Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We don’t have that information here with us today.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Moses, your time is up. I know you had a second question. If you want, I could put you back on the list. Moving on with questioning I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple other questions on this page. One has to do with – and it was briefly mentioned I think when either the Minister or the DM talked about governance and change – there has been talk about centralizing the administration of the authorities. I didn’t quite understand where things were at with regard to that centralization of the administration for authorities. I gather it’s in the works. When might we expect that is going to be finalized? Is that another four- or five-year project?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If centralizing means we are bringing people into the centre, then we are not centralizing. I can get the deputy minister to provide details and timelines. The plan is to have the services standard with all the authorities using the same system. I will have the deputy do a detailed response to that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. DeLancey.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe we did share, with at least the Standing Committee on Social Programs, the consultant’s report that we had on collaborative or shared services, or what we commonly refer to as the back office. In order to move towards these collaborative services, of course it requires a great deal of change. We spent some time with our consultants, asking for recommendations on what the priorities were and what the quick wins were. As a result, the Joint Leadership Council has directed that we move forward with a couple of key areas.
The first one is procurement. We now have a project manager putting together a work plan for moving towards shared procurement. The second area is in information systems and technology. When I responded to the question on electronic medical record, I talked about the move to get all the authorities on the TSC on similar platforms using the same information systems. The third area is in accounts receivable and accounts payable. As basic as that sounds, right now the authorities are using different financial systems. As a first step we are actually moving them towards common manual systems towards accounts receivable and accounts payable to set the stage for moving towards common financial systems.
These are just three of about 65 areas that could eventually be brought together into a virtual back office because this work is being done over and above people’s day-to-day work. We are moving slowly. We are trying to demonstrate some success. Right now we are developing governance structures, templates and work plans for those three areas. We’d like to roll those out over the next year and then, based on that, we will determine the next priorities.
Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks to Ms. DeLancey for the explanation. I appreciate that it’s a long-term objective to get this done, and it is going to take a lot of time before it does happen. It sounds as though the changes that are being instituted this next fiscal year are coming from within or ones that are happening right now. Are we going to be looking at an increase in the budget after the fiscal year 2013-2014 in order to get some of these things done, or will all the changes be handled from within?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re not anticipating any increase in the budget. It just would be a reallocation of the same money.
One last question. It has to do with the administration of supplementary health benefits, which I understand is done on this page. I’ve said this before, there was quite an involved investigation, consideration. There was a joint working group that looked at the administration of our supplementary health benefits, and there were a number of recommendations that came out of it. Some of them have been implemented, and I think they were changes to the good.
But we still have a certain segment of our population which has no supplementary health benefits coverage. I would like to know from the Minister – there is obviously no money in this budget to cover what have, unfortunately, been called the working poor; it’s not a lot of people – if there’s no money in this budget to cover this segment of our population, will there be money in the 2014-2015 budget, and how much does the department estimate that it will cost?
It is not in this year’s budget, this year’s mains. We had not anticipated putting it into the 2014-2015 mains at this time. We don’t know what the cost of that would be at this time.
I guess I would request the department to provide that information to committee if they would.
We can do that.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Page 8-17. I have Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion. I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government identify the necessary funding to accelerate the establishment of midwifery services in Hay River to commence in the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. We’re just going to distribute this motion, so just give us a second.
A motion is on the floor. To the motion. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I’ve indicated in statements today, I think it’s something very important that we implement sooner than later. I’m quite confident the department can implement this sooner than later. I’m very comfortable with the Minister. I made this motion so that we implement this sooner than later, and it moves everybody’s midwifery programs ahead by a year.
To the motion.
Question.
Question is being called.
---Carried
Page 8-17, Health and Social Services, activity summary, program delivery support, operations expenditure summary, $40.686 million.
Agreed.
Page 8-18, Health and Social Services, activity summary, program delivery support, grants and contributions. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Under grants and contributions there, we have professional development recruitment and retention in the range of $2.7 million. I’m just wondering what exactly that is and if we can get some breakdown to help me understand it or appreciate where the money is going. It just seems like a lot of money that we continually book off almost $3 million for professional development. Why is it covered under this area, why wouldn’t it be a human resource queue of some sort? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that we’ll got to Ms. DeLancey.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is funding that goes to authorities for a number of professional development related initiatives. The breakdown is $40,000 for a casual relief pool, $25,000 is for specialty training, $400,000 is for community health nurse development, $640,000 is for the Graduate Nurse Placement Program, $240,000 is for the Social Work Graduate Placement and about $1 million is for the Professional Development Initiative. This is funding that provides support for any health professional or allied health professional in our system once a year to do the upgrading and training they need to remain certified. We have funding in there, as well, for a residency program. Thank you.
Thank you. Just for clarity’s sake, is that $1 million package that goes to allied health considered a normal part of the negotiation in their contract that they’re upgrading or, probably, yearly requirements of taking training? Is that normal to be negotiated in their contract?
I do not believe that this is part of the negotiated contract for our allied health professionals. It’s something that was put in place many years ago to go with the Recruitment and Retention Initiative. Thank you.
Thank you. Is this considered consistent with other places who hire nurses under this Allied Health Program? I’m just trying to get a sense here. Thank you.
Thank you. It is certainly common across the country. The level of support that we provide may vary, but it’s absolutely consistent. Most progressive employers will, of course, provide some support for training and professional development for all professionals, but particularly in the health and social services fields where there is so much competition across the country it’s considered almost an essential part of a recruitment and retention package. Thank you.
Thank you. Would this be similar for doctors that have to do yearly testing or upgrading or skill development per se? I know some dentists, I think every year, have to do some type of week or a day or two and there are other industries within health that require, obviously, a day or two seminar or whatnot to keep their credentials up to speed. Is this somewhat similar and do we pay for those as well? Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, it is similar and it’s part of our contract with physicians. We do provide funding for what’s called continuing medical education and it is very similar. Thank you.
Just one last question, I believe, on this particular area. Would we be considered part of the norm or would we be considered part of the generous group? So in other words, is this consistent amongst pretty much every other jurisdiction or is this considered maybe over and above services that we offer just to keep them coming to the North, which isn’t as common in other areas? Thank you.
Thank you. Based on the most recent research that we’ve done, I wouldn’t say that we are considered part of the norm, but probably not part of the most generous group. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Moving on with questions I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just the last item on the page. I see we’re down about half a million bucks for health promotion and prevention activities by the authorities. I guess I’m wondering why the drop there from $715,000 to $221,000 there in this fiscal year. How’d we do with the $715,000 in terms of promotion and prevention activities in ‘12-13 and why the cut there by 70 percent? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. For that we’ll go to Ms. Mathison.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The line item is actually a reallocation. In ‘11-12 and ‘12-13 opening mains, the expenditures actually show up in activity 500, but we’ve done some reorganization at the department and this line was not restated to reflect the reorganization.
Thank you. An area I have no expertise. I have nowhere to lodge that answer, so I’ll have to just trust the director here, which is fine. If I can jump ahead just a little bit because they may be related here on the next page, I see that we’ve increased $360,000 for population health contributions in the area of tobacco, and healthy choices by about $360,000. Is that part of this shuffling?
Thank you. Yes, it’s the same explanation.
Thank you. Moving on with questions I have Mr. Moses.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, Mr. Bromley asked the questions that I was going to ask. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Last on my list I have Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering if the Minister can provide a breakdown of the territorial health services contributions. It’s listed as $739,000. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’ll just give the Minister a chance to find it in the briefing. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The breakdown is NWT Midwives Association, $8,000; NWT Seniors’ Society, $188,000; Canadian Institute for the Blind, $100,000; NWT Council for the Disabled, $183,000; Hay River Committee of Persons with Disabilities, $35,000; in-house respite contributions, $225,000.
