Statements in Debates
With the reduction in the Canada Health Transfer from 6 per cent to 3 per cent, which was actually implemented by the Conservative government prior to the election but adhered to and supported by the Liberal government when they came in, we were going to take a significant reduction in growth in CHT moving forward. That reduction has been maintained; it's still going to be 3 per cent, but on top of that we are going to get $6.1 million and $7.4 million for aging in place, long-term care, homecare, as well as mental health.
Those dollars are limited funding so they are time-sensitive. They come...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the department works very closely with the pharmacy association and others to ensure that prescriptions are being dispensed appropriately. For the detail, I don't have that at my fingertips, so I will take the question as notice and get back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair that is as a result of forced growth on different supplies that are needed to provide services in this area. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We just keep trying to encourage them to make reasonable choices and to apply common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is so rare, it might as well be a super power, but we keep trying to encourage them to look at some of the realities as medicines change, as products change. As far as notifications, like this case apparently made the change in December and the notifications came out in January. We didn't see it until January, so unfortunately I sent out more letters to constituents saying this is not something we can cover at this time and apparently they could, not us...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don’t have that number at my fingertips, but I will commit to getting that to committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's a good point and it's certainly something we should be exploring. We don't require that they keep it, but we require them to utilize it first if they have it. So if they have insurance, they utilize it first before they access extended health benefits.
I remember a number of years ago there was some work around this that didn't make it too far, but I take the Member's point that we need to do something to encourage people to keep their insurances for as long as possible, if not forever, to help us offset some of these incredibly high costs of this benefit that is...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have already made the commitment. I am happy to live up to that commitment. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I'll use Hay River as an example. I have had an opportunity to visit the Hay River Family Violence Shelter and talk to the staff and understand their concerns. The Department of Health and Social Services and the Housing Corporation are in discussions with them to explore all opportunities for them to find a new location. I can't tell you what that's going to look like across the Northwest Territories because it would be different pretty much in every location depending on what assets are available, what assets aren't available, but we do know that we need to work...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'll go to the deputy for the detail on the changes to the Metis health benefits.