Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, I think it is a far bigger problem than the Minister is giving it any credit for. I met a young man yesterday. He has a chronic condition. It costs him $10,000 a month. If that individual, who just graduated from university goes and works for the GNWT, he gets 80 percent coverage under his insurance. Therefore, he is only going to be spending $2,000 a month out of pocket. He is probably going to start at about $50,000, so if he chose to say, okay, I don’t want to work for the GNWT, I am going to go somewhere where they don’t give me insurance, he is going to get all the money...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Originally, I was going to ask questions to the Premier on supplementary health, but now I am going to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions on supplementary health. In responding to Ms. Bisaro, the Minister of Health said that this new policy excludes nobody. Can the Minister please confirm for me that this new policy that is going to be proposed is not going to exclude anybody? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I tabled a process convention that was fully agreed upon by Caucus in Fort Smith last summer on the standing committee review of proposed policy initiatives and implementation plans. This process convention outlines the roles of Cabinet, Ministers and committees, when it comes to establishing new policies or making substantive amendments to or rescinding of existing policies. This process convention does not apply to minor administrative amendments which will not significantly impact established policy commitments.

I suggest that the proposed...

I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. On our agenda we have Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project. What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Okay, the next document I have to table is a policy on supplemental health benefits, 49-09, dated September 30th, 2007.

The next document I have to table is a list of Extended Health Benefits Program conditions that are covered under the existing program, and the last document I have to table is a process convention for standing committee review of proposed policy initiatives and implementation action plans that was agreed to by Caucus in Fort Smith and we confirmed in Blachford Lake. Thank you very much.

In the policy that Cabinet put out they indicate that the territorial Supplemental Health Benefits Program should be designed in a manner that does not cause employers to reduce supplementary health benefits programs to their employees; i.e., insurance. Everything the Minister just said pretty much encourages everybody to dump their insurance. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Even people who are making a lot of money who have insurance, if they have a catastrophic condition, it’s in their best interest not to have insurance from their provider. So right there on that fact they’re going...

Mr. Speaker, it sure sounded like that is what she said on this side of the House. If Hansard proves that she didn’t in fact say that it is going to be a tax on the sick and the elderly, I do apologize for that. But I didn’t hear a response to my question. Basically, if you look at the list of conditions that are covered under the extended benefits, it covers pretty much every condition. I think the only one that I could figure out that is missing on here is high cholesterol, so these low income families that she is talking about, if they want coverage for drugs, they can get it. They can get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent of the Great Slave riding, Ms. Lena Pedersen, who is also a member of the Elders Parliament and a former Member of this House.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on April 7, 2010, I attended a presentation veiled as public consultation conducted by the Department of Health and Social Services on the upcoming changes to their extended health benefits.

Based on the Minister’s response to questions asked in this House and in response to the motion passed in this House of March 2009, the Minister indicated that the department would be going back to the beginning on the proposed changes, that the department would openly consult stakeholders and conduct research into options presented by these groups, that the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a number of documents to table. The first one is a letter to the Honourable Premier Floyd Roland, dated April 16th, from me, outlining a significant number of concerns related to changes to the Supplemental Health Program, as well as some potential recommendations on how to move forward with fixing the policy without disadvantaging a significant population of the Northwest Territories.

The second tabled document I’d like to table is a response from Premier Floyd Roland dated May 6th, which doesn’t actually address any of the questions asked or talked to any degree...