Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Finance Minister provided some information to the public and to us in the House about increases to the budget. In one of the lines, it says that we will increase the budget for homecare for $2.5 million. Through the whole process, we started at $1.5 million, so can the Minister of Health and Social Services please advise this House what this extra $1 million amount is going to be allocated for in homecare? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the budget stands today, there is $7.954 million in the budget for homecare as part of our core services. This $2.5 million is going to increase that $7.954 million to $10.454 million. Mr. Speaker, there is also $5.358 million that comes from the federal government to provide home and community supports to Indigenous people throughout the Northwest Territories. It's our understanding that the federal government is considering modifying their formula on how those dollars are distributed throughout the Northwest Territories, not decreasing the amount but modifying their formula, which could result in some of our regions receiving less money for homecare than they currently do as the federal money changes.
We want to make sure that we are working with our communities so that we do not go backwards in services, so some of those dollars are intended to help us make sure that some of our regions do not have reduced homecare services as a result of the potential change in the federal formula. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. That was good to hear. With this new money, will this money be put out April 1st, and are we ready to go?
During our decisions with Committee of the Whole, I was very clear that we have a significant amount of work to still do. In fact, we talked about the continuing care plan, which is basically going to include our homecare services. I committed to moving that work along as quickly as I could, and, should we reach a point where we are actually ahead of schedule, I indicated that I would be happy to move forward for a supplementary to start rolling out some of these changes. This addition means, basically, I wouldn't have to come forward for a supplementary.
I do believe there are things we can do right away. One of the things we are doing right away is looking at what baseline home support services are needed by every community in the Northwest Territories. Once that work is done, we can start moving forward. So, there is still some planning to do, but I am confident we will be able to use this money to benefit residents of the Northwest Territories.
I appreciate the Minister's answer and look forward to hopefully implementing this. However, as we are talking about the plans, it can be a long process. What will happen if this government does not utilize all of this money? Where does this money go?
As with all program lines, if the dollars are not fully expended, they go back to general revenues.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
