Sandy Lee

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to introduce Bill 2, An Act to Amend the Dental Auxiliaries Act. The proposed amendments to the act will ensure the legislation complies with national licensing standards. This will enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to better meet its obligations under the Labour Mobility chapter of the Agreement on Internal Trade.

The proposed amendment will require that all applicants for registration as a dental hygienist in the Northwest Territories must have graduated from an accredited program in dental hygiene and have successfully...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my left is Mr. Mark Aitken, director of legislation. To my right is Ms. Lisa Cardinal, director of policy and planning. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to introduce Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Veterinary Profession Act. The proposed amendments to the act will ensure the legislation complies with national licensing standards. This will enable the Government of the Northwest Territories to better meet its obligations under the Labour Mobility chapter of the Agreement on Internal Trade.

The proposed amendments will require that all veterinarians who apply to be licensed to practice in the Northwest Territories hold a Certificate of Qualification upon successful completion of examinations set by the National Examining...

The policy is there now. Any expansion of the policy would require additional money and that would have to be the decision of the Legislature as a whole and the government as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, we spend lots of time talking about the sustainability and affordability of our health care and health care related costs. Obviously if we want to expand that and try to find new money, it would have to be done as a partnership between this side of the House and that side. Certainly, I’m willing to explore that, but at the end of the day, it would have to be a decision of the entire Assembly. Thank...

I believe the challenges and the problems that families have to go through has to do with the fact that we do not have a separate pot of money or program to accommodate families who want to be near those who are in care. All of the health authorities try to do their own way to accommodate them. Sometimes they get help from local bands or they look at every bit of money they have to do this, because we do not have a program and funding for that. So if the Member and the committee are interested in pursuing this, I’d be willing to… The Member knows that any changes to policy or establishing of a...

Yes, we will follow up on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If you think that Supplementary Health Benefits Program is a safety net program and to say that to access it is either you have to have insurance and if you don’t, the government will help you and to say that if you have an insurance program, you can’t access the program and to say that that is a discrimination, that is kind of a strange way of looking at that. What we are saying is that the government will be there for you. If you have other insurance, access that first and if you don’t, we will help you.

Like I said yesterday, Mr. Speaker, the Member has a point. Any...

Thank you. Later today I will be tabling a document called What We Have Heard, and we outline everything that we have heard in all of our consultations and meetings we have had. We’ve had very frank and direct comments from our people. Also on the website there might have been yes or no questions, but there was always room for somebody to put in their input.

People have called us; people have e-mailed us; people have talked to me on the phone; they have called me. In the Northwest Territories we live in a very small space and we know everybody, a big space, but we know each other, and so I have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will commit to do that with the Member. We are reviewing the medical travel and we are reviewing the very issue that the Member is raising. Thank you.

Last the Joint Leadership Council met with all of the health chairs we did an in-depth briefing on this supplementary health benefits and we talked about the pros and cons of this in our health care system. The department staff met and wrote to NGOs, the seniors’ societies, the seniors’ groups and other groups such as the Centre for Northern Families or Persons with Disabilities. So we had a group of NGOs that looked at the proposal, they gave their feedback and we have incorporated those. Thank you.