Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am pretty sure I have said a couple of times that we need to really get a definition here in the Northwest Territories. I would like to add that I had the opportunity to attend the federalprovincialterritorial meeting of the Ministers of Social Services last week with Minister Duclos and some of his representatives. He was not able to stay the whole meeting. We were there to talk about the national antipoverty work that is being done, and one of the discussions is there has to be a definition in order to evaluate whether or not we're making ground or not...

I don’t even know where to go now. There are so many questions. I'll stop. I've addressed, I think, the three big ones. I know I'll be asked more questions on those, but just in closing before we go to line by line, there's no question that Cabinet agrees with committee. There's zero. These are mandate items. We're 100 per cent in, we're going to move forward with this work, we're going to work with committee, we're going to get it done, and we'll be able to have informed discussions about how to set our financial priorities in the best interests of the people, but without that work being done...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the dollars for the Antipoverty Fund are in the health promotion and community wellness area. I hear the Members loud and clear. This is an area that is obviously really important to the Members, and we're always open to negotiations.

This year money went into different areas to support poverty or addressing poverty in the Northwest Territories. Addressing poverty is a responsibility of pretty much everybody, every organization, every NGO, every government. This year to help address things like poverty we did improve or increase the amount of money going to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are currently working with Avens who, with support from us, some money to help them do the work, is developing a comprehensive business case for the expansion of 48 beds on the Avens site, a net gain of 48 beds on the Avens site. The other 172 beds, we are looking at putting into the old hospital, and we have got direction from FMB to explore that further and see what we can do to utilize that. That will give us the 120 beds that are required in Yellowknife as a result of the comprehensive review that was done, indicating we need 258 beds. I have also had...

Is that a new rule?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No. This is something that has come up for a while, and I know the Member was raising this issue previously. I know that, as a Minister, this was an area that he was also very interested in. I would really, and I think everybody would really, prefer to have our residents home, receiving care as close to home as possible, but, unfortunately, some of these individuals we are talking about are really high-needs and we don't have the resources. We had professional staff in many cases to accommodate them.

It would be great at some point to be able to repatriate some of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, on my right is Debbie DeLancey, the deputy minister of Health and Social Services. On my left is Jeannie Mathison, who is the director of finance with Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Contracts and transfers to the authorities, so grants, contributions, and transfers. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I do, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2017-2018 Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services. The total proposed budget for the department is $423,457,000. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $9.2 million, which is an increase of 2 per cent over the 2016-2017 Main Estimates.

These estimates continue to support the GNWT's objective of ensuring a strong, sustainable future for the government and its programs by managing expenditures due to limited revenue growth.

Highlights of proposed budget include:

forced growth of $16.17...