Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure there is one black-and-white, short answer to that issue, and I would have to disagree with the Member that there have been major problems there for eight years.

We do agree there is an accumulated-deficit situation. The government has tried to figure out exactly where the issues are. That was the reason the zero base review was initiated last fall. When I came on board, that process was in the works. We have a preliminary report that came out in April that tells us the Stanton authority does not have the money to deliver the 53 programs as funded and running now.

For...

Mr. Speaker, I want to state, first of all, that the payroll for all of the health authorities — not just Stanton but all government departments and everyone — are first paid by FMBS. That’s a regular procedure, so this is not new. Then the authorities have to pay back those amounts. Because of the cash-flow issues with Stanton Territorial Health Authority, they have not been able to pay that back.

As we know, the authority has been experiencing a deficit situation for about five years now and in the last three years more significantly than the previous two. Because they started with a deficit...

Mr. Speaker, over the last two or three years, as the Member stated, the Stanton health authority has been experiencing a significant amount of deficit. It did have surpluses even before that. The government, over the years, has provided infusions of cash, but it was thought that it was important to figure out exactly what was causing the deficit — whether or not the authority was being underfunded or whether there were others ways to control the growth of spending. So there has not been any infusion of cash while we’re going through this.

I would like to advise the Member that I believe the...

Mr. Speaker, we’re not expecting that we will be coming forward with a supplementary appropriation for that amount of money. We are working on stuff that would deal with the $11 million deficit, and at that time, I’m sure we could talk about some of the details.

I do appreciate that the Member is concerned about the accountability and the financial picture of the authority, and so am I, and so is the government. We have taken a number of steps to address that. The zero-based review is one of them. I have appointed a public administrator with a very broad mandate to look at the details of the...

Mr. Speaker, I believe FMBS has paid about 12 payrolls.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member has already stated — and this is public information — Stanton territorial authority has an accumulated deficit of $11 million, and it is not able to make all of its payrolls. FMBS is assuming that responsibility at the moment. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, when the Member states that the government has given millions and millions of infusion, I think it should be noted that it was in the amount of about $1.3 million two years ago. The policy is that each authority has to be responsible for 50 per cent of a deficit. That’s been the policy that we’ve been following. I think that it was incumbent on the government to know exactly what was causing the cost overruns not only with the Stanton Territorial Health Authority but also with the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, which has another significant deficit, as well...

I could get more detailed if the Member needs it, but my understanding is that the FMBS covers the payroll for the staff and for the authority, because we do want to make sure that everyone is paid. Then the amounts are marked as accounts receivable, and it is really a cash flow issue there.

Mr. Speaker, I can advise the Member that the accumulated deficit at Stanton has occurred over the last two years. In the last fiscal year their deficit was $5 million, and this year we’re predicting it will be about $6 million — that’s over two years — so it hasn’t been accumulating over many, many years. The government has been taking progressive steps to get to the reasons why so that the actions taken are in line with the issues at hand. I think we should be mindful of the fact that the authority provides very important health care services, and actions we take have to take into...

Mr. Speaker, I believe this is an issue about health care costs. It’s not about a this-side or a that-side issue. It’s a consensus government issue, and it’s one that we need to work on together.

I can tell the Member, Mr. Speaker, that the zero-based review has given us an idea about how much shortfall the authorities are experiencing, and it’s strictly financial cost accounting kind of information.

I need more information, more detailed information, as to whether or not there should be changes needed in the way we deliver our programs, whether we should be delivering the programs that we are...