Glen Abernethy

Just for the record, Mr. Chair, the Minister of Health, federal Minister of Health, clearly knows my position, as does the Minister responsible for Social Services, as does the federal Minister responsible for Addressing Poverty, as does they all do. I have no problem continually mentioning the value of a national pharmacare strategy. I did raise it in our last social services FPT, where we were talking about poverty. It is certainly an opportunity to help this country address poverty, having a national pharmacare strategy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going to go to the deputy for detail, but I think the important thing here is that obviously there is an opportunity for us to work with MLAs in those regions to get that information out. We will certainly have further discussions on how we can get that information out. For some more specific detail, I will go to the deputy.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I have indicated, moving to a single system is our over-arching theme, or our goal is client-focused. Focus on the patient, client-based, a client-based system. Having said that, because not every service can be provided in every community, medical travel is going to continue to be a necessity. By working together as one authority, we've had the opportunity to look at different standards, different practices, having authorities cooperating, including Stanton, to a greater degree, with some of the remote communities and some of the work done.

We also put in a...

Yes, please, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, at this point I don't believe the federal government has any interest in a national pharmacare strategy. I feel that that is a mistake, but that is just my personal opinion, not a government position by any stretch of the imagination. I have had an opportunity to talk to a number of the different provinces and territories who would like to see a national pharmacare plan put in place.

Having said that, given that, prior to this current government, we didn't really have a relationship with the federal government at a provincial or territorial level, having...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Without committing any financial dollars at this point, we're certainly open to an outline of what the community is proposing. We could see how it might work in that community and other communities across the Northwest Territories, recognizing, of course, you know, we have to spend our money wisely, but I'd be certainly interested in seeing what the community is proposing and see where we can go from there.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll get the information update on when this particular round of standing offer agreements ends. As I said, I think we must be open to look at alternatives to ensure that medical travel remains as supportable as possible, but that we're not adversely affecting other airlines or the existing airlines in any negative ways. I think we have to look at the market, for sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have decided people don't need drugs anymore.

---Laughter

I am just kidding. Bottom line is it is a procurement consolidation as a result of moving to a single authority. We were able to purchase together as opposed to purchasing in part. We recognize some cost savings by doing so. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think to understand the increases and decreases you have to go through each line because there are offsets, there are sunsets, there are reductions, there's forced growth. There are a number of things that are included in this. What I can say about the Tlicho is there are a number of beds being opened in the Jimmy Erasmus Long-Term Care Home, but the same is true in the Sahtu which is in the larger number, even though the larger number appears to be growing at a slower rate. If you factor in the sunsets and the forced growth and then the additional positions and all...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate the Member's position. I will say that we have taken her position a number of months ago when this first came up, we have made changes within, we have got the report done, but waiting for the report we didn't stop and do no work. We did increase the number of assessors and we have moved forward to increase the number of assessments. We have been able to fund from within to this point, which we're prepared to keep doing as we move forward to get rid of some of the backlog.

What I'm indicating to the Member, and I hope I'm clear, is that as we've done this...