Julie Green

No, I do not believe they have. Thank you.

Thank you. My thought is that we will be able to get a better sense of this when this fiscal year ends, and we will have a year's worth of data. We know that there have been some successes as you have mentioned, but we also know that the digital divide is pretty deep in the NWT. It'll be interesting to see how all of that works out. It is a very expensive program. Of course, NIHB pays for Indigenous and related people. The GNWT pays for everyone else, and the cost there is $45 million. If there were ways to make that cost come down, I think we'd all be doing the happy dance.

I will take that as a comment. Thank you.

I don't have information about what it was, but I do have information about what it is. Right now, the wait time from a positive FIT test to colonoscopy through the Territorial Colorectal Cancer Screening program in the Beaufort-Delta is approximately 88 days, so let's say three months. Our target for improvement is to ensure that patients are seen more quickly than that, and we are now working on a pilot project that will help us to identify where we can make improvements to reduce the amount of time that it takes to go from a positive test to a colonoscopy.

Yes. Thank you. I will refer that question to the deputy minister, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first phase actually we completed last year. That had to do with covering drug costs, and the next phase is scheduled for work this year, but ongoing. There will be a very heavy public consultation component to this review so that we can hear from residents of the Northwest Territories about their expectations for coverage, and we can provide answers to them. For more detail, I will ask the deputy minister to continue. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like to welcome back Ms. Jeannie Mathison, the director of finance. Thank you.

The vaccine is not an off-on proposition. When it enters the body, it creates antibodies to fight off the COVID-19 infection. It continues to create antibodies from the 28th day, from the 42nd day. The second dose is really a booster. Having said that, as the Member is well-aware, this is a very new vaccine, and there is not a lot of information about the maximum interval between doses. What we do know for now is that there is no problem extending up to day 42.

There are jurisdictions that are experimenting with a greater interval than that, but we are staying with the National Advisory...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will ask the assistant deputy minister to answer that question.

Thank you. The department did a consultation with Metis organizations of the NWT about Metis Health Benefits just before Christmas. My understanding is that the results are being analyzed, and for further information, I am going to refer the question to the deputy minister. Thank you.