Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issues have been spoken to quite directly and a fair bit, are the potential changes to the extended health benefits as well as the Supplementary Health Benefits Plan. Mr. Speaker, in short, the Minister has offered to delay the plan to go out to further consultation. It does create a lot of fear and the worry is it predetermines. So I am going to ask the Minister clearly here: Is adjusting the time implementation, implementation time frame, just a delay tactic or what does she mean by getting out there to do meaningful consultation?

Today I’m going to talk about the most important issue in the riding of Yellowknife Centre. Those are the potential changes that are being brought forward by the Health Minister about the Health Care Plan and the benefits. Mr. Speaker, if for only a moment we could imagine what it was like before the Minister made that horrible announcement before Christmas, you would hear from our seniors that they felt respected, cared for, loved, trusted, supported, maybe even safe and perhaps happy in the North because they knew the government loved and cared for them. Once this announcement came, that put...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although the deadline target has been set and, in my view, I thought I got an answer yesterday that said if consultations were required beyond that, the deadline would come off. I just want to make sure it’s clear again in that spirit, if consultation hasn’t been fully fulfilled, due to weather, it’s summer, or they aren’t getting enough participation, people’s schedules are busy, will the Minister be clear today in this House to say if more time is needed not to rush this policy out to market? Will she say she will move the date if necessary to fully comply with fair...

Mr. Speaker, one of the issues that took my breath away is the fact that I didn’t feel consulted in this whole process and when it was finally launched to the public, I felt that I was misinformed and didn’t have a chance to it. Now that may be as it may be, but the reality is I felt I didn’t have the full information at the time. So will the Minister clearly commit to this House that she will present the new plan or new policy before Members or some type of dialogue before there is any final implementation so we know what’s going out there and she has that type of support? Thank you.

I, too, wish to recognize Dave and Anne Wind, they’re up on the top floor of the gallery; Mr. Terry Testart, he’s next to the chiefs there; Ms. Lydia Bardak and Mr. Ben McDonald. Of course, if anyone else from Yellowknife Centre is here I’d like to welcome them. From my position it’s difficult to see the whole gallery. Thank you.

I’m glad the Minister agrees and officially put it on record that she will now take off the time deadline on consultation and implementation.

I’m glad the Minister agrees and officially put it on record that she will now take off the time deadline on consultation and implementation.

Mr. Speaker, I’m sort of reminded of a famous individual known as Tommy Douglas. He fought tooth and nail for health care and I could imagine his position now; he’d be rolling in his grave to find out that means testing or income testing our health care system is the way to go. I think he’d call this a user-pay system and this is sort of a door being cracked open to that demonstration.

If I could loosely quote the Minister, a minute ago she said I don’t understand what the big deal is about the implementation date. Mr. Speaker, that’s the whole problem. It’s the implementation date without...

Mr. Speaker, I’m sort of reminded of a famous individual known as Tommy Douglas. He fought tooth and nail for health care and I could imagine his position now; he’d be rolling in his grave to find out that means testing or income testing our health care system is the way to go. I think he’d call this a user-pay system and this is sort of a door being cracked open to that demonstration.

If I could loosely quote the Minister, a minute ago she said I don’t understand what the big deal is about the implementation date. Mr. Speaker, that’s the whole problem. It’s the implementation date without...

I rise today to give my voice to the clear opposition to any changes to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. Mr. Speaker, taking away from seniors, taking away from families, taking away from everyday people is wrong and this needs to stop. At present, we’re all well aware that there’s a deferral of this policy on the table, but we’re not fooled over here. We know deferral just means delayed implementation, so please don’t fool us with this.

Mr. Speaker, I stand with the seniors, I stand with the everyday people on this problem. I’ll stand with them until the end because they are just...