Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to pick up where my colleagues Ms. Bisaro and Mr. Abernethy were asking questions on the respite program here in Yellowknife. We’re confused about where the funding has gone and how this has happened. If we’re confused, I can only imagine how the parents and families that utilize the respite service are feeling today.
I’d like to ask the Minister, we sat through the business plans. I’m not a member of the Social Programs committee, but I was there during the business plans. We also had a meeting with the authority shortly thereafter. Nobody said that the $250,000 was gone and the respite program was going to be cut come March 31st of next year. I’d like to ask the Minister why that was omitted from the business plans and the meeting with the authority.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been working with all the authorities to come up with a comprehensive plan on transitioning from THAF to THSSI, because the pot of money we’re getting from the feds is not the same, the criteria is not the same, the amount of money that we’re getting is not the same. It was important that we work with the authorities to come up with a plan; a plan so that we don’t work to cross purposes, that we do a full analysis of how we’re spending this money. It did come as a surprise to me that this letter went out and it was communicated in that way. I have a commitment from Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority that they will work with YACL and come up with a plan, and I am committed to working with Yellowknife and to make sure that we look at all possible options. That’s why it... I’ll just stop there. I’m sure he has a supplementary.
I guess the bottom line for me was that the federal funding was set to expire in 2011-2012, yet there have been changes made to that funding and where that funding is going. I’m trying to follow that $250,000. Maybe the Minister could let me know and let this House know where exactly, if the $250,000 isn’t earmarked for the respite program next year, where exactly that $250,000 is going.
That funding is multi-million dollars over five years. THSSI is a multi-million dollar proposal for the next two years. We have just finalized this. I’m not trying to confuse anybody or evade answers in any way. This is a complicated package of funding that we received from the federal government. This is why I’m making a commitment from the Members on the other side that I will come to them with the full proposal so that we can have the entire picture of what the new funding looks like and get an explanation of where respite care would have fit or should fit or doesn’t fit. We’re just working on that. I think we need to have the full information before we decide exactly what happened to that $200,000. Federal funding always comes with criteria and complicated rules and we need to have a full briefing on that.
I understand that and I understand that there are rules in place for the utilization of federal dollars. If the rules were in place that allowed it to be spent on the respite program in one year, I’m just wondering how it could change to the next year.
The next question I’d have for the Minister -- and we all know concrete is very expensive; the department has entered down this road of a Foundation for Change -- is the money that was earmarked for the respite program going into the Foundation for Change and the cost to that.
As I stated to the Member for Great Slave, one of the criteria for the new funding is for us to exit THAF funding. This new funding ends at the end of 2012. We fund doctors, we fund midwifery, we fund diagnostic imaging. We fund lots of other things under THAF right now and we’re finding ways to work out the details on how we spend THSSI funding. Part of transitioning means system change as well. This is why it’s important for us to get details on exactly what the federal government has asked us to do with THSSI, what we have agreed to do.
Once again, the respite care is a small program that’s vital to the people who have been receiving it. I think it’s incumbent on us to have a full discussion on that instead of just speaking about one program.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still am quite confused, because you had a program that was working, you had funding that would have enabled it to continue to 2011-2012, yet the $250,000 is gone somewhere. You’re using it for something else and I’m not quite sure I understand what you’re using it for. Whose decision was it to cut the $250,000 out of the respite care program? Was it the department or was it the authority?
Just two points on that. The first point, I will commit to get back to the Members on how the accounting was done in terms of the comparison between BP and the new funding we’re getting, because we did just go through the BP process. There’s a program there, money for respite care, and we are bringing new money under THSSI under supplementary appropriations. So there are some accounting rules that we had to follow that I would get the Member the detail on.
The second part is, I want to tell the Member, and I’ve said it again, THSSI funding is a lot less than THAF. So we are going to see reductions in programs that we have paid under THAF. We have authorities that make decisions about how they spend money that they get from the department. All the authorities are working on plans. We were all to work together on those plans. It is unfortunate that an announcement was made about discontinuation of one program in one isolated way, and Yellowknife Health is working to address that. I am committed to working with Yellowknife Health. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
