Julie Green

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll ask the director of finance to answer, please.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. So the following areas are being reviewed right now. Medical travel, escort criteria, and that's one where I get a lot of questions. The exceptions policy which is where the policy can be varied to include people who don't fit into the other criteria. We are reviewing the per diem rates for people who aren't staying at the boarding facility. So right now the accommodation per diem is $50, which is obviously not adequate for a hotel. We also want to establish a longterm medical travel policy. This is for people, for example, who are...

Yes, thank you. The money is offered to the GNWT as the public health provider. That is to say the public supplier of health care in the Northwest Territories. There has been some discussion about a health equity fund for Indigenous people, but the parameters of that have not been set. And I'm not sure if they would apply to the case that the Member is asking about. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll ask the deputy minister to answer that.

Yes, thank you. I think that some of this is communities not seeing how this fits into the programming that they want to offer, and that's one of the reasons that the Indigenous governments asked for block funding so that they could have more money to devote to their priorities and that would include money from the mental wellness and addictions recovery program. Most of these programs end up with residual money. So the point of the block funding is to make sure that all the money goes out the door. If all of that money disappears very quickly, then we would be in a position to justify...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for the question. The details of the NTHSSA budget are not part of this budget. This is the departmental budget so we don't have a breakdown by region of what NTHSSA is spending. So my best recommendation would be for the Member to talk to the COO of the Beaufort Delta authority and ask them specifically what that budget is for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to note that dental hygienists are really on the frontline of oral health and prevention of decay, and they play a vital role in our healthcare system. They are currently, as the Member said, regulated under the Dental Auxiliaries Act. To date, Mr. Speaker, we haven't heard anything from the hygienists about wanting to be regulated under the Health and Social Services Professions Act. If they were to contact us, that would certainly assist us in prioritizing their request for change. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I understand the Member's point. There's a very high rate of vacancies among nurses in the Tlicho region. So if I was giving a young person advice in the Tlicho region, I would suggest that they take a look at all the different healthcare professions to see if they could find one there that would meet their needs and that would then keep them in their community. And the same could be said for the social work program, which I was delighted to hear will be started up again next year. We would like to hire people who are trained locally to do these jobs. Where it's possible to...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I just note that the supplementary health benefits of the budget is the place where the medical travel budget is located. Medical travel is for people who are referred south for service. That is the purpose of it. So if you're unable to obtain health care in the Northwest Territories, medical travel will get you to the south to get that care. I the healthcare cards are there is one kind of card for every NWT resident. I am not sure what the Member is referring to in saying that there are different cards f or people in different levels of government. I'm not sure...

Yes, thank you. The supported living review had 33 recommendations, and 12 of those were ones that we could begin work on without additional funding. So for the remaining 21 recommendations, we would need to develop them for the next business plan in order to obtain funding to implement them. Thank you.