Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015. Legislative Assembly, operations expenditure summary, expenditures on behalf of Members, not previously authorized, $577,000. Total department, not previously authorized, $577,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Page 4, Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $1.472 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $1.472 million. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I get a little more detail on this expenditure here?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. With that, we’ll go to Mr. Aumond.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This expenditure is a transfer of funding from Public Works and Services to the NWT Housing Corporation to commence with the demolition of the housing units in Inuvik known as the Blueberry Patch. The units were originally surplused and Public Works and Services, on behalf of the government, surplused those assets, and the Housing Corporation expects interest in acquiring the land that those units reside on for future use. On that basis, the Department of Public Works and Services transferred some funding that it had, which was to the Housing Corporation for those purposes.
I guess the question is Public Works had the demolition budgeted in this amount, or did they have this in their budget for other things and this is a surplus? If I can get detail where Public Works is finding $1.4 million.
Public Works and Services originally had received money to undertake the demolition of Sir Alexander Mackenzie or SAM School in Inuvik and Samuel Hearne Secondary School starting in 2012-13. Samuel Hearne Secondary School has been demolished and SAM School is scheduled to be completed at the end of the ’14-15 fiscal year. PWS will have a surplus of approximately $900,000 for SAMS that will otherwise lapse on March 31, 2015, and also has retained $572,000 of O and M money that it had had for those assets while they were still being maintained, which is going to be transferred, which was originally approved for Samuel Hearne Secondary and SAM School in the base budget. That funding is going to sunset in ’16-17, so that money is proposed to be transferred over to the Housing Corporation to undertake the demolition of the Blueberry Patch.
The $900,000 from SAMS demolition was not used so this is where we’re finding the money from, I guess. Is that from this year, ’14-15, or is that from a previous year?
The ’14-15 fiscal year. This fiscal year.
I’m just wondering: obviously, the Department of Public Works and Services has been able to scramble together the money to do this and I’m not debating the merit of the demolition of this unit. I guess the question is where the money is coming from and how many other departments do we know of that have this type of a surplus sitting waiting for a project that they can transfer to any department or use for themselves. I guess, where are the checks and balances as far as when there is money that hasn’t been accounted for? Where would we see that in a reporting process?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This process is the final check and balance. We only have one major infrastructure department, which is Public Works and Services. We have another infrastructure department focused on housing, which is the Housing Corporation. Other than that, everybody else has other business. This type of situation has occurred and between the two infrastructure departments. We’ve managed to come up with the money to take care of this much needed demolition and put the land back into use.
I guess my question is who decided that this project was a priority with the extra $900,000 that was lapsed over from Public Works and Services?
It came through to FMB. This demolition has been a priority for quite a number of years. It’s just that we haven’t had the funds to take care of the project and, in fact, demolish the property and put it back into use. With the funds identified by the deputy minister, we were able to do that. Anybody that has been to Inuvik would see what an eyesore it was right in the heart of the community, and it’s a very significant issue to get out of the way after all these years.
Like I indicated, I don’t have a problem with the demolition in Inuvik. I’m just wondering what other projects were deferred. What list do we have of this type of project that we selected from and Inuvik was chosen? Were there any other projects that were high on the Public Works and Services list to spend that $900,000?
There is no list as the Member is suggesting. This was brought forward as a long outstanding issue where there were finally funds able to be put to use.
No further questions.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Committee, we’re on page 4, Finance, operations expenditures, deputy minister’s office, not previously authorized, $1.472 million. Total department, not previously authorized, $1.472 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 5, Public Works and Services, operations expenditures, asset management, not previously authorized, negative $1.472 million. Total department not previously authorized, negative $1.472 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 6, Health and Social Services, operations expenditures, program delivery support, not previously authorized. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. The first one is the first line item, the funding for increased costs related to Hay River Health and Social Services Authority Pension Plan. This is an item which I think has appeared every year since I’ve been here, or at least for the last several years.
Can I get an explanation as to whether this is something that is going to continue on into the future until we presumably bring those staff in under the GNWT public service, or is this an amount and is this amount that is going to be similar for the years following, or is this kind of a one-time cost? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This will be an ongoing cost until the determination is made to put the funds necessary to bring this contingent of staff into the public service in the territorial government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister. I don’t remember what the total amount would be that we have put into the pension plan for the Hay River Health and Services Authority, but I would think it’s many, many millions of dollars.
How close are we to bringing the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority in under our GNWT public service so we can bite the bullet once and for all, pay what we need to pay to get their pension plan in, similar to superannuation, and then have them as our employees going forward? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that response, I believe we’re going to be going to Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving forward with health transformation, we want to bring the Hay River Health and Social Services into the public service. The Department of Health and the Department of Human Resources have been given the mandate by Cabinet to enter into negotiations with the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, the UNW as well as superann to figure out how we can move forward with that to actually make that happen, recognizing the potential costs, articulating, determining what those costs might be so that we can bring it back to the House. The work is beginning this year. We’ll have a better sense of the costs later this year, hopefully, to begin to have those discussions with committee.
Thanks to Minister Abernethy. Is it likely that we are going to see this switch executed in the ‘15-16 budget year? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, the timeline is we need to pass the legislation. The legislation is before committee. Committee is reviewing that legislation. Should that legislation pass, then we have a go live date of April 1, 2016. Our hope would be that we would be able to facilitate this change for that time, but we recognize that it may take a little bit longer to work through all the challenges with superann and union, but our goal is to look at April 1, 2016. So it would not be the 2015-16 fiscal year.
Thanks again to the Minister. That’s a great target date. I certainly hope that it can be met.
My other question on this page has to do with the next line item, transfer of funding from Education, Culture and Employment to support the expansion of the Healthy Family Program. I’m certainly in support of expanding the Healthy Family Program, but I’m trying to understand where the money is coming from in Education that’s going to be transferred to the Healthy Family Program. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Kalgutkar.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The program that the money will be transferred from is the Child and Family Resource Program that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment got as part of the $1.25 million they got as part of their Early Childhood Development Initiative. Thank you.
Thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar for that answer. The Child and Family Resource Program I thought was a fairly successful one, so does that suggest that it’s not a successful program and that it’s being scaled back? Thank you.
The department did do a review of the program and it was felt at the time that the best maximum benefit of this funding could be achieved if it transferred the money to the Department of Health and Social Services to achieve more benefit. Thank you.
Thanks. I’ll try the question a different way. Is the Child and Family Resource Centre Program going to be in operation in the ‘15-16 budget year? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would assume yes, but I would ask the Minister of Education if he could clarify that fact. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Part of the reason why we’re transferring the funding to the Healthy Family Program has always been part of our discussion when we went through the Child and Family Resource Program that was initiated and has been successful to date. It was of the opinion that we need to put money into the programming, so that’s where the Healthy Family Initiative is earmarked. We are transferring, so it is in the works. Health and Social Services has always been our partner on this approach. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister. So, I have to ask the question again. Is the Child and Family Resource Program going to be operational in ‘15-16? The Minister said that it’s a successful program, so if it’s successful, why are we taking money out of that program and putting it into another one? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, the pilot project we have done with Child and Family Resource Program into the communities, again, has been successful and this is building on that. Obviously, the Child and Family Resource Program is part of the Early Childhood Framework, the 10-year action plan and developing a 10-year framework and then a three-year action plan geared towards that. It is a continuation of the programming. This is one of the areas that Health and Social Services has been a partner. We are allocating healthy family programming based on the needs of the communities that have been identified. With our department, child and family resource programing continues within my department. Mahsi.
Mr. Chair, if I’m hearing this rightly, so the Child and Family Resource Program, I am presuming the two pilots will continue as they did but there will not be any expansion. Can I get confirmation that the pilot programs will continue and that there will be no expansion of the Child and Family Resource Program in ‘15-16? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Minister Miltenberger
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is correct.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Committee, continuing on questions on this activity, I have Mr. Bouchard.
