Daryl Dolynny

So on page 8-9, these are revenues. Where are these revenues coming from for the reciprocal billing for services for Nunavut patients? Thank you.

Okay. So I guess to continue my questioning on here, there has to be some historical information with respect to the average billing that we’re doing on behalf of our Nunavut territory and money is coming in from Non-Insured Health Benefits. So I’ll formulate my question another way. Has there been a shortfall historically between what we’re actually billing out and what we’re receiving in in terms of revenue from the Non-Insured Health Benefits? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the mover, Mr. Bromley, and the seconder, Mr. Nadli, for bringing this motion forward as it is deserving of a spirited and fair debate in the House today.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to applaud all groups and residents who have commented on federal Bill C-15 leading up to today’s debate.

First of all, is this bill a perfect bill? I think many would say anything that provokes any type of change or provides a different vision is never truly perfect in design, as we are finding out. I know from other polls or speaking to many residents of Range Lake or...

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s comments on that. The basic grant or the non-repayable benefit of the SFA has a wide range of thresholds. In some cases this threshold creates a disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students who qualify for SFA funding.

Is this Minister committed in seeing that the disparity of thresholds are minimized for a more fair and transparent process? Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister committing to that. If I can get that for the last three fiscal years. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today many have spoken about creating some real solutions here on making the NWT a more attractive place to stay, and especially for our own future, and that future is our own students. Our NWT students are clearly not returning to the North, as we’ve heard, for a variety of reasons and I think it’s an important thing to bring forward here.

There are many questions as to why and where we should start to look at this issue. So for today we will start and I’d like to start with the Student Financial Assistance Program. My questions today are for the Minister of...

Mr. Chair, that’s not the answer to the question. I mean, if the Minister wants to share the terms of reference for the agreements, I’m happy to receive that, but the question still is asking about the aggregate accounting that we receive in terms of patient in-service billing and what we bill out for services. Would the Minister and department provide those numbers for review by committee? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How do you follow that Member’s statement?

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, in support of this government’s aggressive plan to increase our population base over the next couple of years, one must start to gaze into our future, and this future begins with our children, but more importantly those about to embark on their post-secondary education journey.

For years the Government of the Northwest Territories has praised its Student Financial Assistance Program as the key in supporting northern students’ return to the NWT upon the completion of their post-secondary education.

So one...

I’m hearing that we believe, but accounting is about accuracy of dollars and cents. Does the department have and do they table this information? Is it readily available for committee to review? Thank you.

With that one number that the Minister just gave of over $9 million as arrears, that exceeds the actual full main estimate in relation to some of that billing line, so are we to assume that the numbers we have here for reciprocal billing are lower than what we normally do on a regular rolling average? Thank you, Mr. Chair.