Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS pursuant to subsection 61.(1) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, the Legislative Assembly chooses a Premier and recommends to the Commissioner the appointment of Members to the Executive Council;

AND WHEREAS pursuant to subsection 61.(2) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, the persons appointed hold office during the pleasure of the Legislative Assembly;

AND WHEREAS many events have transpired that have eroded the confidence of the general public and Members of this Assembly in the performance of the Premier and Executive...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members have the opportunity to speak once per session to any topic for as long as they wish or on any number of topics. As a senior Member of this Assembly, I am taking this opportunity today to speak about the state of the 16th Legislative Assembly. I do this with the hope to bring to light information and answers to questions that I truly believe are on the minds of many Northerners.

I am not sure that our residents who are watching the performance of this government would be able to fully articulate what the problems are. But through communications with...

Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of privilege. Mr. Speaker, yesterday afternoon before the commencement of the House, I returned to my private office in the Legislative Assembly to find a handwritten note from Jean-Marc Miltenberger on my desk. Mr. Miltenberger was in the Legislative Assembly yesterday as a guest of his brother, Minister Michael Miltenberger. As you know, Mr. Speaker, Members' offices are located in a restricted area of this Legislative Assembly, an area accessible only by Members and staff of the Legislative Assembly. As you also know, Mr. Speaker, it is the policy of this...

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to present a petition dealing with the matter of changes to seniors’ health benefit programs. The petition that I present contains 779 signatures of Hay River residents. The petition is requesting that the implementation of this program not proceed until substantial consultation has taken place, as the signatures that Mr. Ramsay has read. Seven-hundred and seventy-nine. Thank you.

When you consider the other types of supplementary health benefits insurance and support that’s out there, government employees are covered, people who work for large corporations are covered, the Metis health benefit covers some folks, the non-insured health benefit covers some folks. When you calculate, take all the indigent people who are covered, when you take them all out of the mix, how many people are there in the Northwest Territories who are not receiving supplementary health benefits?

Thank you. I give notice that on Friday, February the 6th, 2009, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that pursuant to subsection 61(2) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, this Assembly formally revokes the pleasure of the Assembly from the appointments of the Premier and all Members of the Executive Council effective February 9, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. MST;

And further, that this Assembly recommends that a Premier and Executive Council be chosen without delay and that the Commissioner be notified of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Health and Social Services today. We over the years have asked many times for the Department of Health to review supplementary health benefits to see if something could be done for those folks that are working but do not receive coverage or benefits from any other source. I’m referring to mostly families who work for the private sector and don’t have employee sponsored insurance programs and we thought that was a good thing.

The Supplementary Health Benefits Program was reviewed. Little did we know that inadvertently there would be...

It’s interesting to hear that this was not a cost saving. Here’s my question: How many seniors in the Northwest Territories over the age of 60 years who are not covered by any other health insurance does this change and policy going to affect? How many seniors in total?

Thank you. I, too, would like to speak to the proposed and ill-conceived changes to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program here in the Northwest Territories.

Probably in my 13 years as MLA this is the most public feedback I’ve received on something the government proposed to do. I do appreciate the Minister’s statement today, that in fact the government is willing to put this on hold -- the implementation -- and look at revising these changes so that they will be more thought out and will close those gaps as the Health Minister referred to them.

As my colleague Ms. Bisaro said, the problems...