Tom Beaulieu

The previous board was disbanded. It was for reasons that I’m not totally familiar with at this point. However, one of the requests from the Beaufort-Delta, in speaking to some of the leadership, there was an indication that if we are going to reappoint the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Board, that individuals sitting on that board should have some knowledge, good knowledge of sitting on a board, good knowledge in being able to read financial statements, having some skills to sit on that board, and they’re able to effectively report the workings of the board back to the communities...

It’s no secret that the majority of the issue seems to be focused in on communities outside of Inuvik and outside of Yellowknife. Definitely we are looking at how to close that gap.

Like I indicated, we thought that it was an anomaly that individuals were having issues, but if you look at the numbers, we have a fairly high compliance rate. Most people are not having issues, they are getting their cards on time. We have taken time to ask individuals. There are some in the system that do come forward to MLAs, that indicate that there is a problem. We are trying to address those problems as...

I’m not sure that putting more resources in the Inuvik office, which is responsible for processing the cards, is the answer. Perhaps we could deal with trying to provide them some assistance in the processing of the cards.

The process is that people in Inuvik are dealing with the cards as they come in. They’re processing and sending them to Ontario, they’re being printed, and then they’re being mailed out to the individuals in the Northwest Territories that are to receive health care cards. But if I can commit to the Member that we will contact the Inuvik office and see if the issue is a lack...

I will commit to having the department advise the health centres and the drugstores that individual clients who prove that they have applied could do one of two things. The drugstore or the clinic can do an immediate check to see how far along in the process their card approval is, or also just to prove that they have applied and they will be covered.

Clients who have applied for renewal will continue to get coverage. The fact that they may not have the physical health card in their hand at the time may not be that important. I recognize that individuals want to have that card in case of travel, but for the sake of seeing a physician or getting pharmaceuticals, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Individuals, if they apply and their health card is not there on time, has not arrived by the time their old health care card has expired, we are still going to be able to provide coverage for those individuals.

Yellowknife Health and Social Services has responded to the information, the Commissioner, of privacy concerns. If certain recommendations in the report that the health authority did not agree with, that may have been the reason that they have not responded to every concern, but every concern that was put out there where the health authority felt that required a response or a change, that has been made. Thank you.

The act will go through the regular process. We are targeting the fall 2013 session. I did say hopefully that will happen. Provided nothing goes sideways, we’re expecting that the bill will be provided to committee prior to that, at the appropriate time prior to the time that it’s introduced in the House in 2013, the fall.

There is no contract. They are doing this under an intergovernmental agreement with Alberta and it’s costing $600,000 a year.

I don’t have that information, but the Member did mention that it was not used. So I’m assuming that there was no requirement for a STARS helicopter to be used to transport patients from the Edmonton International to the hospital. So likely it hasn’t been used at this point. Thank you.

I can commit to doing that. I will commit to doing that. Thank you.