Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize two very wise and certainly well-travelled Northerners. We have Mr. Ed Jeske and Mr. Mike Krutko, both constituents of Yellowknife Centre.

The ones with the shoehorn of course don’t feel shoehorned. Try being on the side of the shoehorn, not the ones with it. The reality is the Minister is blaming Members of the House -- this side of the House, we have to be very clear -- for not supporting that group of people who don’t have benefits. This Minister immediately could pass a ministerial directive that says this number of people need to be covered and this is how much it costs. How much money would it be to provide coverage to this mysterious group of people, as well as how many people? They can’t seem to answer that. Can the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The manifesto is crystal clear. The Health Minister’s ambition to trim health benefits is obvious. Raising the cost of living for our constituents is obvious. Creating consultation that appears more like shoehorning the public into a direction by their design is certainly clear.

Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how this does not look like a predetermined process that has a predetermined, scripted outcome?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to express my grave concerns about the actions of the Health Minister with her decision to release information to the public in the context of public consultation about the changes to supplementary health benefits.

Mr. Speaker, many of my constituents say it looks like it’s already a done deal. I have reviewed the material on the Health and Social Services website, and I’ve had feedback from my constituents. If anyone has read the documents, you would know there seems to be many assumptions and leading information that relates to the direction of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was listening to the Minister of Health’s answers really closely and I think what she represents is the exact reason why people hate politicians. Because when you move something around, it’s called a change; and when you reduce something, it’s called a reduction. So, Mr. Speaker, that frustration is articulated out there by playing with semantics. So I’d like to ask the Minister again -- perhaps another way we’ll get the answer -- what work and analysis is done by the Department of Health and Social Services to make sure that they’re collecting all the fees and...

The reality is we’re making doctors manage. Why aren’t we looking at those issues to save money in our system rather than cutting away at supplementary health benefits?

Mr. Speaker, streamlining access sounds like a reduction of services to me. I’m not sure where the Minister...how she understands it that way.

Mr. Speaker, when I referred to Nunavut services as a priority, we send our team professionals here, whether they’re physio or speech, to places in Nunavut and that makes their clients more of a priority when we have people here not getting full services. On top of that, it’s a billing issue.

But, Mr. Speaker, my question, as stated before, and I’ll ask it this way: Mr. Speaker, again, we’ll have a difference of opinion on reduced services or money, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Al Shortt, one of the YK No. 1 School trustees. He’s in the gallery today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I highlighted the fact that we’ve got doctors acting like either summer students or clerks. In my statement I also pointed out that we’re not billing properly. So are we like a diamond mine? No, we’re not. But the strategy and process and thinking is exactly the same: wise resources and good use of them. Would the Minister re-examine the issue of establishing a position that looks at how we use our resources to make sure we’re using them in the most efficient way? It’s not about the question of providing resources, it’s how we spend the money...

Thank you kindly, Mr. Speaker. On one hand the Minister will say in this House that the supplementary health benefit changes are not about reducing costs. The question still stands: what services are provided within the Department of Health and Social Services that examine the cost of our health dollars to ensure that they are being used wisely?