Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will work with my colleague, the Minister of Finance, to provide a very high-level overview of what tasks are being undertaken at this time. Thank you.

Thank you. If I recall correctly, there is an intention to hire another person who will carry out the planning that has started for expanding that service, but for certainty on that, I will ask the deputy minister if he could speak to it. Thank you.

Thank you. I want to do something a little unusual and ask the Member a question. What happens now? If somebody appears in one of your community health clinics and they need help with interpretation, who helps?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here to present the 2021-2022 Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $74.8 million or 14.3 percent over the 2020-2021 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives for the department while continuing to meet the Government of the Northwest Territories' fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.

Highlights of these proposed estimates include:

$34.6 million for the COVID-19 Coordinating Secretariat;

$13.1 million for initiatives, which include...

Thank you. I will ask the deputy minister to answer this.

I have to find out which category it is in. Maybe it would be more efficient to ask Ms. Mathison to answer this question. Thank you.

I have to find what page that is. Here it is. I'm just going to reiterate a point I made a little earlier. The department provides the administration, policy, legislation, communications, and oversight functions for what the health authorities do. It is, just by default, here in Yellowknife. There are 12 new positions. I see here that there is a Healthy Family Program regional coordinator in Hay River and another in Inuvik. The others are, as the Member said, based here. It doesn't mean that they do all of their work here, but it means that they are, within larger groups, add-ons to other...

After-care support is, obviously, a shared responsibility. We talked about transitional housing and how we would need to partner with ECE, Justice, MACA and housing in order to bring those transitional housing units to life with appropriate programming. We would certainly be continuing our relationship with Justice on services like the Wellness Court and integrated case management as well as the integrated service delivery initiative. I think what I need to understand from the Member is more specifically how having yet another level of integrated service would serve clients more effectively...

Yes, thank you. The Office of the Public Guardian is actually in adult support services, and the staff there is the public guardian and an assistant. I don't think there is a budget increase, other than through the collective agreement, for this office in this fiscal year, but I will just turn to Ms. Mathison for additional information. Thank you.

Thank you. I think that there are a number of things that are happening in here. They don't actually relate to that HR unit that you are speaking of, to the best of my knowledge. My knowledge is not as great as the deputy minister's knowledge, so let's ask him.