Glen Abernethy

What does not change and what cannot change is the federal government made a decision to reduce the CHT by 3 per cent gross, so it was only going to be 3 per cent or GDP, whichever is greater. GDP is tended to not be too high over 3 per cent, but that change was going to happen no matter what.

The provinces and territories attempted to get the federal government to see reason that 5.2 was a sustainable number as opposed to a growth number. There was a disagreement. They took the 3.5 per cent off the table completely. It was gone in December, but they did approach the territories and indicate...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's question is dripping with cynicism. Bottom line is we know that we have significant needs in long-term care, 258 beds by 2026, and that's also factoring in doing more around aging in place, which is something clearly the Members want to see, as does Cabinet.

We know we have a capital need. That capital need has been included in the 20-year plan. That 20-year plan identifies capital projects but also some of the pressures that that will put on O and M which is utilized during our budget planning sessions when we're trying to figure out what we have money for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I believe we talked about this a number of months ago. We have added a number of assessors, but I will get the exact number for the Member and I will also provide an outline of the caseload and where we are to date. As far as the report, we got the report. We've been doing our analysis and my intention was always to get it to committee as soon as we can do that analysis. We're hoping to have that done soon so that we can share with committee and post online. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we're committed to doing a supp health review. I think we're required under legislation to do it every couple of years. Was it legislation?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I can't say. We have clients who are accessing services. Some of those clients may indeed be accessing Homes First and they may have had appropriate referral from Homes First to access those services, but I can't tell whether client X, Y, or Z was referred by Homes First, but if they are, they will receive the services that are available. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, over the years a number of MLAs have raised issues about what's covered in the formulary and what's not covered in the formulary, and we'd always hoped that we might have an opportunity to influence that. What's becoming particularly clear, as the deputy alluded to, is that we're not going to be able to have too much influence over what is in the formulary.

Having said that, they change the formulary all the time and they don’t tell us necessarily what they've done or what they're changing. So apparently in December as I was writing letters to MLAs and others...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there is no real increase or decrease here; we're pretty much status quo. I think it's $2,000 down. You will notice that it's down from the 2015-16 actuals when it was $1,354,000. Those are actuals and we did have a salary overspend in those years that had to be accounted for; but the budget has been pretty much consistent for a number of years.

The operational review that the Member is talking about was conducted by some external consultants and a final report was provided to the department in December 2016. The recommendations for improvement to business...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's forced growth, but for any more detail I will go to the deputy.

Thank you. Adult support services is basically the opposite of public guardian, and some group homes are basically what those dollars are being spent on. We don't have a budget for Homes First. Any clinical support work we are providing is provided through on clinical lines, not allocated in this particular area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The air ambulance is in here, as well, the annual costs, and as Mr. Beaulieu was asking: is this the total amount? Like I said, no, this isn't the total amount. A bunch of it is offset by NIHB, who can be charged back travel. So the actual cost over a year not including GNWT employees is about $41 million, but this is the amount we require to cover our portion that isn’t offset by other things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.