Julie Green

Again, I'll turn to Ms. Mathison, please.

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I recognize that that's a terrible diagnosis. It's frightening. In terms of the service that is provided in Alberta, I don't know what ability we have to influence that. It was my understanding that, once the patient was connected with an oncologist at a place like the Cross Cancer Institute, that they took on the case, then, and the timing and the follow-up. I don't know if we have, as a health system, a way to speed that up. I'll look to the deputy minister. He may be more familiar with this. Thank you.

I see which item it's in, but I am just going to check here and see if I have that level of detail. I don't see that I do, so I'd like to ask Ms. Mathison to answer the question, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know about a supplementary appropriation. It maybe could be included in the next budget. There is actually quite a bit of work that needs to be done here to make sure that we are taking into account the primary healthcare reform and the teams that are being created, that we take into account the number of staff who are currently involved in births who are not midwives, that we look at our sustainability plan, that we continue to budget for a deficit in the health authorities. It sounds fussy, but there is a lot of work still to be done. In order to get more...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's my understanding that all the tests are now sent south for sequencing, and as of this time, we have no variants. Thank you.

Thanks for that explanation. I don't know the answer to that, so I'll see if the deputy minister knows. Thank you.

Yes. We are looking to the expertise of the Department of Finance to assist us in recruiting and retaining staff, per our mandate commitment to increase the resident work force by 20 percent within the life of this Assembly. That is a collaborative enterprise led by the Department of Finance but including people from Health and Social Services. I can't make a commitment to provide you with the information you're asking for because I have no concept of whether I'm going to give you a page or a library. I need to understand that level of detail before I make that commitment. Once again, not to...

Yes. Apparently, this is where they are found.

Yes, Mr. Chair, I do.