Debates of March 1, 2006 (day 39)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just one last question. How much does it cost annually to lease that building? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pokiak. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll have to provide that later. I don't have that information at my fingertips at this moment. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. Pokiak?

Yes. So if you can provide that information, I'd appreciate it, Mr. Minister. Thank you.

Thank you. Page 21. Oh, sorry; Mr. Yakeleya, please.

This tenant improvement is being offset by revenue from the Government of Canada, I believe. The Minister gave some indication to Health Canada. We get funding from Health Canada to do tenant improvements or do pilot projects, as Ms. Lee indicated, from the earlier question where we're going to get information from the Minister in terms of the breakdown and the pilot project. I understand that this is one-time funding, but it seems like we're ongoing in terms of this type of funding. So do we have specific funding revenue from the Government of Canada to do projects like that? My question is how come projects in small communities…Maybe I'll have to wait for more details in terms of Colville Lake does not get proper improvements to their facility. I could speak to other communities, but in my region only, in terms of this type of a pilot project, there's some question.

So I'll leave it at that, in terms of the revenue being sawed off by the Government of Canada. Why is this kind of revenue going to tenant improvement for a leased building that I think a tenant should be the one responsible? Why are we in the business of that? I certainly hope that we give some serious consideration for 2008. Otherwise, this will just open the door for each other community and region to have something like this. I call it a real sweet deal. Mr. Chair, that's more of a…I'm trying to find a question in there for the Minister. I'm still letting out some of my frustrations here in terms of this health care, what he's done in that. So I'm trying to understand it and it's confusing here. So the revenue I guess is in terms of do we have a specific revenue from Health Canada that says here's the projects, go to wherever you need to go and fill the criteria, and whatever reasons our communities were not advised that we have funding to improve their facilities, supplies, materials, get a part-time nurse in there, get whatever in there. So we have revenue that's offset by the Government of Canada to do a tenant improvement in health care, where other health care systems and our facility desperately needs them. I guess that's in an about way of getting to a question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, this primary health care transition fund, that Health Canada funded, was intended to improve access, accountability and integration of services as relates to the whole concept of primary care, and it allowed us in the Northwest Territories to advance 11 different projects, and we're going to get you that information. But the intent here was to look at program improvements.

When this was initially agreed to back in 2000, it was before we had nurse practitioners; it was before we had midwives; but it was when the concepts of integrated service delivery were being talked about and we were trying to figure out, between the doctors, the nurses and such, how do we do that. The improvements to the clinic, these particular improvements, were to allow that kind of integration so that there were adequate exam rooms and adequate facilities to allow nurse practitioners to start playing a role, to be able to allow the proper flow of clients and patients through the door. All the authorities were encouraged to put in their submissions, and there were 11 that were agreed to be funded by a committee that was struck. Once again, we'll get you that information.

So this was a territorial-wide initiative. In this case, it was to focus on how do we do business better with the doctors, the nurses; what were the newly-minted nurse practitioners; and since it has grown to add the midwives. I'd point out, as well, that we, as a government, have gone on to make our own commitments in terms of nurse practitioners and midwives and the integrated service delivery model which is a model that we set up for the whole Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Is this funding ongoing funding? I know the Minister said a one-time pilot project. Is this funding available next year and the year after? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I believe it is four-year funding, but it was started in…The negotiations started in 2002-2003. So the projects identified were identified. It was a one-time pot, but spread over a number of years. So it doesn't keep on coming back, that total amount. The total amount was $4.7 million and was transferred over from the federal government, as the Minister of Health and Social Services stated. But it was a one-time fund that was spread over a number of projects. I believe this is the last piece of it, but the Minister of Health may have a little more detail on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can't add anything further at this point, but we'll get the information that committee requested.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Four point seven million dollars, when you look it, it's a big, huge pot when you're looking at the projects and authorities that were discussed. I believe at that time, we, Sahtu, were probably in the authority of the Inuvik Regional Health Board and now we've got our own health board. Certainly, we look at Inuvik as a big region; lots of needs there. It's negotiated so I really hope that this funding gets into the communities that desperately need improvements. Certainly we can really improve on the inadequate flow of doctors and nurses. Let's at least get a doctor in our region, doctors in our region, two doctors working in our region. Get some nurses in Colville Lake, proper nurses there that stay in there, housing.

I think we certainly fall well within that category, as the Minister outlined, in terms of the type of funding that should go for primary health care. You know, that's really key to the communities that don't have nursing stations or health services. I'm just still flabbergasted as why we are paying a tenant in Yellowknife here, basically of health, medical service, $315,000 to improve what we don't even have in some of our communities and regions. I'm going to leave it, again, at that. Certainly people in Colville Lake are going to question this $4.7 million and that money hasn't even touched the communities that desperately need it. Again that talks to the type of health care system we have in the Northwest Territories. It's not me, because I live in certain places where we do have a nurse, and I come to Yellowknife and there are some good services here. It's appreciated, I guess, in Yellowknife, but I guess when it comes to communities that don't have it, we shake our head when we talk about our priorities and taking care of our people.

So I'm going to leave it at that, but I'm still spewing my frustrations, I guess, in how this money is handled. It's a four-year sweet deal and these people who have this Great Slave medical building for tenant improvements, they've got a sweet deal. They certainly have a sweet deal and government's paying for it. I'll leave it at that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Roland, would you like to comment?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. More just to the fact of the upgrades that are listed here. As I stated earlier, when we, as a government, get into leases for either office space or clinical space, when we initially enter those agreements and move in, we, as a government, still pay the cost for fitting them up for use by the departments. As well, in mid-term if we decide to change the use of that facility or put additional requirements for the use of that facility, we again are responsible for them. So that is not a change in the way we've done things about the leases we have in place to date.

I understand the Member's frustrations about the practice and service levels in communities. So that aside, just particularly on the practice of our leases for space and the cost for either upgrading or fitting them up to the levels we require. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Mr. Yakeleya, anything else?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for answering my frustrating questions. I'm beginning to understand and I hope to see in the future of this government give some priority to some of these communities that we represent as MLAs, because these questions here will be answered. We have to have some answers, as MLAs, to our people in the communities. I'm not here to defend government in terms of their spending. So I'm asking these needs in our communities. When you have all these services it's okay, but when you don't have them, that's when we bring up our concerns. So I'm going to leave it at that for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I'd now like to recognize Ms. Lee.

Just one follow-up question. Could the Minister of Health indicate what the federal government's criteria was on choosing a facility and program? I don't know if that's the information that…I don't know that information, either. I'm not speaking from knowledge. But this particular facility at Great Slave sort of popped up and there were lots of renovations going on for awhile there, and I wonder if the Minister of Health could indicate what it was that the federal government was looking for in terms of criteria. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the criteria was fairly broad by Health Canada. It was to build, to promote and improve primary health care services, and there were proposals put forward by the different authorities to do different things. In Yellowknife the one project was to do this integrated service. In Fort Smith it was to help move midwifery along. The other ones, we're going to get the information. The decisions were made by us and we submitted our list as a government, as a system, to the federal government to get the funding to flow, which then took a number of years, as you can see by the timeline.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.

Thank you. If I could get some more detailed information about what the project guideline was from the federal government to qualify for this funding, along with information on the 11 projects from the Minister. I would really appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Yes, Mr. Chairman. When you see the information, it might ring a bell because it was put in all our business plans through the years as we developed the work, but we'll get that information for committee. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.

(Microphone turned off)…budget. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Page 21, Health and Social Services, capital investment expenditures, health services programs, not previously authorized, $315,000.

Agreed.

Total department, not previously authorized, $315,000.

Agreed.

Page 22, Justice, capital investment expenditures, community justice and corrections, not previously authorized, negative $55,000.

Agreed.

Total department, not previously authorized, negative $55,000.

Agreed.

Page 23, Environment and Natural Resources, capital investment expenditures, wildlife management, not previously authorized, $55,000.

Total department, not previously authorized, $55,000.

Agreed.

Now can we go down to page 3. Now we will stand down the preamble and the clauses and deal with the schedule to Bill 19 on page 3. Schedule, supplementary amounts appropriated for the 2005-2006 fiscal year, part 1, vote 1, operations expenditures, total supplementary appropriation for operations expenditures, $39.994 million.

Agreed.

Part 2, vote 2, capital investment expenditures, total supplementary appropriation for capital investment expenditures, $1.189 million.

Agreed.

Total supplementary appropriation, $33.183 million.

Agreed.

To the schedule, agreed?

Agreed.