Jane Groenewegen

Thank you. The Minister has clearly said this is not about cost savings and the numbers that she had put forward with an escalation value on them, and yet why are we mixing this up with core health services? I get the impression that Members on this side of the House are trying to lobby Members on this side, somehow leading to believe that there’s some question between our ability to deliver core health services to Colville Lake or any of these other communities where, you know, they need nurses and front-line workers, are trying to connect this to the supplementary health benefits. It is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to sort of change the tack of the questions here a little bit for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, we have a process issue here. If the policy to change the supplementary health benefits was adopted in the previous government, and if it is now being implemented in this government, what opportunity do we have to represent the views and concerns of our constituents to stop this from being implemented in its current format?

Mr. Speaker, we have about another five days of this Legislature sitting, this is due to be implemented before we come...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my pleasure today to welcome grade 5 and 6 students of the Ecole Boreale in Hay River here today with their teacher, Patrick Poisson, and their chaperone, Marie-Mathilde Tessier. Mr. Speaker, if I could have the Assembly’s indulgence, I would just like to quickly recognize the students, and if they could give a wave, their mom and dad might see them on TV. Jake Danielsen, Georgia Dawson, Jonathan Frise, William Frise, Cordell Gagnier, Ksydaig Henry, Lochlan Munro, Billy-Jack Warrington, Sherisse Bouchard, Brooklyn Harrison, Angela Roy, Nicholas Stainbrook...

Can I wait?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Speaker, is the Minister satisfied that the process as it exists now has sufficient teeth in it or, well, let’s just say in the case of an uncooperative defendant, somebody who has been complained of and just chooses not to cooperate with the process. What kind of teeth are there in the process that would compel somebody to even participate to respond to a complaint or appear at a hearing or participate? Is she satisfied that the process is sufficient to do that? Because what I’m hearing is to the contrary. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, I asked the Minister yesterday if she was aware of any complaints or inquiries into the conduct of any physicians. I’m going to sort of move away from that today because she didn’t really directly answer my question and I still don’t really even know if she knows. But it raises an interesting point. To be the agency which approves the licences of people to practise medicine is a huge responsibility. It’s also a huge liability, because if a complaint is laid and an investigation is undertaken...

Mr. Speaker, I would like to follow up again today in my Member’s statement about the topic I spoke of yesterday, and that is the protection in place for people in our Territory who require the services of a medical professional. Mr. Speaker, although this case I speak of may be isolated in that these things do not occur very often, it is still unchecked and has the potential of impacting and touching on very many lives. Because one physician doesn’t just see one patient, they see a group of patients.

But, Mr. Speaker, you would think that our government might have learned a valuable lesson...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If we as a government fail to deal with these types of complaints in a very serious way, I think we are putting ourselves at great risk and great liability. It’s one thing for a patient who has filed a complaint, to want to pursue a remedy with respect to the doctor, but we are throwing this wide open for this government to become the party that would be pursued for negligence if these processes are not intact.

Mr. Speaker, in the case that I am referring to, the complainant filed a complaint. The response from the defendant was not even shared with the complainant nor...

So the Minister is saying that she would not just maybe be informed, but she would most definitely be informed of a complaint and the process that would follow. And this is not about the number of complaints. This could be one complaint. One complaint could be enough to launch some type of an investigation or disciplinary action.

Mr. Speaker, how involved is the Minister or our government or the act, how involved is it in laying out the process for an inquiry that would ensure the integrity of that inquiry and of that process? Because there are certain laws that are part of inquiries, public...