Here's what we know (and don't know) about N.W.T.'s new health superboard

You wouldn't have noticed it in the waiting room, butAug. 1 was a big day behind the scenes for the N.W.T.'s health and social services system.

Authorities covering six different regions of the territory joined forces and became one larger body: the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority.

(Inaddition to the six authorities that have now merged, there is also theTlichoCommunity Services Agency and the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority which remainin place.)

The mergeris meant to streamline how health care is carried out throughout the territory, potentially save money over time (thanks to procurement happening under one roof)and avoid what happened before the merger: having policies on services such as medevac and medical travel carried out eight different ways.

The much-neededstreamlining wasfunded by the federal government to the tune of around $8.4 million over the last three years.

But how is the new system going to work? How many people will play a hand in informing health policy?And just how will decisions be made about how people receive health care?

How the system worked before

In the beginning, there were eight health and social services authorities, each often working independently of each other, prompting Health Minister Glen Abernethy to dub them "silos."

In additionto the Hay River and Tlicho authorities, there were authorities for the Beaufort Delta, Sahtu, Dehcho, Fort Smith and Yellowknife regions, plus one for Stanton Territorial Hospital, which treats people from throughout the territory and western Nunavut.

Each of those authorities was either run by aboard of managementor a one-person public administrator (as remains the case in Hay River).

But while the heads of those eight authorities did meet at the prompting of the sitting health minister under what was called theJoint Leadership Committee, they were not legally required to do so.

As Sue Cullen, the CEO of the new superboard, put it, they essentially met "out of goodwill."

And they didn't always agree.

Abernethy says that under the old system, one authority could essentially ignore the wishes of the Joint Leadership Council and just do what it wanted.

The new system

A bill passed last year in the legislative assemblynow requires the heads of thesuperboard to meet at least once in public every year, though Abernethy was keen to stress that "it doesn't mean we can't have more than one meeting" a year (public and non-public).

The members of what's called the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Leadership Council run the superboard.

That council is made up of nine people:

• the chair, Jim Antoine, who once managed the old Dehcho health authority
• the chairs of six regional wellness councils representingthe Hay River (including the K'atl'odeeche reserve), Fort Smith, Sahtu, Dehcho, Beaufort Delta and Yellowknife regions
• the chair of the Tlicho agency
• the deputy minister of Health, Debbie Delancey

Cullen, the CEO for the superboard, will report to the leadership council.

Six chief operating officers as well as other superboard executives, such as the person in charge of running the medevac programwill in turn report to Cullen.

The regional wellness councils

The regional wellness councils are each made up of seven people, including a chair, who will bring the views of the wellness councils to the decision-making leadership council.

Some wellness council members nominated themselves, while some were appointed by the government. The launch of the superboard was partly delayed by several months because of the difficulty in finding people to sit on these councils.

What's their job? To provide a regular person/end user's view of the health care system.

"They live in our communities and they know our people," said Abernethy.

Wellness council members will be paid honorariums based on their attendance at meetings.

Health policy via consensus?

The big question facing the leadership council is how it will make decisions about health and social services policy, especially with more than 40people talking into its ear.

The answer depends on who you ask.

When asked whether the leadership council would decide matters by vote, Cullen nodded affirmatively, Antoine said he'd like decisions to be made "by consensus as much as possible" while Abernethy diplomatically cut in that the process has yet to be ironed out.

"Give them some time," said Abernethy.

The leadership council had its first planning meeting on Friday.

The date of itsfirst and public meeting has yet to be announced.