Glen Abernethy

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.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we will commit to getting a reconciliation of the numbers for the Member to explain where we are, but ultimately in this section we have increased by $120,000, which is the only significant change to this budget line from previous years; but we will look at the response to oral questions and reconcile the numbers. I apologize for any confusion.

That would allow us the time we need to do proper implementation, design, and move forward with potential rollout, yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Yes, absolutely, Mr. Chair. I will get the committee that information. The reason I am not saying hard and fast is I remember us having a discussion around this in the past, and I am pretty sure that we dealt with it so that foster support wouldn't be counted against rent, but I honestly can't remember what the resolution on that was. So I will get the committee and the Member that information. I am pretty sure we dealt with it, but let me get it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My deputy just pointed out that I completely answered a completely different question, so this time I'll try to answer the question that the Member asked. When this service agreement ends we're certainly open to exploring what is best for the people of the Northwest Territories including, as I said to the MLA from Hay River, other airlines, other opportunities to help control costs and provide the best services to the clients possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.