Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I will speak slowly. Mr. Speaker, during the negotiation for Treaty 8, the Commissioner promised the First Nation signatories that supplies of medicine will be part -- will be put in charge of persons selected by the government, in this case the GNWT, and will be distributed for free to those Indians who might require them and that the physicians attached to the Commission should the attendance to all Indians who might find them in need of treatment as they pass through the country.
Mr. Speaker, NIHB program is also funded by the Crown which also is bound legally for Crown accommodations as well for the Indians that made treaties with.
Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of health. How is the Minister ensuring that negotiation obtaining new NIHB policies and adequate funding for the NWT are conducted with full transparency and meaningful involvement based on treaty with Indigenous governments and communities and not in isolation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the GNWT and Indigenous Service Canada and Indigenous groups all come together, they have a trilateral, they raise their concerns. At these meetings, I believe they are -- I can't recall if they're annual or biannual meetings. So they do address the concerns region by region specific. And at those meetings, then Indigenous Service Canada will take away, you know, what they're responsible for, GNWT takes away what they're responsible for, from those meetings. We also work with the Council of Leaders. And when it comes to the NIHB agreement, there has been very clear messaging from the Council of Leaders, the Indigenous leaders that sit at that table, is that the services that are currently being provided in the Northwest Territories right now, their first and foremost is to ensure that Indigenous Service Canada is coming to the table and funding the Northwest Territories who is administering that policy. There has been a few Indigenous governments that had wanted to draw this down and do it themselves until they -- you know, they were -- they realized that we were being underfunded by at least $25 to $30 million a year that we aren't being able to get that funding. So it is important that I continue to work with the partners that I have been working with and then we direct the team to go and make sure that whatever's being negotiated is brought back and making sure that those leaders know that this is what we were going to consider once the agreement is finalized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's been 126 years since the treaty was made, 59 years since the territorial council was created and taken on the responsibility of health. Health does not have no boundaries as I mentioned earlier. In this case, in Lutselk'e last fall, the community made it clear that they were frustrated being asked to have the band pay for escorts for residents in hospitals down south. Does the Minister believe that limited resources our First Nation governments are meant to fulfill the GNWT treaty obligation and they should be reimbursed for the costs they incurred; would the Minister agree to that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can't speak to the specifics. There are many instances where residents of the Northwest Territories end up in hospitals in the south. Many of them have come to the floor of this House. If people are leaving the territory on their own for a vacation or out of territory visiting and they end up in hospital, that -- you know, there is -- and we've -- I've shared the information that, you know, people leaving the territory should assume travel insurance when -- because anybody leaving the territory that's not referred out of the territory by medical travel, then there's no medical travel support. For escorts, again, the focus of our health -- making sure that we provide health care to every resident in the Northwest Territories is the patient is -- making sure the patient has that care. When it comes to escorts, we have the policy that we have for scheduled appointments. You know, we follow that because it's equivalent to NIHB's policy. So that way, everybody in the territory that is getting service has the exact same. It's the same. So, you know, when these issues come up and they come to my office, we respond the best that we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Jordan's Principle is a child-first legal requirement that says when a service is available to all children is needed for First Nation child, the government of first contact must provide it immediately and resolve any payments disputes afterwards. The question I have, Mr. Speaker, is why, then, does the GNWT try to make families access Jordan's Principle first instead of fulfilling its own responsibility to provide health care without delay? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories, under the Canadian Health Act, whenever this is an insured service that's available, when there's a non-insured service available, those are -- you know, we cover most of those services in the territory, whether you're First Nation or Inuit or not. The other part around -- you know, if it's medical travel, when children travel there's always an escort provided when it's the child that's the patient. When it comes to discrepancies and whether it falls outside of health, within health, you know, if there is certain issues that the Member is speaking to, I encourage him to bring those to my office so that we can look at those individual cases. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
