Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, on the other hand, I don’t believe there is any government employee who would be driving a vehicle without proper coverage. I don’t think it is sensible to paint with a general brush expenses associated having a meal versus operating a vehicle. As I mentioned already, this is complex. The department is reviewing that. We will get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe I made a commitment in the House to review this issue and get back to the Member. Right now I can’t remember exactly where it is, but I will undertake to get back to the Member on that review. Thank you.

The elders council was set up to provide direction and guidance in this area but, as the Member knows, the council is looking at a number of programs and services or approaches that would be sensitive to our aboriginal peoples and their cultures. They’re looking at not only the food component but also the spiritual healing and health and language use, traditional medicines, traditional foods, cross-cultural awareness. They’re looking at a number of things that they would like to work on. Once again, I will undertake to catch up with them to see where they are on making the recommendations.

As the Member knows, the meal services are provided by a third-party contractor at Stanton and I’m not aware of cultural and country food being made available to patients at Stanton, which is why the elders council wanted to review this option. It is under consideration by the council and I will be looking for their recommendations.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I would endeavour to do that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I could remind the Member that I did make that commitment to review this and get back to the Member. There are lots of issues associated with this. I will once again make a commitment to get back to the Member on our analysis and review. Thank you.

Yes, I would be interested in looking at that I will get back to the Member quickly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member brought this matter to my attention about 11:00 this morning. My staff and her staff are looking at the specific situation, but I do agree with the Member that we need to make sure that the students who are away and considered NWT residents in any other way should be able to take advantage of their medical travel. So I am reviewing the policy; not the policy, I have to first find out what is going on with this. I’m sure within the policy we can make this happen.

Without having reviewed the specific situation I’m not able to say right now whether or not this is a deficiency in the policy or it’s a case of someone just not using the full breadth of the policy. I do need to look at this first.

Right now we do not have an appeal mechanism under the medical policy. That’s the second part of the question. The review that we’re doing of the policy will contemplate that and the changes that we’re suggesting in other policy that we can’t talk about yet, we are looking at that as a part of the larger review of the medical policy. In this situation I’m hesitant...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to add a few notes about the principles and policies behind the long-term care facility planning within the Department of Health and Social Services.

Persons currently placed in long-term care facilities in the NWT may be of any age. They may be placed in a facility specializing in a certain type of care. There are those who are severely disabled, cognitively impaired in early to advanced stages, frail and elderly and those who need respite care or palliative care in hospital settings or long-term care facilities.

As the Member has mentioned, our senior...