Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that coming from the Minister. Can the Minister share the engagement schedule with me and any other pertinent details around these consultations with staff. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Range Lake. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As I mentioned, I would follow up back with NTHSSA, and I will follow up to see what their engagement is with the staff and how that's taking place. And I have no problem sharing that with Members, and I think it's an important piece. Like, we've heard it many, many times on the floor of this House is that our staff need to be heard, and so we'll make sure there is some kind of documentation on how that is being done, and so we can share that with Members. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of health. Any questions, more questions? Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's actually just a question of clarification. I have some questions about the midwifery program. I'm just wondering where we can actually find that on these pages because it's not specifically listed.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that one position, which is the one that sits within the department, is here because there was the specialist midwifery position that sits within the administrative and support services, and then the others fall under programs. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister of health. Member for Frame Lake, do you have a supplementary?
Yes, Madam Chair. Thank you. Okay, so considering there's a position here, I may as well just ask the question.
I understand that there's a certain amount of reduction being done to this program in this budget, and I'm just looking for some clarification. It looks like there's $315,000 adjustment. You know, this is something that MLAs fought for hard during the last budget negotiations. So can the Minister just clarify to us, and for the public, what exactly is happening here. Is this like a -- are they bringing the cut back, or what -- how can they explain this? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So because the decision and everything happened partway through the year, I think there is -- the numbers in here, it's more of an accounting thing. The initial reduction was, I believe, around $900,000, and that included 3.75 midwives, plus the position -- the specialist position in the department and the position of the territorial manager in NTHSSA. Those two positions were kept -- or negotiated back and came through a supplementary appropriation. So the money and for the remainder of the positions that are showing that are going down are just -- the funding was in the budgets, I think, until this fiscal year and so this is just accounting for those positions, those 3.75 positions that were still being removed at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And so could the Minister just describe for us, and for the public, what's being done with midwifery; what is the plan going forward so the public can have some reassurance that the department's still working on developing this program. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the midwifery program is still continuing in Fort Smith and continuing in Hay River. There's been no change to those programs. They still, however, struggle to staff those positions and the territorial manager and the specialist positions that were negotiated back was to be able to work on how -- you know, what is midwifery going to -- like, coming up with a plan on what midwifery can look like in the Northwest Territories and what it -- I guess and how we roll that out and how can we roll that out and what is the cost going to be. So those are the things that those two positions that were put back in to continue to try and to support that work to move forward, you know, in the future. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Frame Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair -- or sorry, my apologies. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a force of habit there. No, I'm okay for now. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for YK North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My first question is simple. Under active positions, we've got an increase in one extra position in headquarters from 76 to 77. Can the Minister confirm what that extra position is. Is that the Tlicho cultural coordinator mentioned on the previous page, or is that a different new position?
Thank you. Minister of health.
It's moving the midwife position back into this, so that specialist midwife position. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for YK North.
Okay, thank you for that clarification. My next question is a bit broad. But I'm wondering if the work of the public administrator to review, you know, health care, you know, funding, and to try to figure out how we can right fund the health system, does that include examination of HSS work? I know that the public administrator has a mandate to oversee the health authority, the NTHSSA, but can they also look at -- obviously the health authority interacts with the department. And is there any authority there to make recommendations to the department on what could be done differently or more efficiently within the department? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The PA, as it -- as standalone does not have the authority to look into the department, but the direction to the PA is to work directly with the deputy minister. And I think the other piece is to work directly with the health sustainability unit. So within all three of those pieces moving forward is how all of them are collaborating together on those -- like, to be able to ensure that, you know, that there's no duplication of services, that, you know, the -- where our programs are and the money that we're allocating to those programs and services, you know, within the whole of the health portfolio. I think one cannot work without the other because it's kind of like they're family, so they have to work together. And so that is the direction, and that is part of the mandate to the -- that the PA has to be working alongside those other two areas. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair. And so that is good to hear. And can the Minister also confirm that health care system sustainability unit also has the mandate to look into what HSS is doing and provide feedback there. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of health.
Yes, Madam Chair, the health sustainability unit is taking -- I mean, they have to analyze the entire system and that's where -- we cannot just analyze pieces of it. And if we continue to analyze pieces of it, then, you know, we don't know how those pieces are working together. So, yes, the health sustainability is -- and the deputy minister and her department and the PA have been directed to work, you know, all together so that way the whole system is being analyzed. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That is good to hear. It's good to confirm.
We've heard that part of the business plans and priorities in this area is reviewing medical travel. First, is that part of the work under this area, administrative and support services, or should I leave questions about the medical travel review until we're actually looking at line items, say, within the health authority around medical travel? Can I just confirm that I can ask questions about the review process with this page that we're reviewing now?
Thank you. Minister of health.
That would be best left for the sup health benefits section. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Okay, thank you. I will postpone those questions until we're looking at supplementary health benefits. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. And next I have Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my questions are around compensation and benefits, and I could just be confused. It's possible. But given that we had an increase in our union contract but looking at this activity and all the activities throughout, I do notice that the main estimates are lower in each case than the revised estimates for 2024-2025. I'm just wondering if I'm missing anything there, Madam Chair; if there's positions that are no longer there or if we've gotten rid of positions that were no longer filled. If I can get some kind of an explanation on that. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of health.
I can pass it on to the ADM.
Thank you. Ms. Mathison.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the explanation there is that -- and just to confirm that, yes, throughout all of these activities there are increases related to the collective agreement because we have staff represented in all of these activities. And so what happened in 2024-2025 -- and you'll see there's change from the opening main estimates to the revised main estimates. In the revised main estimates is where, you know, the results of the negotiations are actually shown for the 2024-2025 year, and in some cases there because we were playing a little bit of catch-up and there was some retro that had to be given because of the delay in the negotiations, so that's why in some cases the numbers are higher there, and then they fall back to what the regular increase on an annual basis going forward would be in the 2025-2026 year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, ADM Mathison. Member for Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I did note in some of them, we're not to those activities but I did note in some it's still -- the compensation and benefits main estimates for 2025-2026 are still, in some cases, lower than they were in 2023-2024 as well as lower obviously than they are in the revised estimates, and that's what's kind of -- kind of caught my attention as I went through. So just wondering. So then to be clear, I guess, it wasn't -- it was the result of retro pay for the revised estimates, but was there any positions or unfilled positions that were removed in the department? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of health.
I will pass that on to ADM Mathison to try to explain.
Thank you. ADM Mathison.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And the explanation for that will be different depending on what activity we're in. But in this specific activity under the line compensation and benefits, so the change where you can see that it's going down from -- it's going from 11,616 to 12,536 and then down to 12,142, so the reason why it's going down from 11,616 to 12,142 is because we had time limited funding for a position for the Office of the Public Guardian that is coming out of there, and then it's offset by an increase related to the collective agreement bargaining. So that's then bringing it back up again. So that's the explanation for the change there. So the -- it's the position coming out -- the funding for the position coming out, offset by the retroactive -- or the collective bargaining funding going back in. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for that. And, yes, and I realize we're on this key activity. I'll hold my questions on the compensation and benefits until we get through the other activities, and now I've given them lots of time to prepare that answer as well. Nothing further, Madam Chair.
No further questions. Please turn to page 200. Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $69,306,000. Does the committee agree?
