EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Under Directorate in the business plan, it’s on page H-14, where you’ll see there’s an increase of $2.4 million for ADM Programs and Standards.
That’s what I was looking for with that.
I am going to ask Alex to go through that change.
The increase to the ADM Programs and Standards are as a result of realigning the responsibilities for the department.
Previously, the ADM of Corporate Services only had two divisions reporting to that position, which was Finance and HR. We have realigned the department where now the ADM of Programs and Services is responsible for other program standards divisions like the Public Health Division, as well as the Mental Health Division, Social Services and the like.
So we’re realigning the department to have more of a balance through the two ADMs. The ADM of Operations, who is going to be responsible for more of the operational arm of the department, including the three regional centres as well as the regional offices, and $2.4 million of that funding is to implement the Public Health Strategy as well.
I would like to thank Mr. Campbell for that response.
There is a whole Public Health Division in the department, and I know that one of the things that have been mentioned by the minister in the past is that this whole Public Health Strategy is there and there is all this money for it. However, in that actual area in the budget there are only a couple of areas where there are increases.
Maybe if we could get an explanation as to why that $2.4 million is being put in there and not into the Public Health Division in the budget.
I’ll ask the ADM, Raj, to answer that.
Ms. Downe.
Ms. Downe: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The $2.4 million of that is currently just parked in the ADM of Programs and Standards and as we start implementing the Public Health Strategy, that funding would be moved into the Public Health Branch of the department.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Downe.
Thanks for that response. I know in the Public Health Division there are: health promotion, information research, the TB program, health protection, environmental health, communicable disease control, and the Chief Medical Officer of Health, along with nutrition.
I’m just wondering if the minister or her officials could indicate which areas they’re looking at and then how much they’re looking at targeting towards each of those areas out of that $2.4 million.
I’ll ask the assistant deputy minister to provide the breakdown of the $2.4 million.
The $2.4 million is divided; as the strategy gets implemented, we will be using $50,000 for each community for strengthening the community in helping them develop the Community Wellness Program.
We will be providing greater support to the Community of Health Committees for their travel and help support them to manage the start of their committee for another $210,000.
We are going to have Community Staff Development Officers for a total of $600,000, again, to support the Communities of Council, and we are going to establish an Epidemiologist Program, which is a total of $120,000.
Thanks for that response. I’m just wondering, under Directorate and under the Grants and Contributions, I believe there’s $200,000 in there for those Communities of Council.
Based on what was just mentioned, will that amount be doubling another $210,000 or is that per community? Can I just get clarification? I heard $50,000 a community and then I heard $210,000, so I just want to get clarification there.
As it is right now, the Health Committees in the communities receive $2,000 annually to operate.
Under the Public Health Strategy, there are a number of initiatives in there that recommend the development of community-based wellness initiatives and there other recommendations in the Public Health Strategy for initiatives that we’re looking at implementing in keeping people well.
So the investment is to strengthen the role of Health Committees at the community level.
We’re looking at approximately $50,000 per community to develop those wellness plans that are based on community needs and community identification.
And, if Alex wants to… I think that answers the question.
I would just like to ask the minister or her officials when the communities will be able to start seeing that funding flow for those purposes.
The implementation plan for the Public Health Strategy is in the works. We’re hoping, shortly after the main estimates are approved in this House, we will be able to start going into the communities to develop those community-based plans and the training, and so on.
Again, I just want to go back and get a clarification. Mr. Campbell had indicated earlier that the increase was partially due to the realignment of the department.
I’m just wondering if they could indicate if they have taken some of the responsibilities that were part of Corporate Services and moved them into that particular area, and if so, how much, if there’s a dollar figure, was transferred over out of Corporate Services?
I’ll have Raj respond to that.
This year, we have had a major realignment of the various branches. As far as Public Health is concerned, we did not make a lot of changes to that.
We are just in the process of getting that $2.4 million to the whole strategy; to the whole public health area.
Yes, the $2.4 million is new money; it’s not from an existing budget.
I thought I heard Mr. Campbell say earlier that as part of the realignment, they took some of the responsibilities out of Corporate Services and moved them into that area.
Could I get confirmation if that was, in fact, a correct understanding or not, and as a result of those transferred responsibilities, how much money went along with that?
I’ll have the deputy minister speak to the reorganization of the department.
Mr. Campbell (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (interpretation ends) Just to clarify, the department went through reorganization at the program level last summer.
The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs and Standards now has Mental Health as part of her portfolio, Population Health, Social Programs, such as the Director of Social Programs reporting to her, and we also have Professional Practice now reporting to her.
Reporting directly to me are the two ADMs, along with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Director of Medical Services, and the Director of Policy, Planning and Evaluation. As well, I have the Executive Director of Corporate Services reporting to the deputy minister.
Included in that Corporate Services section now is Health Information, which is the IT component of our department, Human Resources, as well as Finance; whatever was left over from the transfer to the Department of Finance, which is the processing unit that went across.
We still have the Director of Finance, the Budget Officer, the Finance Officer, and a few other staff who are at headquarters as well as the regional centres.
We do have the Assistant Deputy Minister of Operations who is responsible for the territorial pharmacy issues, the hospital here in Iqaluit, as well as the three regional centres and having three executive directors reporting to him directly.
In that process, we have made some adjustment in the budget for 2008-09, which is now reflective of some of those changes that we’re making as our recommendations to the Committee of the Whole.
Regarding the specific transfers of how much; as we work through the exercise, then we can explain the individual as what we have been trying to do just to clarify some of those transfers here and there.
As a department, we try to identify those areas that were controllable issues that we have been transferring.
Like, if we needed extra money in certain areas, we looked at some of the controllable expenses like travel expenses, excluding medical travel, material purchases and stuff like that.
We tried to zero in on those kinds of budgetary issues when we were trying to reallocate the budget in the department.
So that’s what we have tried to do, Mr. Chairman.
Another area that has about a $4 million increase is Corporate Services. I’m just wondering if I could get an explanation as to why that’s increased by $4 million given the fact that the 20 of the Corporate Services were all of the finance positions that were transferred from the Department of Health out of Corporate Services, and I think it was about $1.3 million that was transferred out of Health over to the Department of Finance.
I’m just wondering what the significant increase is there given that 20 of the PYs that were in that division before have been transferred over to the Department of Finance.
I will ask Raj to answer that.
The Corporate Services section was reorganized and that includes all the kinds of corporate services’ functions in that area, which includes Human Resources, Health Information, which is IT, and then the leftover of the finance section.
I’m just wondering if those other two areas, Health Information and Human Resources, were included under Corporate Services in the previous year.
I will ask the deputy minister to answer that.
As I indicated earlier, the Assistant Deputy Minister of Corporate Services had two programs reporting to that previously which were Human Resources as well as the IT function of the department.
What we have done now is we have reallocated the workload across the department and we’re trying to realign the program responsibilities to the proper branches.
We do have the Executive Director of Corporate Services that, like I have said, now is responsible for HR, is responsible for the finance section, and is responsible for the IT unit of the department. Before this it was called the Regional Corporate Operations.
Never mind the little semantics in the name change, I guess what you said is Regional Corporate Operations, I believe, is the term you used. Is that basically what happened; the name was changed and it’s just called Corporate Services now? Was I correct in hearing that?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I will ask the deputy minister to respond to that.
I don’t have the old organization structure here, so I’ll just qualify my answer by saying what we’re proposing now is a reorganization of the department to include an ADM now responsible for Operations and an ADM responsible for Programming Standards.
I have the Executive Director of Corporate Services now responsible for Finance, HR, and IT.
I’ll get back to the member on specifically what the structure was for the reorganization.
In the business plan under Corporate Services, it’s on H-15 in our version, it might be one or two pages off in their version, it said that problems in the past, but it’s showing for the previous year, for the 2007-08 year, it was $13,753,000, so they get that increase of $4 million going to the $17.6 million.
That $13 million that was there in last year’s amount that’s showing in there, did that include those 20 PYs that were transferred over to the Department of Finance?
I don’t know if that $13 million there includes the positions that transferred over to Finance.
If I remember correctly, the Supplementary Bill was introduced I think it was in June transferring the money.
So in the old business plan, we would report the old figure that had originally been approved.
So I’ll just have to clarify and get that, and Kevin, if you’re listening here, perhaps, he can go and find that information out whether, in the main estimates, it shows as before the transfer took place of our PYs to Finance.
I think it saves someone a trip; I think it was in the fall of 2007 there was $1,360,000 that was transferred over.
So actually, if the minister has indicated that the number in the business plan for last year would not have taken that into account, so there was actually a little over $5 million increase to Corporate Services if you take that into account.
I’m just wondering if I could get a breakdown of what that $5.36 million, roughly, was actually for.
In terms of the business plan for 2007-08, I’ll find out in the report whether that’s included or not and then report back, and I think he has the figures before him anyway.
Just a point of clarification before I go and work through the changes within the Directorate, is the member asking for the breakdown of the Corporate Services Division and all of the changes, or is the member asking questions related to all of the changes within the Directorate as per H-4 as outlined in those line items before us?
I wasn’t asking for H-4; it was just specifically dealing with Corporate Services.
I’m positive, if you look at the actual main estimates that we have before us now, it shows a Total Operations and Maintenance, to be Voted, for the 2007-08 year was $17,494,000 and that’s the Total Directorate amount in the business plan for 2007-08.
So the revised amount has changed from that, so I would assume that it doesn’t take into consideration the $1.3 million that was transferred over to Finance.
What I’m looking for then is, basically, there is a little over $5 million increase in Corporate Services and that’s what I’m looking for a breakdown on.
I’m just trying to work my way through here, going back and forth in the line items, if you can just bear with me.
The $24,175,000 is the revised amount for the Directorate from last year.
Last year it was $17,494,000 before the restructuring within the department. The changes overall in the department were outlined by the deputy minister as to what transferred to the Directorate within the restructuring of that. Some of that includes new money such as the $2.4 million for the Public Health Strategy.
I don’t believe any other new money that was approved, or that is before the committee now, falls under that. So I can say $2.4 million will fall into that.
Under HR, the breakdown by division, I’m going to outline it by compensation, grants, and travel, and so on. From last year, I believe there is a difference with PYs being allocated.
I’ll just get the DM to walk through what positions transferred to that division, which includes PYs as well as O&M required to operate those programs.
In the difference on Compensation and Benefits, I’ll just rattle off some of the numbers that were affected here.
In the Public Health Initiatives, we added three PYs to the ADM of Programs and Standards totalling $360,000.
In the reallocation of the funding, we used the following: we added one position to the deputy minister’s office at $103,000; we deleted one position from the ADM of Operations at $99,000; we had the Nurse Recruitment and Retention Strategy that added 12 positions to Human Resources at $4,853,000; we added one position for the Executive Director in Region 2 and I believe this is Iqaluit for $100,000; we deleted one position from the Executive Director in Region 4 at $93,000, Region 4 being the Kitikmeot; we deleted one position from Corporate Services in Region 3 at $83,000, Region 3 being the Kivalliq; we added one new position to Information and Technology at $105,000; we added another position in the Women’s Initiative at $100,000; we made some pay adjustments at $84,000 that we needed to reallocate the money.
The difference between Grants and Contributions is $1.2 million. We have the Public Health Initiative included in there, the Community Public Grants that we talked about earlier, they grew to $1.2 million, which is $1,250,000, and the allocation that we’re proposing there is 25 communities at $50,000 each.
Under Other Expenses, Travel and Transportation, there’s a difference of $486,000.
What we did was we increased money for the Public Health Strategy at $210,000 and there is a reallocation of funding of $276,000.
In Materials and Supplies, there’s a difference of $52,000; we reallocated $52,000.
In Purchase Services, there’s a difference of $31,000, which is a reallocation of $31,000 in that.
In the Utilities, as you note, there’s no difference in the Utilities.
In Contract Services, there’s a difference of $142,000. We have reallocated that $142,000 in our budget.
In Fees and Payments, there’s a difference of $211,000. Again, we have reallocated $211,000 to other areas of the budget.
In Other Expenses, we have a difference of $462,000.
Again, we increased funding for Public Health at $600,000, but we reallocated some money at $1 million.
So it’s just we’re trying to balance the overall budget of the department and we went through each of these proposed allocations as I just outlined for each of the areas. That’s the specific information that the member was asking for.
I think it was in there, maybe I’ll just get a clarification again. I was looking not so much for the whole page of the Directorate on the main estimates. I was saying just what looks like about a $5.3 million increase in Corporate Services.
That’s what I was specifically asking about.
Just in the Corporate Services area where, last year, it’s showing $13,753,000, but that doesn’t take into account the $1.3 million that was transferred out after that to the Department of Finance, up to $17,660,000 in this year’s main estimates in the business plan.
Maybe if I could just get a breakdown of just specifically that area.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I’ll get Raj to respond to that.
Most of that funding is related to bringing in the Health Information System into Corporate Services.
Previously, it was allocated by itself in a separate area; I believe directly reporting to the DM. Also included there is the Regional Finance that was previously elsewhere.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Downe. (interpretation) Thank you.
Please keep in mind that when we don’t have a quorum, we can’t continue.
So if you can check the number of members before you leave the Chambers.
Our quorum is ten members and when there is less than ten, we don’t have a quorum.
Mr. Tootoo, your time is up, even though I don’t have anybody else on my list for questions.
I welcome the minister and her officials to the Committee of the Whole today.
I wanted to ask the minister some questions on the Women’s Initiatives outlined on page H-15 of the business plan. I noted that there’s an increase of $98,000 for the next fiscal year. This fiscal year the budget is $430,000 and next year it will be $528,000.
Could the minister provide some information on what the increase will be used for?
I believe that increase was an additional PY to that division.
I noted, also in that area, the line item that “Provides financial assistance to Qulliit, the Nunavut Status of Women Council” of $250,000.
Page N-VI-2 of the main estimates indicates that the funding “only permits one face-to-face meeting due to increased travel costs.” The committee may have to go back “to renegotiate its current contribution agreement with the Department of Health and Social Services or return to the Financial Management Board for supplementary appropriation at a later date.”
Can the minister indicate if she feels that, in fact, the Nunavut Status of Women Council should get more funding now rather than wait until a later date?
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can the member explain to me where the N-VI page is? I’m not sure what you’re reading.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That’s right near the back of the main estimates and it says Qulliit Status of Women Council.
It’s on page N-VI-1 and N-VI-2.
Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council; it’s an information item.
I apologize to the member for that; there’s all these new information items and annexes to our main estimates.
The $250,000 that we provide goes to Qulliit Status of Women Council operations.
That funding is not funding that goes to the shelters but rather it’s the money that’s given to the Status of Women Council Office here in Iqaluit.
Yes, I understand that the money doesn’t go to shelters; it goes to the Qulliit Status of Women. But, it seems that the increasing travel costs are chipping away at their core funding that they receive from you, and instead of being able to meet twice a year, they can only meet once a year.
I think it’s important for organizations to be able to meet with their members regularly. So if they’re reduced to one meeting a year and with the increasing costs, it’s probably inevitable that they’ll require more funding.
My question to the minister: do you not think that, perhaps, they should get more funding and get it now rather than wait until a later date when it becomes much more critical?
Yes, the travel costs in Nunavut have increased. I understand the council has held numerous teleconferences as well. Next week, the Qulliit Status of Women Council will be here to meet at their face-to-face meetings and take it from there.
If the minister could indicate: is it up to the Qulliit Status of Women Council to submit a budget to you requesting initial funding, or is it just an arbitrary funding amount that the Department of Health provides to the Qulliit Status of Women?
In terms of process, the council will come forward to the department to request for additional funding.
In that paragraph, it describes the Women’s Initiatives. There’s a description there in the Women’s Initiatives, “… offers support to women’s shelters…” Can the minister...
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: I believe the member had not completed his question.
I was in the middle of my question. I just wanted to ask the minister if she could tell us what support the Women’s Initiatives offer to the women’s shelters in Nunavut.
Hon. Leona Aglukkaq: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Women’s Secretariat, now under the Directorate, provides, first of all, a role and support to the Qulliit Status of Women Council on the advocacy group’s initiatives and priorities, and assists in working with the Qulliit Status of Women Council on various priorities that they have identified in Nunavut as being areas that we can focus on.
For instance, the Qulliit Status of Women Council, in the last few years, had been working on initiatives related to breast cancer, to homelessness, to violence against women, and women in leadership, and various projects of that nature.
Our division works with them to try and advance some of those priorities with them.
At the same time, the Women’s Secretariat, within the Department of Health and Social Services, provides the policy and administrative support to this government, as well as me, as Minister responsible for the Status of Women, on federal/provincial/territorial initiatives. For instance, in preparation for F/P/Ts, that policy person would be responsible for coordinating the Government of Nunavut’s position on various items up before agenda discussions, while organizing and participating at national conferences, such as the Aboriginal Women’s Summit that was held in Nunavut.
We participated in that in partnership with Executive and Intergovernmental Affairs and meeting with various stakeholders at the community level, it could be the shelters, it could be women’s groups in communities, on some of their issues in trying to advance those priorities at the community level.
Mr. Peterson: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the minister for that very detailed answer.
I fully support women’s initiatives and any money we can give to folks in this category would be, I’m sure, a benefit to all women in Nunavut.
On the same page, page H-15 of the business plan, under Persons with Disabilities, I was wondering why the funding level remains at the same level year after year.
I recall last year or the year before, the disabilities’ folks met with us as a group and explained that they needed more help.
I’m wondering if the minister could indicate why her department can’t give the persons with disabilities more help in their budget.
The $90,000 that you see on H-14 is funding that is transferred to Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated to fund a salary that oversees the administrative support for the People with Disabilities Working Group.
This is one area that we are looking at in examining internally in terms of how we can better manage the People with Disabilities Advocacy Group.
Because of the nature of the business, the funding, in the past, has been allocated to an outside agency as they are advocates to advance the issues of importance to people with disabilities including the government. But it is an area that we have looked at and are discussing ways of how we can better deal with that.