Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on the questions of my colleague Mr. Abernethy and direct them to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I am really confused even more so than I was prior to our statements. In an effort to bring some clarity to this issue and the funding for this program, I want to know from the Minister how we can have information from the Department of Health and Social Services which tells me that funding for this program in 2010-11 will be continued and next year into 2011-12, and that there will also be an increase in that programming. I would like to know from the Minister what is the funding in the business plan for 2011-12 for respite services. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not sure if that information is not before the House. We know -- and I want to be totally clear -- that having Yellowknife Health having advised YACL that this funding will not continue, that is public information. We need to address that, but I believe the information on business plan and the future budget issue is not something that we could discuss in detail.
For the benefit of the Members, Mr. Speaker, as I stated to MLA Abernethy, I will be coming forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs on the detailed information about THSSI and I think we will have a chance there to talk about details of the program. We are doing that by way of a supplementary appropriation by the rule of the House. I am fully planning to come forward with a proposal and get full input from the Standing Committee on Social Programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for the commitment to bring us forward a plan. That is certainly something committee has been asking for, for quite a while. But there is still a huge confusion around this issue. The Minister has been telling me, through my inquiries, that there is no change to the respite programs for the next fiscal year. Yet, Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has cut all funding for a program that presumably is continuing in 2011-12. I need to ask the Minister why am I getting different answers. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I think it would be very helpful when we have detailed discussion about THSSI funding and what is included, because we are subject to the rules and the funding that has been negotiated between the federal government and territorial government.
Like I stated before, the federal government has extended THAF as THSSI for us to transition and exit other programs. There are very, very specific criteria on how we should use that funding. So I will be bringing that forward to the standing committee. That just got finalized, the federal Minister just announced that. We’re just in the process of penning that agreement.
Mr. Speaker, on the issue of what is Yellowknife Health saying, Yellowknife Health has been in charge of administering this program and they also get money for other programs for THAF and THSSI and they have decided to engage YACL to tell them well in advance -- this is six months in advance -- YACL will have this program until the end of March. That is more notice than probably any other program such as this and we all want to work together to see what options there are.
There’s no real need to be confused or anything about that. All that information will be out there. There’s full opportunity for us to discuss. I think we will all benefit from having more information about what THSSI funding includes and what they’re proposing for us to do with it, what qualifies, what doesn’t qualify. This is very important funding for everybody. It’s important for Members and the standing committee, Yellowknife Health and the department to work together. Thank you.
I do agree with the Minister that it is important to discuss this, but I’m having a very difficult time. I believe this is a matter of poor communication or lack of communication. It would seem to me that this funding is coming from the department to the Health and Social Services Authority in Yellowknife and then to the programs that they happen to be running. I don’t understand why the specifics of the federal funding would change from the year ‘10-11 to the year ‘11-12, and that’s what I hear the Minister saying.
She also mentioned that, you know, a transitioning is not to be used for ways to extend programming. Well, if it’s a valuable program, I don’t understand, Mr. Speaker, why the Minister wouldn’t want to look at which programs are good and which are not.
In the business plans that we discussed, I would have assumed that we were discussing the budget for ‘11-12 and I would have hoped that we would have been advised about changes in programs. Why did the Minister not advise us of changes to this respite program when we discussed the business plan? Thank you.
I have to agree with the Member that all of the programs that we fund under THAF are very valuable programs and the programs that we will be funding under THSSI are valuable too, and anything that we will not be able to continue because of the criteria and lack of funds, I need to let everybody know that THSSI funding is a lot less than THAF funding. So we will be faced with discontinuing and not being able to continue on with some programs. That’s why it’s important that we find time to discuss in detail what this transition means, and I totally respect the role that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has to play. We will be faced with looking at a good program versus another good program versus another better program, and these are tough choices we need to make.
The timing of Yellowknife Health Authority’s announcement is very unfortunate because we are not able to look at the full picture, and I want to commit to the members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs that I am going to come forward with the entire picture of what the THSSI renewal looks like, what it means. All of the authorities have been asked to look at what their budgets are and how they want to and how they are dealing with this transition. We need to work together on that and we could only do it when we have a full picture. I will be coming to the Standing Committee on Social Programs as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the commitment for the full picture and I guess I have a difficult time understanding why we don’t already have the full picture when we are using some of this THSSI funding in this particular fiscal year.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister if she will commit to meet with the Yellowknife Association of Community Living to hear their concerns, to understand why it is they are so upset about the cancellation of this programming. Will she do that and when? Thank you.
Absolutely. I’d be happy to meet with the group. I was there when this respite program wasn’t there and it was one of the things that Standing Committee on Social Programs, that I used to sit on, are good for. I understand the value of this program. We have to look at this in the context of the financial pressures that we are in. I want to say again to the Members and the families and the authority and YACL and everybody out there, that I am committed to looking at everything we possibly can to see and look at all options possible. We need to work together to finance this. Thank you.
Thank you. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
