Ng: GN will cover $20 million in health board deficits

SEAN McKIBBON

IQALUIT — Close to $20 million in deficits estimated to be accumulated by Nunavut’s three health boards will be paid down with money the government has saved in other areas, Nunavut Finance Minister Kelvin Ng told Nunatsiaq News this week.

“We recognized this was a problem obviously early enough to account for it in the budget last April. We’re probably looking at a surplus this year,” Ng said.

Last week, while speaking to CBC about a premier’s conference in Quebec City on national health care funding issues, Premier Paul Okalik said that Nunavut’s health and social services boards have accumulated deficits of $20 million.

In the past comments, from Health Minister Ed Picco had listed the deficits at only $15 million.

The accumulated health board deficits left over from the 1998-1999 fiscal year amount to about $8.9 million, while the three health boards are estimated to have rung up a total short fall in 1999-2000 of $9-$10 million, Ng said this week.

“Of course we won’t have the final numbers until March,” Ng said.

Health Minister Ed Picco said the Nunavut health department itself would try to contribute to the cause of paying down the health board deficits.

“Any surplus that’s identified in my department will go directly onto any shortfall,” Picco said.

Unpredictable factors

Picco said health boards across Canada are now underfunded and that it is not uncommon for them to have deficits because of unpredictable factors, such as the propane gas explosion emergency in Pond Inlet last November that killed two men and injured another.

The Nunavut finance department is reviewing spending by the health boards to determine whether the deficits are a result of the government not giving the health boards enough money, or because the boards have been spending more than they need to, Ng said.

“There’s not been frivolous spending in the health boards,” said Picco. The focus of the analysis has instead been on achieving economies of scale and eliminating duplication by the health boards, Picco said.

Ng said the health department gave the health boards an advance of about $5 million around Christmas to cover off the remaining portions of deficits accumulated from the 1998-1999 fiscal year. Once the health boards are absorbed by the health department, the territory will assume their liabilities and pay for deficits accumulated in 1999-2000.

Nunavut’s three health boards will dissolve as of April 1 this year.

More accurate forecasting

Ng said there will be an attempt in the future to create more accurate projections for Nunavut health care spending in an effort to avoid perennial health care deficit announcements.

Picco said that because spending would all be handled directly by the Health Department, this would allow for more up-to date reporting of expenditures and allow for better projections in the future.

“That money will be transferred from unexpended funds from other areas of the government,” said Ng. He said wiping out the deficits with the unspent money would have no effect on government services or spending.

Okalik said much of the money that had been saved by the territory in 1999-2000 was money that had been earmarked for government employees who haven’t been hired yet.

“We’re not yet at full staffing,” Okalik said.

More money from Ottawa?

But the premier also said there are ongoing health care costs the territorial government faces that cannot be paid for with a one-time windfall, and can only be paid for with increased federal funding.

“We’re trying to find savings to put as many resources back into health care as we can. We’re going to be saving money by dissolving the health boards, but that won’t be enough,” said Okalik.

Last week, he and 11 other Canadian premiers signed a letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien asking the federal government to restore the money it gives to the provinces and territories for health and social services— the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST)— to pre-1994-1995 levels.

The federal government placed a cap on the money it give to provinces in 1995, Okalik said.

Picco said that it was after the government started making cuts to the CHST that health care across Canada really began to deteriorate.

He said that the demand from the premiers was encouraging, because it showed there is political will in the country to have Ottawa spend more money on health care.

He said, however, that a restoration of the CHST would only amount to about $2 million for Nunavut, or about 2 per cent of Nunavut’s approximately $115 million health care budget.

“We won’t look a gift horse in the mouth though,” Picco said. “Any more money would be welcomed with open arms.”