SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Despite being full of promises on expansion and re-evaluation of program services, as well as updating technology around the North, the Health and Social Services Department's new strategic plan, announced on Nov. 3, makes no mention of how these advances will be funded.

Planned improvements mentioned include updating family violence outreach services; increasing funding for nutrition promotion; providing more mental health programs; expanding cancer screening capabilities and installing computed radiography readers in 18 community health centres - among other things. But where the money will come from to pay for these improvements was left unexplained.

"This is a three-year plan and there will, I'm sure, be additional resources required than what we are already spending," said Health and Social Services Minister Sandy Lee, who added that potentially things could be juggled internally to make room for what the plan promises.

Lee said the department will continue to demand the largest portion of the territorial budget - currently at $313,027,000 for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

"It's not a specific program or a specific activity, but it's helping us look at - what are the services for the territories, system-wide," said Paddy Mead, the deputy minister of Health and Social Services.

Mead said the plan, titled A Foundation for Change, looks mainly at what is currently offered and what can be done to ensure programs and services are offered in the most efficient way.

"We don't want to be pursuing programs and services that aren't doing what they're intended to do," said Shaleen Woodward, director of system reform and innovation.

In the plan, the department promises to visit every community in the NWT and consult leaders on what the communities need.

Woodward said it will be evaluating the health status of the communities and then discussing options for dealing with health challenges in each specific community.

Mead said another priority is deciding if it is more cost-effective to bring in some services full-time to the smaller communities or to continue flying patients out to a health centre somewhere else.

Being that the department's old service model was developed before nurse practitioners were employed, the plan intends to update that model to use them to the full scope of their practise.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses who have further training, and degrees in different medical specialities.

Lee said the new plan will be the department's "guiding light for the next three years."

The plan consists of a list of programs and services that need to be evaluated and possibly reworked, and sets deadlines for their evaluation.

It also highlights the need to recruit a medical director and create a territorial admission committee for patients vying for long-term care.

Lee promised the department will provide quarterly updates on what is happening with the plan on its the A Foundation for Change website.