Jane Groenewegen

Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest again this morning as our Finance Minister was on the radio talking about the blind ambition of particularly myself, political ambition to sit on this side of the House. Mr. Speaker, let me tell the people again of the Northwest Territories that I did sit on the other side of the House at one time. I believe it was two governments ago. In 2000 I sat in this House on the Cabinet side and as a result of some things that occurred, which were highly publicized at the time, this House decided to strike a committee of inquiry which determined that as a result of...

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.

I’d like to recognize Mrs. Eileen Collins in the gallery today. She’s president of the Hay River Seniors’ Society and vice-president of the Northwest Territories Seniors’ Society and has worked tirelessly to articulate the concerns of Hay River seniors with respect to supplementary health benefits and many other projects she’s undertaken.

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, 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...

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...

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.