Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've already asked the Minister to deal with this. I've already had that conversation.

Mr. Speaker, I've got another constituent. The mother was sick. Stanton had to fly -- has always had to fly her out with kidney stones but they got so bad and she was told to wait. She went into septic shock and almost died. They refused to get her son to go as an escort. Instead, they had to pay thousands for hotels and accommodations, and medical travel ultimately paid for the days that they would send him down to pick her up and take her home but wouldn't pay for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am all for efficiencies within the medical travel system, and there are a lot of baseline approval processes that don't have anything to do with medical travel exceptions that are costly, bloated, and inefficient. What we're talking about is people who need help when the system has failed them; they're falling through the cracks. Will the Minister do the right thing and approve the exceptions that are brought forward by our offices, supported by doctors' evidence, supported by the medical system; do the right thing and help these people because they need...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in speaking about medical travel, especially around exemption policies, because we can't have a one-size-fits-all policy obviously but oftentimes concerns are supported by doctors, supported by medical personnel and we're told, time and time again, policy says no. So my question is does the Minister of Health and Social Services have the authority to approve exceptions for medical travel policies, yes or no?

Mr. Speaker, last year Members of this Assembly spoke with a clear, unified voice when we passed a motion calling for compassionate medical evacuation policy to standardized escort support in emergency situations. Yet, despite this call to action, the Minister has still made no plans to support Northerners facing these kinds of medical emergencies. Far too often our constituents are forced to pay out-of-pocket just to be by their loved one's side. Families deserve support in moments of crisis, not confusion, stress, and financial burden. These are exactly the kind of broken policies MLAs are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do have some specifics more or less. I won't use names, but these are files that have come across my desk that I have asked for exceptions for on their behalf.

I have a constituent whose husband passed away, and she was dealing with the grief and trauma of learning to become a new single mother. She needed medical travel, and she was told because her kids were under the age of 18, the medical travel system would be providing her with free child care. This is wrong on so many levels, and it prevented her from getting an extremely necessary diagnostic...

Thank you. I am going to take that as a yes. But what is the point of an exception policy if the Minister isn't making exceptions to the policy? What is the point of this whole process if the answer's always going to be no, Mr. Speaker? Because constituents who go to the Minister expect help; they don't expect to be told no. That's why they're asking for an exception to the policies in the first place, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize my mother- and father-in-law who are visiting here from Saskatchewan, Ruth Welbourne and Wes Welbourne. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker -- and thank you to the Minister for that and also updates from Naka Power and the City of Yellowknife were very helpful as well. So thank you to everyone who worked hard to get that information out to the public.

Are there not contingency or backup systems to prevent this kind of thing? I know this was a difficult technical issue to solve, but it seems like these -- when these -- many of these power outages are getting longer and longer to resolve. So are we looking at investing in more contingency and backup so when these faults do occur, they're shorter...

Point of order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member appears to be given a reply to my budget address and in doing so is making allegations or accusing me of making allegations against public servants and undermining confidence in government, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. My words speak for themselves, Mr. Speaker. They were put in context. And, again, this is a reply to the budget address, not a reply to my address, and I have not heard that from the Member so far. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I mean, I guess if we're pretty good at getting it back on, then we need to prevent the frequency of them. So that's the million-dollar question, probably the billion or even trillion-dollar question. So how much is it going to cost to fix this and when is it going to happen? Because Northerners cannot keep living through this. I can't tell you how many messages I received of people saying enough is enough, I am looking to leave the North. And not just tonight, but for many -- over the months leading up to this session, it's getting unbearable, and we need...