Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess where I'm my I'm it's not for me to ask you questions. But for the concerns that I've heard are not on the low income side I guess. They're people having anybody who's under that threshold or has never had any services before, you know, I mean, this is where they're actually going to have an extended health benefit whereas they've never had it before. You know, if you're living in a house and you own your home and you're paying high utility costs, you know, I mean, this is where income testing is coming in and other insurances so, like, your employer...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There was a lot of numbers. There was a lot of calculations in that. I am not a mathematician, and I could not keep up with where we were at. What I can say with that, you know, is I understand that there's people out there that are not getting any services. There are people that are getting you know, and the majority of people already that may be working in positions, they may have some type of insurances. This doesn't inhibit them from applying on this program as well. So this is the payer of last resort, but it can be in combinations with other. It's not going to...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Sorry, Member. Can you just repeat what your question was so that I can make sure I'm answering the right...

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And we do have the Office of the Public Guardian. And, you know, if there are members of the family, like you know, the instance that you've explained, maybe the person that had passed away who was the public guardian and there's family, I would suggest that those family members reach out to the public guardian. I know that they always want to make sure that there's a connection between family members and the resident. So thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm unsure as to what the ask is. I get what I understand what bereavement means but I'm I know that we have we have support where we assist families when you know, when we have burials and things like that. And we do have programs for that. So I'm not sure what the exact ask is or the question is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. At this time right now, what we have in the budget for and in our business plan is to have these two programs, one in Yellowknife and one in Inuvik, as it is a partnership with an NGO and health, infrastructure, and housing. And so right now where we're at is getting these two up and running and hopefully to have that and, you know, and, I mean, if there's a way to be able to work with Indigenous governments and with other partners, if there's federal dollars that we can access that we could try to bring more of those facilities in the territory, you know, I fully...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the medical travel policy and I hear the Member, you know. And if people leave the territory on their own for whatever reason and it's not through being sent out for a medical through medical travel for access to an appointment or surgery or services, then this program doesn't apply to those people. So any residents or any people that are travelling out of territory, that's why I was saying in the House it's very important that you know what your coverage is, and I was saying some people have credit cards. And I hear the Member, you know, and I'm sure she'll...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In this section, there is the out of territory use facilities but in the previous section, there was the community wellness and addiction recovery fund that is that fund that's been amalgamated to incorporate all of the old there was two or three different pots of funding. So it streamlines the process so that access to communities can access it if it's for addictions, it's aftercare, it's mental wellness, they can access through that program. And I think Indigenous communities can access up to a certain like up to $200,000, I believe, per year. And regional...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I hear the Member, and I'm you know, my thoughts and prayers go out to the family and her community and, you know, her constituents. You know, this is these decisions and some of the things with medical travel and this is why there's this is the hard part of this, you know, is that there's only so much money in the territory, and we want to do everything for everybody. But we as a government can't operate on single individual cases case by case. You know, and I hear the Member and I understand the concerns. You know, there's but at this time, that's why we...