Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, what I would like to say is the benefit -- pharmacy -- I don't know how to say it very easily without a lot of words in this time because our medical -- our extended health benefits is multiple programs together. So pharmacy goes through Alberta, and there is the changes that were made and they implement our senior benefits and our extended health benefits and our Metis benefits. But for each program, they're supposed to be simultaneously done. The one thing that we were looking at under Restoring Balance was how do we -- you know, if there's changes...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as long as I am the Minister, there will be no changes to the senior benefits as all of the benefits that are on the table -- like I said, even with the extended benefits, those changes, we're going to be doing the review so those discussions will happen later on this winter. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if there was charges to anyone who was on senior health benefits that was charged for over-the-counter drugs, I would suggest them reach out to my office or to their MLA because those charges shouldn't -- before -- I'll clarify, shouldn't have been charged under what was going to be proposed but after I took further -- looked at it further and began to kind of pull it apart a little bit, when I asked the questions as to why these changes in pharmaceuticals were being changed and why we were getting these e-mails from seniors because it was extended health...

Mr. Speaker, not only is the public administrator worked on that area but as recently as today, I've had conversations with NTHSSA and they are working with staff. They are working with staff on contingency plans throughout any department that we start to run short on staff in any of our regions because this happens in the small communities, we have to have contingency plans, in the regional centres we have contingency plans, and in the capital. And so that work is going on, and it's engaging those staff to come up with other plans, you know, in case that there are -- there comes a time where...

Mr. Speaker, the public administrator, you know, he arrived here, he's been on the ground, he's been going out to the regions. This is where the work is happening. It is going in -- like I said, he went into the Nahendeh first. He visited with the health centre. He visited with the staff. He went into small communities. Now they're doing a pilot on, like how patients are accessing care. This is -- access to care is our priority and within our smallest communities, this is where we're hearing and we're seeing that access to care is almost next to nothing. So we are -- the action plan is going...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have gone back. I know the Minister of MACA has gone back. My department went back and had further discussions, and the decision that was -- that there were benefits that were given to employees over and above that was what is -- and so that's why they didn't qualify under any of their collective agreement or under the disaster mitigation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that the legislation was passed. I was part of that amazing work that was done. And, you know, and I think that work that continues to happen, I don't have the specifics on that, but what I do know is that within our department, we do continue to work with the Indigenous advisory body and with the culture safety and anti-racism unit to ensure that when we get those federal dollars, they're well -- like, each community has wellness funds that we give to each community based on their wellness plans, and those things are driven from their own communities to provide...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the question. We do involve Indigenous representatives throughout different parts of our health system to guide us in the work that we do. As I mentioned in my statement, under the cultural safety and awareness anti-racism unit, the work that they're doing is guided by representatives from all Indigenous governments that are pointed to the Indigenous advisory body where they meet and they go over policy and get their feedback to ensure that these policies and things are reviewed under a cultural safety lens, anti-racism lens, for Indigenous people.

We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if a patient is referred to neurology -- and I know that the Member is just using that as an example -- that would be an insured service. I could go on and talk about all of the different insured services, but if Members wanted to understand what non-insured services are, those are the services that we provide through extended health benefits. So many of the services that are provided through that. But, however, there are other services that we do provide free of charge so outpatient rehab services, things like that. In many jurisdictions, insurances cover...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to also recognize former Premier Cochrane. I had the pleasure to be in the 19th Assembly and have her at the helm of this Assembly with all of the things that we did, and as well as her partner. The last time I saw him, we were jumping on a plane, and we won't say when. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.