Bob Bromley

Health services are at the top of every Canadian’s list of priorities and Northerners are no different. Our residents receive many excellent services from our dedicated and often over-tasked health care professionals. My constituents still speak highly about the treatment they receive for emergency and catastrophic health issues. It is our preventative and diagnostic programs and access to specialists that are failing. Let’s see some real progress on these very real issues.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak briefly to this. The Member did indeed use the term “doublespeak” yesterday. I think it is my impression, or my reading of his use of the term was that this Minister frequently does say things that can be taken in two different ways. When we are trying to have a discussion that clarifies things, that does not do service to the issue. Whether or not the Minister does that on purpose, I am not saying, but nevertheless, she does tend to use things that can be interpreted in two different ways. That does not add clarity to the issue under discussion...

Thank you. The Minister had mentioned the wait times and wait time standards, per se. We don’t have such standards. That seems odd to me and a slippery slope. If we don’t have standards, of course we’re going to continue to allow those to slip and slide without correcting them, and obviously they need correcting. So I’m hoping the Minister will actually put those standards in place so we can prevent that.

I’ve repeatedly asked the Minister to say whether analysis is being completed on the increased cost of administering a co-payment system, and this information has never been supplied. I’ve...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Minister reported on statistics yesterday, in response to oral questions, that outlined some really horrible wait times for diagnostic and specialist medical services. She did report that our volume of services has gone up. I’m happy to see that, but that still leaves too many people waiting. She made a reference to our wait times being the same as down south. Again, I want to discourage in this, as well as in the supp health question, trying to be the same as the rest of Canada. We expect better...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today’s worries are focused on the Minister’s proposals on supplementary health, but we should not lose focus on the problems that devalue the quality of our current health services.

One such challenge is access to diagnostic services. Long waiting lists for essential testing and treatment is an issue familiar to every Member. Literally hundreds of patients are waiting as much as two years for audiometric testing, colonoscopies, bone density testing and other essential diagnostic services. Patients who get through the diagnostic line-up then join the line to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my last question for the Minister is really about the really good suggestions and incredible amount of thinking and thoughtful drafting of options to be pursued by the Minister. Certainly the progressive taxation was one of them. I think there was some mention of fees. I assume that the Minister has developed a perspective on those in response to the overwhelming comments from the public on those suggestions. Thank you.

I was more interested in the Minister’s perspectives on the divisive, racially divisive, culturally divisive proposals that she has coming forward. I would welcome any further comments she might have on that.

It was noted at a recent public meeting that the representatives of the NWT Pharmaceutical Association have repeatedly offered to meet with the Minister and her department to share their knowledge and experience in any considerations of changes to the supp health program. The department was also invited to attend the annual general meeting of this association. In both cases the department...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Weledeh resident Chief Eddie Sangris from Dettah. I’d also like to give special recognition to my elder, Mr. Ed Jeske. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to review current conditions and trends that I believe are important considerations for informing the responsible decisions we in this House must regularly make. As our work in this fiscal year advances and we begin deliberations on our final year’s budget, we find ourselves in a world faced with even more uncertainties than when we began our term.

The impacts of the global recession linger. Fiscal stimulus funding is nearing its end, and given Canada’s need to begin servicing national debt, we can expect declining federal support programs in an ongoing...