, we are even less than a rounding error in terms...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As Minister of Finance, we put forward a budget that has a very hard cap on forced growth and we’re trying to control our supplementary appropriations. We are trying to make sure that we manage those expenditures.

In regards to the vision of Health and Social Services to address some of the issues that the Member talked about, I’d ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if he wanted to make some comments as the Minister responsible and the man with the plan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 4, 2013-14. This document outlines an increase of $30.525 million in operations expenditures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The more significant items included in the supplementary estimates are:

$6.6 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for increased costs for the provision of health care services to non-NWT residents. These costs will be recovered from the patient’s home province or territory.

$5.9 million for the Department of Health and Social Services for increased costs...