Julie Green

Thank you. What I see here is that this budget has some fluctuation in it. In the current fiscal year, it bumped up because of COVID restart money. That's why it's at $79,841,000 for this year. We're not anticipating, or at least not budgeting, for the COVID money for the next fiscal year because that hasn't been firmed up yet. There is no reduction in services. This does not represent any loss of nursing positions or other services to community clinics and health centres. It's puzzling to me about why that budget is a little bit smaller than it was in the actuals, but also in the main...

I feel sure the answer is yes to that. I don't know if Ms. Mathison has that level of detail here, but let's see.

Mr. Speaker, March is nutrition month, and I would like everyone to join me in celebrating next week. It is a time to highlight the importance of accessing and eating healthy food. The theme this year is "Good for You! Dieticians help you find your healthy." Dieticians support individuals to reach their nutrition goals, both to prevent poor health and to improve their overall health. I am encouraging residents to find their healthy by talking to dieticians if they have access to one. There are other sources of good dietary information, including traditional harvesters and healthy food experts...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There is a Tlicho cultural coordinator who is listed in the same area, but to the best of my knowledge, there is not a separate coordinator for each Indigenous language. I'll just confirm that by asking the deputy minister if that, in fact, is the case. Thank you.

Yes. I understand the Member's question. As the Member may know, we are currently doing a mini-review of medical travel that will be done by the end of March, and it is looking at the question of escorts. It's looking at why escorts are sometimes approved and sometimes they are not approved until the appeal. It's also looking at things such as the knowledge base that medical staff have for recommending escorts. That is an issue that we are aware that we need to provide more clarity on, and we hope to be able to do that by the end of March. That's the intention. Thank you.

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...