Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the public service health care plan deals with about 1,600 pharmacies across the country and deals with other organizations as well as ourselves. We've made contact with administration for the public service health care plan. We've informed them of our displeasure in this area in the changes and that it's not satisfactory, and trying to see if they would be willing to reconsider going back to the method done previously. At this point, we are still not getting very much response in that area. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would have to get that detail. I am unsure if Nunavut has to follow the same process. It is a joint coverage. I am not sure if their FAA is written identical to ours. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue we were made aware of recently as the members of the public and our employees were contacted, human resources as well as Members, regarding the change that was put in place by the public service health care plan administration. We became aware just early this fall with regard to changes. They were posted on their website, of the changes effective. The notice went out on their website in April to become effective in August. We became aware of it recently. We're paying much closer attention to that website of any further changes coming up....

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The company would have been registered in that province and filed in that province. The portion we received was applied to that account and that would be directed by the courts what creditors would be given with what’s available. In this case, this is the amount we were not able to recover and hence we are coming forward for a write-off. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Premier stated and comments raised in this House by Members, the whistle-blower legislation portion has been discussed a number of times. The Member for Range Lake has made this an issue on a number of occasions, and we have taken that and begun to work on it. I'm, very shortly, going to be presenting my Cabinet colleagues with the beginnings of a discussion paper and then if I get approval at that stage, I'll be coming to the Members with that discussion paper and see from there if we go out for public discussion on that basis, and then, from...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, that debt is being forgiven as a result of a court settlement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, with our process that we have in place within government, our system is set up in two stages. The first one would be the Write-off of Debts Act that would come forward. That would stop the collection or the interest from continuing to grow. It clearly establishes a doubtful account. At that point, we still go after trying to collect the funds.

At this stage here, forgiveness of debts, we are actually forgiving the debt and no further collection process is undertaken from this point on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we're in the process of doing is trying to clear off our older files from the books. We realize that we're not going to be collecting on these ones and haven't been doing so for a while. Hopefully as we proceed down the path working with departments and now with regional directors put in place, that will be another avenue on providing information to regions and communities regarding some of the services. We'll also communicate with departments that are in the business of lending money or providing grants to individuals, that information be passed on to those...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we find ourselves at this stage of coming forward with a bill of forgiveness of debts, many things have occurred before we get to this stage. These all originate within departments, and departments initially would work with individuals. For example, if there's a debt with student financial assistance, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and that section would work with students initially, trying to set a program up or a plan to recover that debt. Beyond that, then it goes to the next stage when the government then goes into a more...

Yes, Mr. Chairman.