Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Monday the Minister, in response to some questions that I had for her, was using the deficit as the reason why the respite care funding cut was made. Mr. Speaker, this is a very poor excuse, as I mentioned in my statement. Nothing’s been done to address the root cause of these growing deficits in the seven years that I’ve been here, and certainly in the past three years that the Minister has been at the helm. I know in response to questions my colleague Mr. Abernethy had, the Minister said that moving forward we’re going to work out some details on getting the $250,000 reinstated and trying to find a way forward to fund the program and the details would be coming. But, Mr. Speaker, my question for the Minister is: How are we supposed to believe that when where were the details when it came to the funding cut? Mr. Speaker, we just had business plans and the Minister didn’t mention anything to us about a funding cut to the respite care program. Thank you. Where were the details then?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if I can convince him that the wall behind you is grey, I don’t think any information I give him can convince him of anything, but let me say, and like I said today, and I’ve given a lot of information already, Mr. Speaker. We have had a two-track process when it comes to the respite care program. We’ve had a pilot project in YACL for Yellowknife only. We’ve had a three-year pilot project outside of Yellowknife. I am suggesting that it is time now for us to look a territorial respite care program. We have heard from families in Yellowknife who are saying that those programs are valuable and essential to their children’s well-being, as well as their families’ well-being and we have never questioned that. We support respite care for the families.
At the same time we have a lot of families in many different communities outside of Yellowknife with much less facilities and programming than Yellowknife, who are taking care of their families with limited resources. So we, as a government, are going to re-evaluate that program and we are going to come to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. That is the regular process and we are going to present a territorial respite care program. So it’s not about $250,000 and it’s not about black and white simplistic answers. I am announcing today, and if the Member wants to receive that, it’s up to him. We are working on a territorial respite care program. That’s the way to go and I’m committed to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I certainly don’t need to be convinced of the value of respite care, whether it’s here in Yellowknife or any of our communities, and I think that’s a step in the right direction that the government is going towards.
Again, I’m having trouble understanding how it is the Minister could go through the business planning process and not advise the Standing Committee on Social Programs that this funding cut was coming. Again, where were the details then? She says she’s coming forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs with details on this new program. Eighteen months ago when I spoke about it, when I spoke about it in my statement, the same Minister came before the Standing Committee on Social Programs with a deficit-fighting plan; a nice, glossy plan. It never saw the light of day, Mr. Speaker. So how we are we supposed to believe the Minister that this will actually happen? Thank you.
I don’t think this is a question of lack of detail. I think that I can explain the details. I don’t even know if I have enough time, Mr. Speaker. I have said it’s already been said that THAF was until 2009-10. We were able, and we were lucky, to get an extension of two years. The budget for 2009-2010 does not include THSSI funding. This is why it’s not called THSSI instead of THAF, and I keep telling the Member and he doesn’t want to believe me. He says there’s a lack of detail. He’s not accepting the answers. We just approved a supplementary appropriation approving THSSI, so we have a different internal kind of budgeting processing going on here. We approved money for a respite care program outside of Yellowknife through the main budget and we approved THSSI and THAF funding under supplementary appropriations. Mr. Speaker, if he wants any more details on how we fund respite care program, I’d be happy to provide that, but just because he doesn’t agree with it, it doesn’t mean that the details are not there. Thank you.
Again, I appreciate the Minister’s response, but the Minister has been very evasive when it comes to actually answering questions about this funding cut. She won’t tell us who ultimately made the decision to cut the $250,000 or where the $250,000 is going and what it’s going to be spent on. Mr. Speaker, again, it’s a fairly straightforward question. Who is responsible for cutting the $250,000 out of the budget? Thank you.
With all due respect, that’s a really irrelevant question. I am Minister of Health and Social Services. Whether I am involved directly or not, I am responsible for whatever happens in health and social services. That’s the very reason why he asks me questions and it’s my job to answer them. So what’s the relevance of who cut it? What we know is the respite care program is important. I’m presenting to the Member that we want to go forward on this. The funding under THAF is sunsetted. It doesn’t show up in future budgets. We were able to get extra money from the federal government, so we are putting it back in under supplementary appropriation. We use approved funding for 2010-2011 under a supplementary appropriation and the Member knows, and everybody here knows, that we fund various programs under 2010-2011 and we will go through the same process for 2011-2012. So that’s a very esoteric internal budgeting process. Mr. Speaker, the Member also knows that we talked together and agreed on budget items as well.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is the same Minister that on Monday, in response to a question that I had, she said we are not able to expand any programs. The respite care program was a pilot project and was time limited.
Mr. Speaker, again, I want to ask the Minister whether or not she herself knew that this was a proposed funding cut and when she found out about that cut. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, on Monday I said that because, as the Member knows, the funding has sunsetted. It’s not in the books. It’s not there. THAF funding ended as of ’09-10.
We got extra money for two years for ’10-11 and ’11-12. We did planning for 2010-2011 through supplementary appropriation. The budget for 2011-12 has not been before this House. For the information of the public and everybody, when we go through the budgeting process, we work closely with the communities.
So, Mr. Speaker, I said what the Member said I said and those are accurate. The money has sunsetted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
