Glen Abernethy

At this time, depending on the medical condition of a person, whether they’re an elder or whether they’re a young person who wishes to return to their community and die in their community, we can provide palliative care for certain conditions. There are some conditions that we’ll probably never be able to provide palliative care for, for a person who wishes to die in their community, because of the extreme medical needs of some. But for certain medical conditions we can do it now. Yes.

Mr. Speaker, we are planning to have individuals from the Department of Health and Social Services go into the community of Deline during the 2015-2016 fiscal year, which is the fiscal year coming up, to do the analysis and identify what kinds of needs exist in the community. We anticipate that information will be ready and available for discussion with committee during the ’15-16 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m not aware of any group insurance that Education, Culture and Employment might provide to students that are on SFA, but I’ve already asked the deputy minister of Health and Social Services to be in touch with the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment to find out what, if anything, they do. Once we know, then we will be in a position to have some discussions with Education, Culture and Employment whether that is something that they might possibly be able to do for our students who are travelling south. As I get more information, I will absolutely share that with committee...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We actually have a private organization doing the current review of the medical, or escort portion of the contract. I do forget the name of the provider, but I will get that information for the Member. I have asked the department to make sure that this is one of the issues that’s being discussed. To that point, I’ve also asked that the group that’s doing the review actually get in touch with the family that is in this particular situation. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the late Nelson Mandela said that overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right; the right to dignity and a decent life. As a government, we are committed to helping residents be self-reliant and to live with dignity. We have made investments in a wide range of programs, including education, housing, early childhood development, health promotion and addiction prevention and treatment, to help reduce and prevent poverty in our territory. However, government alone cannot eliminate poverty. It takes a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Travel outside of the Northwest Territories within Canada and outside of Canada is certainly different. The NWT Health Care Plan does cover residents for medically necessary hospital and medical expenses when residents are travelling outside the Northwest Territories and we have reciprocal billing agreements with the different provinces, which actually articulate or dictate what those costs that we’re covering are. We do have an agreement with most of the provinces and territories to direct bill the Department of Health and Social Services for doctor visits and hospital...

Thank you. The Member is correct. I mean, as we move forward with system transformation, we are doing that work and that work does take into consideration population, but it also takes into consideration the demands, as well, because not every situation has the same demands. A home support worker in a community could have a multiple number of clients and some of them could be simple with maybe a visit a week. Others are going to take a significant amount of work. The demand will change in communities as the needs of our patients change over time. So, we need to be able to be flexible with that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, there are some updates. In October 2014 we made a commitment to evaluate the palliative care needs in Deline. I do apologize to the Member; the Member asked the question yesterday and my response wasn’t as clear as I had hoped it would be and I added some additional confusion. I do apologize to the Member for the frustration there. But, yes, we are moving forward with palliative care needs in Deline. We do intend to have staff come in in 2015-2016 to visit the community to assess the existing infrastructure and evaluate the applicability. The assessment is...

Not at this point. We do know that there are a significant number of organizations out there that can provide that insurance to residents of the Northwest Territories. I know, when I travel, I go to the Royal Bank and I get the travellers insurance just in case something happens to me when I’m in the South, and I think it costs me $75 or less a month. So I would encourage people to go to one of the many, many providers.

I would also like to take this opportunity to encourage Members to include this information on their websites, in their newsletters, in any tweeting they happen to be doing and...

We do a number of things to make people aware and encourage them to get medical travel or travellers insurance when they travel within country. For the record we’ll say it again, get travellers insurance when you’re travelling outside of the Northwest Territories and Canada. I’d strongly encourage Members to include it on their websites, in their newsletters or any other way that they can.

In the meantime, the department is doing a number of things. We place ads in newspapers, social media, we have a whole bunch of brochures that are available in health centres as well as in travel agencies. I...