Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we keep track of patients that are referred. We keep track of patients that are -- they cancel before they even -- they even fly out. And so those sometimes cost -- there's costs related to that because we have to pay for, you know, the flights and accommodations that were prebooked. There's -- we keep track of the early discharge and self-discharge clients. We keep track of the completions. And we also keep track of people that are repeating treatment. And so that is all -- I believe that's all, you know, part of the work that they're analyzing as part of this...

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...

Yes, Mr. Chair, this is funded, and it's for ongoing funding. As the many gifts we get from the federal government, we start wonderful programs and then we have to decide and choose which ones we can bring forward to keep. This one is important because I believe that it also helps offset many of the calls that would -- like, would be going to a lot of our health centres. So yes, it's ongoing.

Yes, I believe that there was more -- there was other bids that came in. As far as that information, I don't have any other information on it.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

This funding is specifically based for facility-based addictions treatment, so this pot of funding is for when we utilize the contract services for those who have addictions that, you know -- that have polysubstance abuse and multiple -- you know, and they need to go out for treatment and they work with their case workers for the best specific treatment plan, whether it's in territory or out of territory. However, the aftercare funding, I believe, is in the previous section. Thank you.

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...

That's correct. The only change is that decrease for the sobering centre. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with the billing part of air ambulance, so say for instance non-insured health benefits, all of the air ambulance flights for First Nation and Inuit in the Northwest Territories that don't fall under employer benefits get billed to NIHB, and I believe that the billing for NIHB is -- has what's -- there's more going through to NIHB to cover those costs now. I am not sure if it wasn't being billed before. Yeah, my understanding is there was -- some of it that wasn't being billed. And so that -- government was paying for those costs. And so with the -- I believe...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know in this House, any time GNWT wants to implement some kind of a computer technology, it's not as easy as just the Minister saying it on the floor of this House. It's going to take analysis. It's going to see if it meets our standards of keeping health information, you know. So if there is an easier route, then I will definitely commit to being able to seeing if we can have -- you know, that through the next business plan rounds to implement; however, at this point I can't commit to ensuring that it's there. I will commit to seeing that if...