Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. While one of my colleagues was talking reductions, I’m looking at increases in this table for the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority and Tlicho Community Services Agency. There’s some large increases in staff, and those are good things, I think. I just want to hear from the Minister the reason behind this. I think the Hay River situation probably has something to do with this opening of the new health centre there, but can the Minister and his staff explain the rather large increases there? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O’Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, these are for a number of reasons, and I think the Member has actually identified a couple of them already. A number of the positions that you see in Hay River are as a result of the new Health and Social Services regional centre that just opened there in order to provide services in a larger building with a different delivery method. It did require additional positions, things like emergency room nurses that they didn’t have previously.
It also needed some additional positions just as a result of the footprint, how it’s laid out and how they’re going to provide services. That is how come you see a huge bump in Hay River. You will also notice Tlicho has a bump in positions. That is mostly as a result of the Jimmy Erasmus longterm care facility that has opened. You will notice some change in Stanton as well. Much of that certainly, I believe it’s six positions, five fulltime, one parttime, are as a result of the inclusion of more dialysis services within the hospital.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O’Reilly.
Thanks.
Mr. Nakimayak
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my only question is for the authority allocation for the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services. I see a decrease from last year. Could the Minister explain that, please?
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, a couple of those positions, or rather the funding, was as a result of the midwifery program. There was some positions allocated to Inuvik for the midwifery program that was going to go there. The program evolved into a different model. The positions were never established, although they had showed up in previous mains. We are discontinuing the midwifery positions in the Beaufort Delta with the exception of the nurse practitioner who is providing the pre and postnatal services, working on the regional midwifery program up there in cooperation with the doctors. Some of those positions are mostly those midwifery positions that were never established or created.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Nakimayak.
Thanks for that, and going down to the next region allocation, I see for the Beaufort Delta, last year the total was $241,000, and this year is $223,000. Just some clarification on that. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the total for region allocation in 201516 was $241,000 and it’s $240,000 for this year, so it’s down one thousand. There has been some additional positions added for other reasons, and some internal reallocations, positions that existed, but maybe weren’t in the previous capital. They would have been unfunded. They’ve brought some of those in to be established.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Nakimayak.
No. Thanks for the Minister for that. That’s all I’ve got. Thanks.
Thank you, Mr. Nakimayak. Any further questions. Seeing none. Page 175, 176, Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditures summary. Total activity, $77,812,000.
We will defer this page and go to detail. Detail on 177, which is Health and Social Services, administrative support services, grants, contributions and transfers, information item. Any questions? Recognizing Mr. Thompson. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Chairman, on page 176 under the program detail, we have a category, or line item, identified as facility maintenance and support. Since the 2014-15 actuals it has gone up by nearly $2 million. I wonder if I can get an explanation from the Minister what, although it seems self-explanatory, but what facility maintenance and support consists of and why we might see nearly $2 million increase over the last couple budgets. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The two areas that have sort of resulted in this significant increase is some forced growth around some of the standard supplies that are provided to the health centres across the Northwest Territories, but a bigger chunk is actually as a result of the temporary operation of the long-term care in Hay River. The H.H. Williams were staying in the building for two years in a long-term care capacity until we can get the expansion at Woodland finished. As a result, we have to spend some additional dollars there to ensure that our long-term care is still operational. It’s not part of the new hospital.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the reply. That seems to suffice for that line item. I have nothing more for page 176, and in case others do I’ll let them ask their questions before going on to 177. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I noticed in the administration there’s a $2.061 million reduction. Could the Minister explain why there is a reduction compared to the main? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, our main estimates are only slightly down from last year. We had some revised mainstream in the last fiscal year as a result of some cost pressures. Much of this is a result of the pension top up that we have to provide to Hay River. We imagine that there will likely be a supp again during this fiscal year once they’re able to quantify what they’re pension top up might need to be to keep Hay River’s pension viable.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.
So I clearly understand, we bumped it up already or we are about to or in the process of? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I indicated, the mains last year were $13,881,000. We are slightly down based on some of the other driving factors in this area, some actuals, but the reason you’ll see the revised main estimates up a little higher is every year at some we end up having to come forward with a supp based on the pension top up that is required by the Hay River Health and Social Services in order to keep their pension viable. We don’t know what that cost is going to be, so we don’t build it into our mains. We come back by way of supp. We’ve already brought one supp to this House earlier based on the 2015-16. I anticipate that we will likely have to come forward for another sup in 2016-17 once we have a sense of what they’re pension top up might be. We don’t know what it is at this point in time.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson?
I thank the Minister for that answer. I think I understand it now. We pay it and then we come back later on to keep on topping it up. Is that correct?
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
The Hay River employees are actually outside of the public service. They have their own human resource manual, they have their own collective agreement, they have their own pension plan. They aren’t part of Superann because they are outside of the public service. Every year the employees pay into their pension, but the pension also pays out people who have retired. In order to ensure that they are fluid, that they are a viable pension plan, they end up having to come back and ask for additional money every year, and this has gone on for a long time. I remember back in 2005 when I was working with Hay River Health and Social Services to bring it all under one authority, at that time, the government considered taking over and bringing them into the public service. It has cost us almost $1 million dollars a year since then just to keep their pension viable. We anticipate that will continue to be the case until such a time as we either find a way to bring them into the public service. That’s pretty much it actually.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Now I understand that. Sir, I’m good with that. I’ll go onto something else. Grants, contributions, and transfers: there’s almost a million dollars plus reduction. Is there a rationale for that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister. Recognizing Ms. Mathison.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2016-17 we had a sunset in our budget related to Microsoft licensing. We previously had funding in the budget, additional funding, to pay for licenses for Microsoft in the authorities. We no longer need that money so we took it out of the budget.
Thank you, Ms. Mathison. Mr. Thompson?
I thank the witness, Ms. Mathison, for providing that information. In regards to contract services, there’s again a $1.1 million difference between the revised main. Please explain that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2015-16 we had additional money added to the budget to fund the organ and tissue donation project.
Thank you, Ms. Mathison. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank you for that answer. Are we going to be doing a supp for this or was this just a one-time off on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we got permission from the last government to do a one-time transfer from the midwifery program in the Beaufort Delta to use those dollars to do our portion of the Organ and Tissue Donation Registry in Alberta, so it’s one time.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. In regards to fees and payments there’s a $277,000 reduction in that. What was the savings in that area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister?
