I appreciate the reminder of where that money comes into the system and then add it to the $16 million, which brings us to the rough total of the whole program of being about $29 million. I’m, I guess, really talking about the question of for what we’re responsible. Are we within the normal budget threshold of what we’re responsible for as a government? I’m going to ask, can we separate the third-party responsibility for a second, because it seems as if that is an actual cost, and I do have a separate question for that one.
If a little kid is out playing, trips, breaks his leg and has to fly to Edmonton, that would be our cost. If it’s an RCMP member who did something and it fell under their insurance, that would be a separate cost. I’m really asking, is our responsibility under our budget, are we on the threshold of normal budget programming or over, under or within a normal tolerance?
We are underfunded for the medical travel of about $5 million.
Thank you to the Minister. The next question I have is about the third-party gap. Under the third-party gap – and I appreciate the deputy minister’s detail and highlight how she clarified some of that – do we find we get short-changed on any of that and, if so, could someone from the department, through the Minister obviously, provide that level of detail, what we’re left on the hook for.
We are not aware of any shortfalls anywhere in the third-party billing.
Alright. Now, does this medical travel benefit here, adding all those numbers up, is that only reflective of what’s transferred over to Stanton or is that also in consideration to what’s farmed out to the authorities? When an individual authority needs to charge something to the medical travel budget before it gets on to the Stanton Territorial travel budget, would that be the global budget or is there a separate budget line item for all the authorities?
That’s the entire budget, the global budget for the whole system.
Nope. That will be fine for now. Thank you.
Page 8-28, Health and Social Services, activity summary, supplementary health programs, grants and contributions, contributions, $16.259 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Page 8-30 and 8-31, Health and Social Services, activity summary, community wellness, social services, operations expenditure summary, $89.259 million. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to move a motion in this section.
I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate action to identify additional funding for prevention and promotion-related activities to place greater importance and urgency on the prevention of diabetes, tuberculosis, heart disease and other chronic diseases.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’re just circulating the motion.
To the motion. The motion is in order.
Question.
Question. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to speak to this motion a bit. I discussed some of the statistics when I made my statement earlier today, but I wanted to remind people that in the NWT, if the rates of physical activity of our people – young people and older people – are going down and our rates of obesity are increasing, that does not bode well for our health system. It means we are going to have more and more demands and more and more of a drain financially on our health system and on our government.
We have pretty good services here in the city of Yellowknife and we have reasonably good services in our regional centres, but our smaller communities, anybody who lives outside of the city of Yellowknife or our regional centres tend to need greater support in terms of prevention and promotion. I want to recognize that we have had an increase in the budget to prevention and promotion over the last year or so, but this motion speaks to the need for even more money to be put into prevention and promotion.
One of the things that have been working reasonably well, from what I understand, is the diabetes clinic. It operates in a number of places. I can’t remember how many right now, but we need to expand the Diabetes Clinic Program to more communities. That’s the kind of thing that I’m referencing with this motion, is we need to expand all of the present programs and services that we have which deal with the prevention and promotion. Things like hypertension and cardiac disease are a large drain on our system. Tuberculosis screening is another one. We still, unfortunately, have difficulties with tuberculosis. It’s a condition which has existed for a long time and continues to exist, so we need to make sure that we have enough screening to be able to catch it and, hopefully, eliminate it in the near future.
One of the things that I think we do a fair bit of but I think we need to do more of, and this goes to the promotion aspect of the motion, is we need to educate people, all of our residents – particularly our young people, though – and we need to raise the awareness of particularly our young people to the risks of poor health, to the risks of inactivity. Again, I don’t think the department has enough money within their department to do the adequate education that is required.
Lastly, one of the other things that I think we’ve done a reasonably good job in the last couple of years on is increasing the screening for colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is the highest incidence of cancer in our territory. Caught early, it’s a disease which can easily be cured, but without screening it cannot be caught. It’s really important that we increase the colorectal screening and make sure it’s available beyond the city of Yellowknife and our regional centres.
Those sorts of things are what the motion references and I hope that Members will support the need for greater money for prevention and promotion.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.
---Carried
Can I have the report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014, and would like to report progress with three motions being adopted. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. A motion is on the floor. Do we have a seconder? The seconder is Ms. Bisaro.
---Carried
Orders of the day for Tuesday, February 26, 2013, 1:30 p.m.:
Prayer
Ministers’ Statements
Members’ Statements
Returns to Oral Questions
Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
Acknowledgements
Oral Questions
Written Questions
Returns to Written Questions
Replies to Opening Address
Petitions
Report of Standing and Special Committees
Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
Tabling of Documents
Notices of Motion
Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
Motions
Motion 4-17(4), Federal Support for Sahtu Jobs and Economic Growth
First Reading of Bills
Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Territorial Parks Act
Second Reading of Bills
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Tabled Document 9-17(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2013-2014
Bill 1, Tlicho Statutes Amendment Act
Report of Committee of the Whole
Third Reading of Bills
Orders of the Day
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Tuesday, February 26th, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 7:34 p.m.
