Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two pages that are here representing Inuvik Twin Lakes, Dallas Krutko and Keefer Ciboci-Raymond. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is another area within NTHSSA that is unfunded. It was a -- it was a pilot but it was unfunded so it added to the deficit. And so what was done with this project after review that the services could be, you know, done from within. But what I can do to commit to the Member is to going back to that information that I received and be able to respond to the Member later. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not going to specifically categorize but I think all residents, you know, have a right to the care that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we have less than two months of data so the information on that work is expected to take place after we have a year. That was the commitment, you know, that we would look at all of the data after a year of running the program. But our expectations of saving is geared towards the sustainability of the program. So as residents are sharing the cost of the benefits, total program cost to the government are offset which will help sustain the new program. It's also important to note that more people are now eligible for EHB than previously. As the costs of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we've communicated this in different ways. So the application web page has information about the payment plan options under the EHB menu system. This is new. As this came about, as the changes started rolling out, we realized that -- you know, that some people were asking these questions so we started to make things available. We also have a series of EHB Facebook posts, if people are on social media. There are changes made to the introductory letter that are being sent, that are those that are being accepted into the program which does -- is going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we hire these frontline staff in the community, they're usually members of the community, they're usually -- like, most of the CHRs that I have met along the tours that I have done as a health Minister are Indigenous people from the communities so they know their communities. They know that they can access -- they can do presentations in the school, they know that can -- you know, they can work with the home care workers to do community events. Whenever there is a community hall event, they can do those types of things. You know, that's where I think...

Mr. Speaker, yes, the plan is for the review of the medical travel policy and some of these areas that the Members have raised are a part of the review of the policy. Thank you.

Thank you. I will pass that over to the director, Mr. Clarke McQueen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, non-medical escorts are recommended by the health practitioner and may be approved by the medical travel officer if their request for medical escorts meets the criteria in the respective policy. And so the Northwest Territories -- the Government of the Northwest Territories, we have a policy that lays out what a non-medical escort for when people are travelling for insured services and then there's also -- like, I mean, this is where we can get complicated and then if it was -- it doesn't meet the GNWT, there is an option to -- if they're Indigenous, we...

Thank you. So long-term care beds in Hay River currently are 23. There's 23 beds used, and there are 6 people on the waitlist. Deh Cho, 17, and 17 people in the beds and 2 people on the waitlist. In Fort Smith, there's 26 long-term care beds, and 26 people occupying those beds, and nobody on the waitlist. Thank you.