Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s passion and commitment to enhance everything that is or is not in small communities, but that is quite a general statement. Under the integrated service delivery model that we follow in the Territories, all residents are entitled to have access to Health and Social Services programs. All the authorities do their best every day to make those programs accessible to everyone in the Territories.

The information I have is that it is an accumulated deficit over three years. That would take into consideration all the receivables and payroll, but it’s an accumulated deficit over three years since ’05–06, ’06–07 and ’07–08.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to echo the Premier by saying that the action we are taking right now is a stage. It has been led by incremental steps that have been taken since ’05–06. The information we have is that the major deficit for Stanton as well as Beaufort-Delta began in ’05–06. While the policy states that each authority should absorb 50 per cent of deficit and then the government will give 50 per cent of that, at that time it was thought to be too much for authorities to absorb.

As the Members have stated already, we do not want to be, or be seen as or be perceived as, rewarding...

Yes, the department has funded different programs and proposals such as the conference that the Dene Nation sponsored on STI issues, and the Tlicho community has their own proposal. We do have quasi-independent authorities who are interested in addressing some specific issues that are of more interest to their area. The department does pay attention to those.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of the proposal submitted by Hay River Health Authority to give them funding to deliver community-specific programs. The last time I talked to my officials, I believe that was under active consideration in an effort to put it into the next business-plan process. I could also advise the Member that we have been successful in getting some money from the Public Health Agency of Canada for a coordinator position for a three-year term. That position is starting this May. I don’t have a whole lot of details on that, but we are making some progress in that area.

The Premier is correct in saying the PA’s work is not time specific. He’s been appointed as the public administrator, and he will be in that office until such time as he’s removed by me as Minister.

What I meant when I said in the House that I have given the public administrator three months to do some work and give me some recommendations is that it was specifically to the work following the zero-based review. As I stated earlier, the zero-based review gave us lots of information that required additional analysis, and he’s using that information as a guideline. Also, he’s on the ground looking...

We don’t have that level of detail on exactly what’s causing the shortfall there.

I apologize for not getting to the unfunded positions. What I would like to say is that I don’t think we could attribute the deficit in the authority to unfunded positions. Unfunded positions come in different shapes and sizes. These authorities are block funded, and they do have flexibility within to create positions where they think they are required.

Stanton, for example, has 53 programs. I believe they are mostly funded, but the important thing I want to say is that…. Mr. Ramsay is worried, and I can see why, that given the level of deficit these authorities are going through, how could...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The breakdown for the $11.5 million accumulated deficit is for $7.4 million for the fiscal year ’07–08, $5.8 million for ’06–07 and $3.2 million for ’05–06. Another thing I want to say is that the public administrator functions like a board but with detailed instruction and interaction with me as to what work he’s doing on the ground at the hospital. It doesn’t necessarily mean he has to be at the hospital. When he was here for three weeks, he interviewed staff and management extensively at the hospital. He continues to work on this issue even though he’s not on the...

Mr. Speaker, I could tell the Member we are actively considering that proposal from Hay River. I can’t give the Member an answer as to what the outcome of that might be. We are looking at a territorially coordinated approach to address STI concerns. We do have an STI strategy the department’s working on, and that includes looking at specific programs not only in Hay River but in the Tlicho area as well, where there is an active proposal coming forward.

We’re looking to expand the Tele-Care program to include STI components. There is some work being done to do some social marketing in this area...