Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the fact that DIAND owes this government approximately $100 million. That money could go a long way to fulfilling some of the needs that our Finance Minister’s often described, as our expenditures are certainly…. We’re not able to keep pace with them.
This is a problem that goes to the highest office of this Assembly. And I’d prefer it not be pawned off to a particular Minister.
I’d like to know what the deputy minister, who would be well-informed on this file, is doing to help play a role and to help negotiate these dollars to be returned to the Northwest Territories, so we can use them properly.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Would you clarify for the record who your question’s addressed to?
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. That’s a problem of not getting any sleep. I meant to say the Deputy Premier. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. While I have some familiarity with the file, this is an issue that’s clearly within the mandate of the Minister of Health and Social Services. I will ask her to respond.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to advise the Member that I do agree with him in his Member’s statement.
Obviously, this is a big issue for us. They’re having progressive actions taken. As I indicated earlier in the session in answering Mr. Abernethy’s question on the same topic, the Premier has raised this issue repeatedly with the Prime Minister as well as the Minister of DIAND.
We, at the Department of Health, have communicated with the Minister of DIAND, asking for renegotiations. And we were actively negotiating right up to March 31, when we signed the most recent agreement. I’ve also indicated that I’m in the process of trying to get a direct meeting with Minister Clement so we could look at ways to renegotiate this agreement.
Remember, this is not just a situation of where the NWT is paying the bills — where we send the bill to the federal government, and they’re not paying that. That’s not the case at all, Mr. Speaker.
We have an agreement in place, which has a 2 per cent gap. The cost is rising at 5 per cent. We have about a 3 per cent gap we need to address. I and the whole Cabinet and Premier are looking at all possible options to push this file forward as quickly as possible and as strongly as possible.
It’s really nice to hear all possible options are being moved forward to fight this issue, because this is the same Minister it had taken over eight weeks to find out how much that file is. It was a simple question at the time, which was how much money is outstanding to the government.
Mr. Speaker, the Finance Minister has talked many times to the fact that we’re broke or our revenues aren’t keeping up to pace with our expenditures. I would think that the Minister would be phoning DIAND every day. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House: when was the last time this issue was brought up, and what is the response from that Minister who is responsible for this money that should be paid back to the GNWT?
For the record, I should state that when the Member asked about this question, we were actively negotiating this situation, and I had indicated this to the Member. The Member was not clear about whether he was asking questions on DIAND’s funding gap, and I had three questions I had to clarify.
Mr. Speaker, I could advise you that the former Minister of Health and Social Services wrote to the DIAND Minister on June of 2007. We again wrote in October of 2007. In early November 2007, the Premier talked to Minister Strahl about this issue when he met, and I believe when the Prime Minister was in Yellowknife that issue was discussed. I have written to Minister of DIAND Chuck Strahl to renegotiate this situation, as well as to Minister Clement, looking for a meeting. I’m hoping we can meet in person before September at the Health Ministers’ meeting in Quebec, if we don’t get the meeting by then. I hope to be talking to him in person then.
I’ve just heard a perfect explanation of nothing-itis. I mean, it’s a lot of talk, but no results on this file. If somebody owed me this type of money — and I’m not saying $100 million — I’d be calling every day. The fact is, it has been over nine years that this file continues to be a problem.
What message does Cabinet need to get through their head? The fact is: stop providing the services they refuse to pay for. Has the Department of Health ever taken a serious look at this file by saying maybe we should stop providing these services; get DIAND to provide the services, and the territorial government will subsidize the additional benefits. It would be a lot cheaper.
I can tell you that when I was on the other side, I was always looking for a silver-bullet solution. But when you are Minister of Health and Social Services, it would not be wise to stop providing health and hospital and medical services to Indian and Inuit people of the Northwest Territories. I’ve been saying this; I think Members should be very clear that this is not an account receivable with $96 million written on it that we can post to Ottawa and send a collection agency after them. If that were the case, we would have done that. I think it’s really important that all the people out there also understand this issue.
We have an agreement in place that was signed back in 1999, following the health transfer from the federal government, where a cap was placed. We have not been able to renegotiate this. We are trying to do this. Part of the situation, also, is that there is a different understanding between the federal government and us. The federal government believes they are paying this cost through their transfer money, and we want to make a different case on that. The only way to do that is to renegotiate. It’s just not about sending a collection agency after them, as we would an invoice outstanding for $96 million.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, maybe sending a collection agency would be much wiser. I mean, it’s $100 million. Does no one get this? We’re short $135 million. The Minister’s been in the ministerial office almost eight months, and all I’ve heard is nothing. We need some action on this. What about the serious result of stopping defending the federal government, and what about taking on the role you proclaim you’re in charge of and you’ve always fought for? So where are those results? Show the House this.
I don’t think it would be wise for me to reread what I’ve read, so let me just state again that the government considers this a very serious issue. We are looking at all options to see how we could reopen this agreement, so we can get the escalator at 2 per cent raised. I have discussed these…. We have to work with the Dene Nation leader, as well as all aboriginal leaders in the North. They have indicated their interest in working with us. This will be front and centre as we move forward to get a better agreement and reopen the agreement to start with, so we can change that escalator provision.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
