Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of supplementary health benefits. Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 495 signatures of NWT residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that access to supplementary health benefits be expanded and that incremental costs to support the expansion be funded through graduated territorial income tax. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has already acknowledged that we, when people are retiring, have encouraged people not to take our insurance. I am curious what the Minister plans to do for those people that have taken our information in good faith and have declined the insurance provided by the GNWT because they were under the impression that they were going to get coverage as seniors basically for the rest of their lives in the Northwest Territories and today we turn around and we say we know we told you not to take the insurance, but tough luck. What are we going to do with those people, Mr...

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. I think the Minister hit it on the head. Let’s do something to find a solution for those people who don’t have insurance. That is our problem. Right now they are already covered for drugs, under supplemental or specified medical condition, so we need to find a way to get them dental and eye care. So let’s do that. But what she is doing is creating a program that is going to be a disincentive, she says. I don’t know how she is going to do it, but the Minister says we are going to encourage people to keep their insurance. People aren’t stupid, Mr. Speaker. If they look at...

Mr. Speaker, I find that response kind of funny, because when I look at the Minister’s numbers in the presentations that were provided, I see 1,232 people that are being excluded from this policy. Pretty much anybody that has insurance is excluded. If you have insurance, you are excluded. Therefore, not everybody is covered by this policy. My biggest concern is not all 1,232, although I do have a concern for all of them, my biggest concern is for the 532 people that have insurance that are currently receiving specified medical condition support under supplemental health. By cutting those...

Mr. Speaker, it’s possible that the Premier will respond consistently with the Minister’s remarks, that the committee has been consulted all along. I’m a member of the committee and I agree that I have been informed and/or told what the Minister’s plans are, but, frankly, I don’t feel consulted or that any advice I have provided has been remotely considered by the Minister or by Cabinet. Many of the public feel the same way. Given that the 16th Assembly’s very own process conventions are being ignored by the Minister of Health and Social Services, I don’t see how the Premier and Cabinet could...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, have a definition of doublespeak taken from a dictionary, as well, that says, intentionally deceiving language, not an outright lie or a tactful euphemism, but a systematic use of ambiguous, evasive words and sentence structures to say one thing but mean something else, commonly associated with the bureaucracy, military and politics. It is often practiced in commerce, also a calculated attempt to: (1) avoid or shift responsibility; (2) distort reality by making the bad, negative or unpleasant look good, positive or pleasant and vice versa; and (3) confused by...

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. I wish to table a motion put forward by the Elders Parliament on the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. Thank you.