Kevin O'Reilly

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. Well, that is great to see that we are finally going to go out. Does he have a timeline, though, for this work? Like, this has been dragging on for years, so is there a timeline for these consultations? When is there going to be a report that comes out of the consultation, and then probably you have to develop an action plan, then it has to go to FMB for funding, like, this is just going to go on forever. Does the Minister actually have any particular timelines? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would certainly encourage the Minister, whether he has the permission of his Cabinet colleagues or not, to continue to push for a national pharmacare program and work with provincial and territorial Ministers towards that. I know we had the federal Health Minister just here, and I hope he took that opportunity to talk with her about a national pharmacare program. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. What additional kinds of efficiencies could we see here if we had a national pharmacare program, and what are we doing about that? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Same page. One line down there is a reduction from 2016-17 to 2017-18 for pharmacy. Can the Minister or his officials explain the decrease there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the Minister that, if there are communiques and so on, that we don't always see that kind of material, so I would certainly encourage him to share it with this side of the House. Again, can the Minister commit to recommending to federal Ministers and their staff that during visits to the Northwest Territories there be meetings with Regular MLAs through the appropriate standing committees? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.