Robert Hawkins

Just changing subjects but in a somewhat related manner, the Minister has mentioned that, I guess it sounds as if it is the department or Stanton that purchases items on behalf of other authorities, does the Minister’s office support any type of mark-up if it is Stanton, by way of example purchasing medical equipment and then selling it to an authority, do they support any type of mark-up on any particular product that is resold? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I did follow that particular issue up. In essence, take my word for it, really, was a short answer to the long letter or long reply. I am asking if the Minister is very confident that they view this and they are able to stand by it, then it should be no trouble providing some factual detail. That was the follow-up information that I asked for some time ago, perhaps maybe a month ago or more. I have yet to receive it. It is difficult getting back to people when they ask these questions and then you disappear for such a lengthy time or what the Minister says is basically they...

Mr. Chairman, that is fine. If it is just evergreening, are we talking about office equipment? It says medical supply. That is fine. I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t...

Seeing how I have the mike, can the Minister provide me some, maybe, examples of what they would define as medical equipment under this evergreening process? Are we talking about beds? Are we talking about those specific programmings? Thank you.

I’ll take the commitment on providing the breakout of how that statement is met through funding and how that’s budgeted under what titles. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The way this Minister and the previous governments have been managing the health system is supplementary appropriation. That is how they are managing the funding problem.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister seems to hearken quite clearly about you have to do zero-based budget review. She is the one who has a deputy minister who said they did this. So they should know on what positions cost and they should fund them properly. They should know what all of these items cost and fund them. That is the issue.

Mr. Speaker, how many unfunded positions are not accounted for? How many...

Well, Mr. Speaker, financially, it’s like the government wants to run this ship to the ground. I mean, 10 out of 11 budget years a deficit and we’re not even including the one that’s just past, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with all this so-called review that they don’t care about how much money they spend, what has the management learned and done? In other words, what management and financial controls have been put into place to ensure that we have that so-called zero-based budget review that was done, that it was not money out the window and a waste of time? What are they doing to plug the leaks...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about the continued deficit at Stanton Hospital. Between the budget years of 1999 and 2000 to the budget year of 2009-2010, which is 11 budget cycles, Stanton has all but one fiscal year been in deficit. That is one year that they did not have a single deficit, Mr. Speaker. It is hard to imagine 11 budget cycles. From what I can tell, it was the one budget year that the Stanton board fired itself, oddly enough.

For 11 years, what have they been doing over there? Adding up each unbudgeted deficit year after year, Stanton has accumulated, if you...

She should be doing something, Mr. Speaker. What has she been doing?

Mr. Speaker, I have said many times that I believe Stanton is underfunded. I think a zero-based review would actually clear any air or question on that particular problem. The problem is everyone seems to know that there are problems but no one is doing anything about their problems. We hear about we have done a review. Now, we hear, out of the blue, a zero-based review is done through the years. We have no facts on the table where they have stopped the leakage. By the way, all it is is just an accumulation of protecting the process than it is about doing anything. Mr. Speaker, is Stanton or...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the Stanton deficit, which harkens back to my Member’s statement where I am significantly concerned that Stanton has missed 10 out of 11 budget years in the sense that they’ve found ways to create deficits without stopping them. Mr. Speaker, they need to be applauded for that one year that they let the board fire itself. It seemed they knew what was going on, because it showed that they weren’t in deficit that year, but they continue to accumulate with no one willing to stop it.

Mr. Speaker...