All right. So Health and Social Services, long term care and continuing care services. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get a little bit more information as well around, like, the respite fund, noting that it hasn't gone up by very much. I'm just curious as part of the supported living review, are we looking at that amount of money as well? And I do note that it goes to organizations rather than from the department directly to individuals providing respite. But the reason I ask is because it's I'm aware of a few situations where people are living with are caretakers for children with disabilities and they're not accessing respite. And I'm just wondering, do we have any numbers on whether or not that number is actually adequate or if it's really just a matter that people aren't aware that they can qualify for it? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you. That money is divided between the disabilities council to provide communitybased respite services and Inclusion NWT to provide respite services in Yellowknife. So the money is directed to nonprofit organizations with subject matter expertise to expand on. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Yes, that's what I said. So my question is has that been analyzed as part of the supportive living and to see if it's enough for people in the territory or whether or not there's actually a greeter need that hasn't been identified because people aren't aware that they can qualify for programs like that? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The deputy minister will have the detail.
Thank you. Deputy minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So respite services were part of the review for the supportive living. There were seven categories of the actual supportive living review. So things such as the scope of the service, the resources that are required to provide those services, standards of care, oversight, access and equity, the workforce development, and so on. So ultimately at the end of the day, it's not the review wasn't necessarily done to determine whether we need to specifically increase respite in and of itself, but it was captured within the part as a concept within the function and the purpose of the review within supportive living.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I apologize if this has already been said or answered, but when can we expect to start seeing increases or a change to the way the funding is going here? And, again, I just want to I think that there are more and more people that probably could use a lot of these funds and just aren't really aware. And so I'm glad to hear that there's a sort of a revamping coming, but when can we sort of expect to see that actually translate to work on the ground or to this changing? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. The supported living review had 33 recommendations, and 12 of those were ones that we could begin work on without additional funding. So for the remaining 21 recommendations, we would need to develop them for the next business plan in order to obtain funding to implement them. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And does the Minister or the department know whether or not or can they somewhat anticipate if that would be part of this funding that's coming from the federal government that we already have been announced, or would we be looking for new funding for these changes or something that would be restructured internally? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. I'm not sure where the money's going to come from. I don't think it'll come from the new tailored agreements. Tailored bilateral agreements, none of them speak to people who need supported living unless they're elderly and they need longterm care. So there's a question there about whether we can find an appropriate pot of funding from the federal government or whether we will be looking for an increase in the budget from the GNWT. Thank you.
Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And is there any funding that's potentially coming from the federal government or something we could access around Indigenous supports, particularly for people working in the communities or living in the communities, sorry. And the reason, again, I ask is that I'm aware of people that have had to move to Yellowknife in order to access the services here for their children or to another regional centre. And I guess my question is is there some way to leverage attention from the federal government on Indigenous issues and reconciliation to get some money to sort of take up this area? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. The money is offered to the GNWT as the public health provider. That is to say the public supplier of health care in the Northwest Territories. There has been some discussion about a health equity fund for Indigenous people, but the parameters of that have not been set. And I'm not sure if they would apply to the case that the Member is asking about. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Does the department have the ability to input around this Indigenous equity fund conversation or to at least facilitate that conversation between the federal government and Indigenous governments in the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, I anticipate this conversation will take place between Indigenous Services Canada and the Indigenous governments directly, and we may or may not have a seat at the table.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I hope that we'll have a seat at the table. I think always that any of the experience that I'm sure the department can offer would be well you know, something that would be good to input on. I'm sure you know a lot better than the federal government necessarily what needs to happen. I think that's it for me now. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. All right, so long term community care, if there's no other questions, please turn to page 203.
Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 20232024, $67,960,000. Does committee agree.
Agreed.
Thank you. Now we will turn to out of territory services, beginning on page 207 with information items on page 208. Questions? Any questions? Seeing none, please turn to page 207.
Health and Social Services out of territory services, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 20232024, $83,650,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will now turn to supplementary health benefits on page 210, with information items on page 211. Questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm looking at page 210 and the medical travel benefits line. There's quite a drop between 20222023 and 20232024, probably in the neighbourhood of $5 million or, you know, it's like maybe 20 percent drop. Can I get an explanation as to why there's so much less money for medical travel in 20232024? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. The territorial health investment fund has not yet been renewed for the 20232024 fiscal year. So it's not included in this budget. But in the previous fiscal year, we allocated $5 million of that fund towards the cost of travel, medical travel.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks. I guess I'm trying to understand what the Minister just said. So we anticipate having to spend less in 20232024 because we're going to get more money from the federal government for medical travel; is that what I think the Minister said? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. Since 2004, we've had a fund called the territorial health initiative fund, and we've used it for special projects like creating NTHSSA and starting the primary care health reform. But we've also allocated $5 million in the current agreement each year towards the cost of medical travel. So this agreement expires on March the 31st this year, and so we did not include that amount of money in the budget because we do not yet have an assurance that we're going to have an extension to the territorial health initiative fund or for how much money.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks. Maybe I'm just not getting this but how much then do we actually expect to spend on medical travel in 20232024 then? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes. I'm sorry that I'm not explaining it. We have federal money. We don't have assurance of how much it is. So it's not in the budget. Hopefully everything works out by the end of the month and it comes into the budget and we add it to this line. But the actual cost is what you see in the revised estimates for 20222023, $24,240,000. That doesn't include the NIHB amount. The total amount of medical travel is in the range of $43 million. Medical travel is an asandwhen situation. When people need medical travel, we pay for them to go on medical travel. And if there is not enough money in the budget for that, then we ask for a supplementary appropriation to cover whatever shortfall there is in our budget to make medical travel possible.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Okay, thanks, Madam Chair. So if this extra federal money gets sorted out in the next while, will it come back into the health and social services budget then through supplementary appropriation, is that the plan? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Yes, thank you. Yes, that's right. It would come in through supplementary appropriation. Now all the money we receive on doing work on behalf of others is brought into the budget through a supplementary appropriation.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks. Yeah, I guess I'm I don't know, I know it's late and I'm just trying to understand how we can only budget $19 million for medical travel benefits in 20232024 when we anticipate spending probably even more than $24 million. How does that work? Like, why wouldn't we just actually budget the expected amount and show a deficit maybe back on the revenue side or something. I just don't understand how we you know, we spend $24 million, but we're only budgeting 19 for this year when we know we're actually going to spend more. I just don't understand how that budgeting works. Thanks, Madam Chair.
