Sandy Lee

The answer to that has to do with what I keep saying about insured services versus non-insured services. Insured services are what people know as our health care. That’s our doctor service, hospital service, nursing service, surgeries, hip replacements, having a baby. Those are what we know to be a health care that everybody is entitled to and everybody will get. Nothing changes from that.

What we are talking about is uninsured services. Things like the cost of drugs, glasses, dental, and equipment. Right now the aboriginal people get those covered through NIHB and Metis health benefits. For...

Thank you. I could follow up on that, Mr. Speaker, and give him the latest information coming out of that website. I think what’s important to note is reducing wait times for some of these procedures doesn’t necessarily have to do with the vacancy, because for those procedures, we have our staff in there. If there is nobody permanent there, we have locums in place. What we are trying to do is we need to have a team of specialists, whether surgeons, internal medicine specialists, nurses, supporting staff, they need the space to make sure that they do the job they need to do as quickly as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree that there’s a lot of information that has been going out and there’s a lot that people need to know. I am willing to answer any specific questions that the Member’s constituents may have about what supplementary health benefits are and what we’re trying to change, what is covered right now and how that is different from NIHB and other supplementary health benefits policies across the country.

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we are talking extreme examples in saying that somebody will pay $10,000 a month in insurance. The second thing, Mr. Speaker, is, yes, somebody could get their company insurance to pay for it or the government insurance to pay for it under our program. At the end of the day, there is individual responsibility to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. This policy is not divisive. It’s divisive to those who believe that it’s divisive, Mr. Speaker. This is covering a group of people who are not covered. We have listened to everybody who gave us input over the last three years. We have responded, we are coming out with a proposal that will be as good or better than any government employee package. That is generous, that’s going far, that’s taking into consideration what everybody has told us, and, Mr. Speaker, we’ll have to agree to disagree, but, Mr. Speaker, we have done our best to come up with the best package. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have presented in our presentation on the website and in our public presentation, the profile of those who use our program under supplementary health and such. Mr. Speaker, we have designed a program to make sure that supplementary health benefits or extended health benefits are available to everybody in the Northwest Territories. You get them either by NHIB, NHB or third-party insurance. If you don’t have those, you fall under supplementary health benefits.

I know this is a point that people disagree with, but I am just trying to explain and I am being straightforward here. Our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have explained in our presentations and in answers to questions, Mr. Speaker, I believe this policy will enable access to those people who are excluded from the policy right now. We have a group of non-aboriginal people who are excluded from having basic coverage of dental and eye care, and, Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe this is divisive in any way. It is a Supplementary Extended Health Benefits Program to those who need it. Thank you.

I am going to do my best to answer questions, but I hope she won’t tell me I’m telling her something she already knows. As I stated already, the supplementary health program right now excludes a segment of the population that needs help from the government. Those are the low income working families who need help and work in jobs that don’t have employer insurance or whatever. It is, I believe, our government’s responsibility to provide assistance for that. I hear from others, cover them anyway, bring extra money, do it by universal health care, just spend the money.

The point is this is not a...

Thank you. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking about health care benefits to make all of the programs and the service benefits available under supplementary health and to provide it without co-payment provided to everybody who lives in the Northwest Territories would make it an insured service. That would make it like any other program under the Canada Health Act and I understand that’s what people want us to do and we have reviewed that and it’s not something we are able to do, because the government has to focus on insured service. Insured services are doctors’ services, nurse services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, my understanding was that Cabinet documents were not to be made public. I have learned since that this policy was already signed. It is not a paper under discussion in Cabinet, so it was able to be released. Secondly, I’m hearing here, and Members outside, that somehow, I just have to say that, Mr. Speaker, we have been open-minded about this policy. I had this policy in front of me, I wanted to look at whether or not what is being proposed is fair and equitable and we believe that the newest changes that we are suggesting would be generous. It would...