Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
In February, the federal government announced investment of $198.6 billion over ten years for provinces and territories to improve health care services for Canadians focused on shared priorities. To access this funding, the government needs to develop action plans to describe how funds will be spent and how progress will be measured. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister, to start us off with, can provide us or provide this House with an update of where this is at? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. The total increase in health spending for this year from the Government of Canada was $12 million. $12 million. Our budget in the Department of Health and Social Services is $610 million for this year. You can appreciate we were a little underwhelmed. So after being offered $7 million a year for ten years for tailored bilaterals, $2 million for the Canada health transfer one time top up for emergency room and pediatric hospitals, and $2.9 million of incremental funding for the territorial health investment fund, the Premier had started negotiations with the support of the other territorial Premiers who were in a similar disappointed position with Canada's offer to try to increase the territorial health investment fund. Unfortunately, they were not successful with that. What we did get was a tenyear agreement rather than a fiveyear agreement but we didn't end up with more money. So we are now in a position to sign the MOU. In the meantime, department staff have been working on an action plan which is due on July 1st and will be delivered by then. Thank you
Yeah, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I really feel for the Department of Health and Social Services and also for the people of the Northwest Territories for, you know, to have to take the time to do an action plan for less than probably what is forced growth for the entire Department of Health and Social Services. Seems kind of crazy that the federal government is screaming from the rooftops that they're doing all these favours for health care across the country. So I appreciate the Minister's acknowledgement that the department is doing an action plan for the federal government for this $12 million increase and that will be delivered on July 1st. But can the Minister share sorry, the specific programs that this invest into? Sorry, I'm readjusting my questions as I go here, Mr. Speaker, rather ineffectively at the moment but can the Minister speak to what programs that will be directly impacted by these dollars? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is not program specific funding. There are four areas that the tailored bilaterals cover, and the spending has to be tied to health outcomes that are measured by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. There's some work going on now trying to standardize that reporting because not all jurisdictions collect the same information, and in some cases the collecting of the information is more onerous than the value of the contribution. So there's there's some work going on in that. But generally, what I recall is there is a home and community care section, there's a mental health and substance use section, and there are two more. I'm sorry, I don't remember off the top of my head what they are. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I got them open now here of what the expectation was from the federal government. And the Minister's right, there's home care, there's improving access to mental health, there's supporting health workers and reducing backlogs, and I just don't understand the position that health is being put in by the federal government to accomplish this with a $12 million increase. And so I'm wondering when the Minister speaks to that, this is really based on outcomes, health outcomes, and that this needs to be measured and reported to the federal government, how does the federal government have expectations that there is going to actually be improved health outcomes for the territory through an investment that really is not an investment in our health care system? And so I'm wondering what how does health intend to report on these outcomes and are they selffunding for these programs as well in order to focus more dollars on these programs as dictated by the federal government. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the things that we will be doing is to minimize the amount of administration that goes with this money, since it is such a small amount, that we don't want to turn ourselves inside out for it, we already report a number of important statistics to CIHI, which are readily available to the public, on things like wait times, life expectancy, emergency room visits, and so on and so forth. So the amount of money we're receiving is going to not address any of the big problems that our health system faces but rather addresses some incremental problems. And it certainly is my intention in the time that I am in this role to continue arguing with Ottawa about the need to increase the amount of health funding that is coming to the NWT to meet our needs and make a real difference. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Minister's comments about not turning themselves inside out in order to meet the reporting requirements of this. But it seems like almost in some way, shape, or form by doing this funding agreement that the federal government is actually dictating how and where the GNWT will be spending its health care dollars in exchange for such a small portion of money for that. And so I really appreciate that the health minister is, in fact, continuing to draw more money out of the federal government. One of the things that's interesting about this and where the federal government is working hard to kind of force the hand into these four or five focused areas of priorities that it sees as all of the provinces and territories having, where is the NWT and the residents of the Northwest Territories in that conversation? And so I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to whether or not there is an intent to involve the residents of the Northwest Territories in a conversation about where they want to see health care dollars focused? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for that. Each region has a regional wellness council with seven members, and they meet every other month or four times a year, and they provide direct feedback to the leadership council of the NTHSSA on what the health needs, gaps, and priorities are in their regions. So that organization, the leadership council, meets four times a year with the chairs of each of the regional wellness councils, and I meet with them every time they meet in order to hear directly from them about what their needs and priorities are. So that's our method for staying in touch with what people expect and want from the health system. Thank you.
