Julie Green

Thank you. There are a lot of different funds here, and some of them deal with mental health and some of them deal with the need for food. There's quite a bit of variety here. Some funds are taken up and spent wholly while others languish and so there isn't a current need to increase them. So it's really a line by line exercise.

The other thing that I would say is that we have been asked by the financial management board to manage our money so that we don't increase the deficit any quicker than we are. So that figures into arbitrary increases to any of these areas. We need to know that there's...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, at this point we do not have an opening day. We have an opening season. Summer.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the comment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NTHSSA has a MOU with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority to provide physician services. And that MOU is now under review to determine what the best way forward is. So it's unclear to me that not having this MOU or not having some kind of formal arrangement would serve Hay River any better than it's being served now.

In terms of bringing the Hay River authority into the NTHSSA, that was last looked at seriously in 2015. A lot has changed since then, but there hasn't been any additional work done on the cost of bringing the health authority...

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, we budget for the full complement of doctors because if we are not spending them on resident doctors then we're spending them on locums, or we're spending it the money on overtime for resident doctors or callbacks and those kind of employment situations. So not having doctors doesn't save us money. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I expect it to be signed this summer.

Yes, thank you. We haven't considered doing that because it would mean that fewer people would qualify for the program or have fewer hours. So we set a number of clients that we would focus in each focus on in each community, and that's what informed the funding pot for this year and the carryover for next year.

Yes, thank you. For the last fiscal year, the deficit was $33.7 million for a total of $189.7 million. So we don't have a firm figure for this year. But given the pattern of the last few years, I'm anticipating it'll be in the same ballpark.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I would say that if there are youth who have questions in this line, they could start with the child and youth care counsellor in their school to get some direction about what's available to them, or failing that, a social worker that is available to them through Yellowknife Health and Social Services or through the regional health and social services authority. So I'm not sure that putting a whole bunch of stuff online is going to make a lot of clarity. I think it may result in more result in more questions. And I think that the social workers and...

We're going to look that up. But the number I remember off the top of my head is $8.5 million.