Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce a new focus on patient experience in the health and social services system. The Office of Client Experience offers a centralized point of contact for individuals to provide feedback, make a complaint, or ask any questions they have regarding the health and social services system. Staff are in the gallery and I will introduce them at the appropriate time.

The Office of Client Experience will provide support for all residents and their families when accessing health and social services, including system's navigation, client and family...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, people who are currently receiving support for their specified conditions will continue to receive that support. The change here is that the program proposal that was in the discussion paper is to have income testing in order to figure out what level of support the person themselves might be able to afford towards the total cost. We use income testing for everything. You need income testing for income assistance. You need income testing for housing. You need income testing for the seniors fuel subsidy. We're looking at income testing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to start by thanking the 729 people who provided input into the public engagement process on the supplementary health benefits. That feedback was aggregated into themes and released as a report on January the 23rd. Using the information gathered, the departmental staff are writing a new policy. In fact, we didn't consult on a policy. We consulted on an issue. So they are writing a new policy, and it will go through the standard process of being presented to Cabinet and to the Regular Members, the Standing Committee on Social Development. So that...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't make that commitment to go over each patient's file and determine whether they were appropriately diagnosed. Audits generally are samples. They don't look at every single file. If somebody has a specific complaint about the way they were treated, concerns about the way they were treated, that they feel they were misdiagnosed, this is what the office of client experience is for as well as our other quality assurance processes. It's there to make sure that patients have a venue in which to make their concerns known and, more importantly in some...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have only highlevel information in this area. I can't answer that question. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to recognize the staff of the newly created Office of Client Experience that will provide support services to NWT residents navigating the health and social services system. With us today is

Fraser Lennie. Fraser is the director and program supervisor for the new office. He is a Metis Sahtu beneficiary and lives in Yellowknife. Welcome.

Glenna Simon. Glenna is the senior Indigenous patient advocate for Fort Smith. Glenna is First Nations and Cree, and she works out of the health centre in Fort Smith.

Denise Ritias is the senior Indigenous patient...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I'm sure the Member is aware, there is a review underway now of different components of the medical travel policy. I'm sure he's also aware that the benchmark for the medical travel policy is the NIHB benefits, which are available to status people. And it is our job to meet those benchmarks for the whole population. However, we are at this point subsidizing this federal program for NIHB, and that's something that we want to bring to an end. And I have a call with the Minister responsible for Indigenous Services Canada this week to talk about that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal government has offered a package of different kinds of money, CHT, CHT top up, escalator, tailored bilaterals, and so on. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details at this point.

I can say, however, that the federal government is focused on supporting territories and provinces in four specific areas. They are data, primary care reform, mental health and substance abuse, and aging with dignity as well as health human resources. As the Member, I am sure is aware, we introduced a health human resources plan in June of last year which was with medium...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, both the department of health and the NTHSSA are part of the government renewal initiative. Phase 1 was to do an inventory of programs. Phase 2 is to look at how those programs are funded. So we're participating in that process and look forward to working with the results. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven't seen those recommendations so I can't comment.