Sure, thank you, Mr. Chair. There's obviously been a number of items where I've offered to return back to committee. Some will certainly take longer than others. Others I expect we can get back fairly quickly. It's been my practice, if possible, that given that they would be responses here on the floor that we would make it you know, we'll give it as a document or a letter that can be tabled in the House so that it could form part of the public record. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I do feel for the Minister because she's not responsible for Health and Social Services so perhaps when these substantiations are coming forward, Members are going to are bound to have more programspecific questions, that the responsible departments can provide a bit more detail to the Minister at the table. So they can answer these questions directly before we vote on the financial item. That's just a general comment. Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you. Continuing on. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, health and social services programs, not previously authorized $25,525,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
We're going to take a short break, and we'll be back shortly. Thank you.
SHORT RECESS
Order. We're going to continue now. We're going to resume. Anyway, I'm going to read out Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) order.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, not previously authorized $5,666,000. Is there any questions? None. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, out of the territory services, not previously authorized $16,085,000. Is there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is about the adult outofterritory supportive living services. I was wondering if the Minister could speak to whether or not that is due to increased users I suppose, or is it because of increased cost to the government from the services rendered? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So it is it is as a result of an increased overall number of days in the facilities. And so in that sense, the amount of use that is being seen that's driving up an anticipated extra expense here. Thank you.
Great Slave.
I'm sorry to ask the Minister this; I can probably look it up quickly as well. But could she please tell me how much prior to the sup in 20232024 we have spent on facilitybased addictions treatment on top of this $1.843 million?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So let me start by saying there's actually a projected shortfall of $2.843 million. Some of it is can otherwise be funded internally. The actuals are for it's for, rather, yes, the total expenses are estimated at around 4.9 or just over $4.9 million.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member of Great Slave.
Okay, thank you. I was going to back up here. I'm going to go back and read out that previous Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, long term and continuing care services, not previously authorized $5,660,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Any further comments? Continuing on.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, outofterritory services, not previously authorized $16,085,000. Does committee agree? Sorry, is there questions? Oh sorry, I'm going to go to the Member again from Great Slave. YK North, I'm sorry.
Thanks. So we're still on outofterritory services, right? Okay.
On the adult outofterritory supportive living services, can the Minister give us any insights on how much expenses have increased over the past seven, eight years, or so over time in this area?
Thank you. I'm going to go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So looking at actuals over the last several years, if you go back to sort of 20162017, they were just under or just around $19.5 million, and it varies over time year by year 21.5, 24, 26. Hitting up in the last couple of years after COVID, it significantly increased, 20222023, there were $35.2 million. 20232024, we're now projecting to get up to $42.3 million as an estimate at this point but obviously we're getting fairly close to the end of the fiscal year. In terms of, you know, if well, actually I'll stop there and let the Member ask her own questions. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.
Thank you very much. And given that expenses have increased so dramatically over the past seven, eight years from the $19.5 million to, you know, more than double that today, so just a note that I think it's worth this government revisiting some analysis around the cost and benefits of providing more interritory supportive living services for adults, both given costs but also the benefits of keeping families together, keeping people living in NWT. So just wanted to flag that as a note related to that item.
But moving on to facilitybased addictions treatment, I have a question about how does HSS enter into contracts with certain facilities. Are these multiyear contracts? Are they renegotiated every year? And, like, what criteria do we use to decide which southern facilities for addictions treatment we have contracts with on any given year?
Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so a majority of the facilities that the department's in contact with do go through the request for proposal process, so part of the public procurement process. There's certainly a mix of different types of contracts for different types of services with different agencies across the Department of Health and Social Services, but it does go through a public procurement process in general. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are these RFPs issued every single year, or how often?
Thank you. Go to Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so, I mean, there's certainly there's the specific items that are here on the supplementary appropriation request. But, yes, there's different contracts that come due at different times. So, for instance, facilitybased addictions treatment, we'll be having we'll see an RFP go out in 2024 and then for that would be expected to begin for the following fiscal year. But I know that there's a fairly lengthy list of contracts that are administered by Health and Social Services and could perhaps convey to my colleague that that information could be provided as part of an information or a bring forward request. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from YK North.
That would be great. And that is something that I will follow up with the department.
Just finally, is part of the increase in costs that have led to this supplementary request just due to is it due to increased number of people going for outofterritory facilitybased addictions treatment or just increase in the cost of sending the same number of people to those facilities?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I happen to know that the Health and Social Services has actually done a fair bit of work on this of late, and while I again not necessarily I don't have it in front of me here but I would suggest we could give that information there's a high number of firsttime users and a reducing number of repeat users. So, you know, different factors are coming in here in terms of what might be causing this particular these particular increases. There certainly is also an increase in the rates being charged for the time spent at the facilities. So between an increase in patient use and that, those are driving the costs. But, again, there's also been an analysis to show that it's not necessarily repeats. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll go to the Member of YK North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks for that. So I'll leave that for now. I think these are good areas to follow up in to follow up on both to make sure that we have appropriate contracts with the facilities in the south, that we're getting good value for money, that, you know, there's appropriate oversight, and that people are getting the services they need, and to look more into these patterns of do we have more people signing up for than before and why. Anyway, I found this useful for now and will definitely follow up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Members, before he move on to the next Speaker, I just wanted to remind everybody to wait for their mic lights before speaking and to end your statement with a thank you. This will have this will make things much easier for the technical staff and those watching on our proceedings on television.
Next I got up is the Member from the Sahtu region.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My colleague,
Yellowknife North, asked the question of how many contracts there for out of the territory treatment services. If I can get that information as well. That was my only question there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 20232024, the department had contracts with five southern facilities three in Calgary, one in Naniamo, and one in Toronto. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from the Sahtu.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, outofterritory services, not previously authorized $16,085,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Moving on. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services, supplementary health benefits, and not previously authorized $5,616,000. Is there any questions? Seeing none. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Supplementary estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Health and Social Services total department, not previously authorized $54,385,000. Is there questions? None. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Committee, we will now consider the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment on page 10.
Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 4, 20232024, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, economic diversification and business support, not previously authorized $1,308,000. Is there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from YK Centre.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the Minister can elaborate it says, for example, $308,000. Can she elaborate to what specifically that is. I mean, I can read it says NWT film and media sector, but is it to is it treated as a grant? Is it treated as to backfill something? Is it a position? Is it that type of so we'll start with that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this funding helps support the next five years of the Film and Media Strategy Action Plan from 2021 through until 2026. That action plan has a number of different initiatives designed to support both short and longterm advancement of the film and media sector, and this component I mean, it includes everything from advertising and promotion to contract and salaries, travel, and training. This is a portion that was submitted as an expression of interest to CanNor back in November of 2022, and an agreement was signed with CanNor. This is the portion for the current fiscal year. Thank you.
