Sandy Lee

Obviously, that money will come from our territorial budget. Our health care system right now takes about 30 percent of the total budget. Across the country, health care expenditures take up somewhere up to 40 to 50 percent of the budget. What we are working on right now is we are reviewing all of the important aspects of our health care system. Physician resources, how we are spending those resources, because that is one big ticket item. We spent about $26 million on medical travel. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing in that regard. We are reviewing the business planning...

That would definitely be one way of doing it. Thus far different health authorities have been putting out their own RFPs. There is more than one business, I believe, in the Territories who does that. What we would be looking at would be doing an RFP for larger and more than one authority at once. It’s a detail that we need to work out, but it’s something that needs a lot more attention and a lot more detailed analysis and I will undertake to do that.

I understand what the Member is saying and, in fact, I visited that outlet that exists in Hay River. I do believe they already supply a lot of centres in the Northwest Territories. I will make a commitment to the Member and this House that we will definitely factor that in and do a cost-benefit analysis. I would have to do a lot of work with the Members in the next coming weeks to have the analysis done and how we can find savings and wherever possible we need to bring our NWT suppliers into play. I would be happy to come forward with a proposal.

We are part of that group. We are working with other Ministers. It’s a highly complicated process. Yes, we are part of that group. We are part of the agreement. We are a part of the partners and I chaired that meeting and we handed it over to Manitoba as of September. Mr. Speaker, we are doing the right thing. I am giving the Member an answer. Yes, we are very much a part of that. Thank you.

I called a meeting of all of the western provincial Health Ministers in Newfoundland. We had a meeting and on October 21st we signed the MOU as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs and congratulate them on the undertaking of this very important task.

The review of the Child and Family Services Act was timely and has offered an opportunity for the Department of Health and Social Services to hear feedback from the most important source of information: the families and communities directly affected by the legislation.

The department will undertake a detailed review of the report and recommendations and develop a comprehensive response. Many...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we would look at every way where that would allow us to find efficiencies and cost savings by competitive process. We would look at all of that, Mr. Speaker. The cost of drugs, equipment and supplies is one of the big cost drivers. We are analyzing them very closely. Members on the other side have suggested that we need to look at this. Jurisdictions across the country are looking at those. Mr. Speaker, yes, I take his advice and will keep that in mind. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, that may or may not be something that this Legislature or future Legislatures have to consider. What we are doing right now is reviewing the government’s model and all of the chairs are fully engaged in working together as closely as possible, so that we are not working as eight separate authorities but we are working as a group. We meet every three months. We are looking at how to use doctors and resources better, how to find efficiencies in medical travel. How do we make sure that we collect all the money that is owed to us from anybody? How do we bill for services that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the health care system as a whole as the amount of deficit that amounts to about 10 percent of our entire health and social services budgets. That’s quite typical. Jurisdictions across the country are experiencing similar kinds of deficits. Had we not been able to get federal funding in the amount of $15 million over the next two years, that would add another $15 million. We were able to obtain that funding.

Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, we need to find a way to right-size our budget. That’s the work we are doing. The deputy minister and all...

First of all I should clarify that I don’t believe there is a system in place or idea in place that Yellowknife Health or Stanton will purchase for everybody. Right now we have a bit of patchwork going on and this is why we have been discussing that at the Joint Leadership Council. We need to work as a group. We need to agree that we need to purchase together. And wherever possible we would use local resources.

There are other things like pharmaceutical drugs that are used in the hospitals, for example. I think the outlet in Hay River deals with supplies. Purchasing drugs, health centres and...