Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The entire program is sunsetting at the end of this year? Is that what the Minister said? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, monsieur le President. In his reply to the Budget Address, the Health Minister referred to the growing numbers facing us in meeting the demand for seniors' long-term care. We know that by 2026, he said, we have to put in 258 long-term care beds. That's $139,000 in operational costs per bed, for a total of more than $35 million annually by 2026 to meet the projected demand.

The numbers are taken from the 2015 Northwest Territories Long-Term Care Program Review report. The report provided a detailed analysis of the anticipated demand for longterm care, options for programs, and approaches...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Since the previous speaker opened the door to consideration of policy matters under corporate management, can I ask the Minister: is this where funding is found for drafting of the work that's going to get under way soon for a Mineral Resources Act, or is it found further on into the departmental budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will direct that to the director of finance as well.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister, but I'm just not sure how he can commit to bringing forward legislation while he's cutting the budget for it. I will just leave it at that for that one.

I have a further question under the expenditure category. I see where contract services is once again, last year, not all of the money was spent, and this year, there's a reduction in that. Can the Minister or his staff explain what's going on with the money allocated for contract services? Now, I presume that some of this might be used to help bring forward some of the legislation...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to congratulate the Minister for doing that. That's something I raised in the last review of the main estimates during the business plans as well. The need to make sure that the organizational chart actually reflects a concrete effort at economic diversification, because we've got these big stuff and big sections in here for mining and oil and gas but nothing really concrete on the economic diversification side. So congratulations to the new leadership in the department. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have some questions about the organizational charts on 190-191. Is this the appropriate time to talk about those, or will they come at the end when we look at the departmental total? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So as I understand it then there's no new money in this budget for anything that might come out of the agricultural policy; is that the case? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the answer. I just have one other question on 156, if I may. It says regulatory revenue, and then there's professional licence fees and environmental health fees and vital statistics fees. What's our sort of regular cycle for reviewing these and whether there should be any sort of increases even to keep pace with inflation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I had a couple of questions on page 155 about revenues. I am just wondering: is this where we find the federal revenues that help us with healthcare? Given that these main estimates were prepared quite a while ago, does this reflect the reduced payments that we are going to receive from the federal government as a result of signing off on the recent healthcare agreement? Thanks, Mr. Chair.