Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when patients are traveling down to Alberta, depending, I mean, wherever they are coming from, there's different systems that we use and yes, I've mentioned it many times in this House, that the systems that we use don't talk with Alberta systems and that is why our it is in the business plan, and that we are updating our EMR, our electronic medical records, in the health system. One of those things is to, hopefully, to make sure that it does have the opportunity to connect with Alberta. What they do currently, there are many different ways that they do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this funding is for two years, and then we will  as part of the business plan, we'll continue to move forward into the 20262027 business planning cycle for  you know, for future funds. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as aftercare and transitional housing is not currently being offered in the Northwest Territories right now and it hasn't been offered in Yellowknife, we don't exactly have  we don't know how many until we start to be able to track. We do know how many people go out for treatment. We do know that not all those people going out for treatment that are returning back need somewhere to live, but there are those that may. So this is  will  we don't have those numbers at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I did commit to get the many ways that we do this and I there is way to do it and I am not going to sit here and explain from this health centre we do it this way and sometimes if they are coming in from a small community they may go in a secure with a practitioner. The patient may go. There are multiple different ways, and depending on which physicians and, you know, so. This is the coordination of our special clinics when they refer, they have their processes and so if there are individual so there doesn't seem to be an issue, because it hasn't come to light, and so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we send thousands of people to Alberta so if a Member wants to know about a specific instance, is this something that he has multiple constituents that are coming to him and so if he wants to bring this forward to my office, I would gladly look into it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yes, I we can include that kind of a review as part of our you know, with the support. And I hear you that there are a lot of times when seniors sometimes they struggle, they need assistance to travel for an appointment and they can't find a nonmedical escort to go with them, even though they're approved. And sometimes they just need that little bit of extra support. And so those are the types of things that we want to take a look at and how we can streamline and, you know, and in those cases be able to look at how we are supporting people in our boarding homes and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that increase was the difference was that there was the supplementary funding because of the increased costs that the out of territory treatment facilities with the new agreements, and it also was the increased cost to the travel that it was increased numbers that we were getting for people that were going out for treatment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is why we're looking at the policy review. You know, and even the information that I explained to the Member in the House, you know, people leaving the Northwest Territories, I myself, you know, when I first travelled, you know, that's not something that we normally do because we usually jump in our vehicle and we head down to Whitehorse from the Beaufort Delta. We don't think about having to access what happens if we get hurt, you know, or what happens if we're in an accident. And so, you know, that's another that's part of this is going to be making sure that...

If there's communities that are interested in, you know, accessing the dollars to provide programming in their communities, what I can do is I know that I I don't have it on hand, but what I can do to the Members is provide the information to the funds that we do have available and where they can who they have to contact to access those funds and then they can you know, they can, you know, assist the Indigenous government on their proposals on what they want to do. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have provided numbers. You know, the estimate is what is in the budget, and we've said that it's 1.3 like, and it's in the letter that I sent today as well, that the summary of the expected increased costs is $2.5 million, less the estimated copayments by residents of $1.2 million. That leaves a shortfall of $1.3 million. So thank you, Mr. Chair.