Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I asked a question earlier about the generous and equitable nature of this new program and the Minister didn’t give me a response. Yesterday I talked about three scenarios. Sorry, I’ll just go back for a second.

There’s an individual, a young man who has a chronic condition that costs about $10,000 a month. In the current system, if he was working for the GNWT he would have 80 percent coverage by insurance, which means the insurance company would cover about $96,000, and he could apply for a top-up under the current system, which would pay for about $24,000. Under the...

I still didn’t hear an answer to my question. I’m not sure which public she is listening to. Clearly, there’s a significant amount of people out there who have concerns.

I want to go back to the policy for just a second. The statement of the policy is that the Government of the Northwest Territories will provide certain supplementary health benefits to non-aboriginal residents and their families who are not eligible for either -- and it’s an or question -- either supplementary health benefits available to aboriginal people or for supplemental health benefits available through employer programs...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. In March 2009, this side of the House passed a motion unanimously for you to go back and review the changes or, rather, go back to the drawing board on the changes that you are proposing on supplementary health at that time. In discussions following that, the Minister said that she would go back to the drawing board, that she would develop a stakeholders group and she would listen to them for options and alternatives and do some research around that.

Since that time it has become clear that she had...

I want to ask today that the Minister actually listens to these people and truly hears what they have to say. Don’t implement your proposed plan. Let’s take it back and consider options that will truly work for all and not break our budget with the solutions that exist. The Minister needs to be open to options and desire of her constituents and our constituents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 1, 944 signatures of Yellowknife residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petition requests that access to supplementary health benefits be expanded and that Extended Health Benefits Program for seniors remains unchanged. The petitioners also request that existing revenue from territorial income tax be used to fund the expansion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That is not horrible news. It still doesn’t mean that what we are doing is the right thing. It is my understanding that, if they jump back in, it is based on age, so now they are going to spend a lot more money than they would have if they jumped in when they were originally encouraged not to. I understand what the Minister is saying is for GNWT staff. What about all the other staff? What about all the other staff? What about all the other staff from other employers who were encouraged to don’t bother taking the health insurance because don’t worry, the GNWT has got this great seniors’ program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I finally heard what the real problem is. The Minister has been dodging this one for a long time I think. The problem is we as a government have been supporting ourselves to have people dump insurance. We have people telling people that are retiring, don’t get insurance because we will cover it. I know there are other employers that are out there saying, don’t get that insurance or don’t take our government insurance because if you don’t you can get full coverage by the GNWT. We have actually supported an environment where we are encouraging people to dump...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am listening, but I’m not really hearing any responses. So I’m just going to ask a related question slightly different.

Consistently the Minister talks about a program that is generous and equitable. Clearly, there are people excluded from this. Anybody with insurance in the Northwest Territories is excluded completely from any top-up. In some cases, most people, if costs aren’t high, that might be alright, except in some cases people do have catastrophic conditions where the costs are clearly high, and I think those numbers are larger than the Minister is accepting. I...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know which public she was listening to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.