Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The fact of the matter is we are trying to develop a program that addresses some of the deficiencies in the existing program, as I have laid out in response to MLA Groenewegen’s question. We have gone out and consulted. We have done analysis. I do understand that there are very differing views out there about how we should provide this program, to what extent, to whom and who should pay for that. So who should pay for that and how we should pay for that and such. So we have listened to those and we have analysed them and we have shared that with the committee. I...

Thank you. The point is that we have a program that is for extended health benefits; it’s not for core health. It is one where people can get access elsewhere, which is not what you can say about lots of programs. People can’t get education elsewhere, public school or lots of things the government must offer. I know it’s hard to accept, but Extended Health Benefits is an extended health benefit and we are having to ask people who can get that access, who can afford it to do that. Those who have decided not to have insurance, we could go and buy insurance at any time. Of course, government will...

Mr. Speaker, this Extended Health Benefits Program is not new. It’s something that every government grapples with. We’re not inventing a new wheel here. We look at what is available across the country. We looked at what’s the use of it.

Mr. Speaker, we have a proposal before us that would cover the vast majority of seniors, the vast majority of the population who need support from us. We are asking that those of us, and that includes me and many other people who are going to be seniors one day and who hope to be financially better off, that we make our contribution so that we help those seniors...

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated already, I will be tabling a document later today that speaks to what we have heard. Mr. Speaker, there are people who are writing to us and telling us that, and even the Members here have said that we do need to find a way to bring in the people who are excluded. We are having disagreements about how we do that. I appreciate that. There are people who say, go universal, make this part of core service. We have a challenge to that as a government.

If I had all the money in the world, I would like to make everybody happy and pay for all the medication, equipment and no...

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to tell the Member I have an answer for that. They have 90 days to reinstate the insurance at any time from any time. They could reinstate it, but right now we have a program that they don’t have to. They could ask for it now. They could reinstate it now and it will be...

Mr. Speaker, the Member states that we are overhauling the Supplementary Health Benefits Program, but as the Member knows… I have distributed the article in the Slave River Journal, which did a very good study, a cross-country survey of 12 jurisdictions, and every single jurisdiction including and Yukon and excluding Nunavut, because Nunavut has the same thing as us. But all of the 11 jurisdictions have supplementary health programs that are income tested or there is a deductible, there are premiums, they are capped. So we’re not inventing a new wheel here. This is something that all...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is no contradiction there. I don’t think it will surprise anybody that the Supplementary Health Benefits Policy has been before Cabinet more often than most issues; probably not as many as Deh Cho Bridge, but, Mr. Speaker, it has been a popular topic in Cabinet.

We take the input from the public very seriously. We understand how difficult it is to make any changes to a health basket of benefits that a lot of people hold dear. We went out with the first implementation at the end of November 2008. We heard a lot of things from the public. We took it back to the...

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...

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

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...