Sandy Lee

I’m happy to repeat again that those who want to have an addiction-free life have to make that choice, and they have to access programs. All the help is available to them. It is not beyond good practice and policy to ask people to be engaged in their own healing process.

All the help is there. The numbers are there. Our workers are in communities. Wellness workers are there. It’s a good policy. The programs are there for the people to access.

Mr. Speaker, the letter the Member is referring to is not before the House. I have a problem with the Member misquoting and misinterpreting that letter. I stand by that letter. That letter has some information that says our workers work in full partnership with anybody who wants help with their addiction issues, whether that be by working with the wellness and addictions workers or by wanting to get treatment. The department and my staff are involved with the process throughout.

I’m just saying that those who go through programs like Poundmaker or any institutional setting, they have a separate...

Mr. Speaker, I should advise the Member and the House that this matter is within the jurisdiction of the DPW and WCB at the moment. They are doing studies of the level of asbestos in the building that’s suspected. Once these results are out, we’ll be moving to the next stage. The Department of Health and Social Services will become involved at that time.

Absolutely, I don’t think any of us want to be paying for health care benefits for other than those who are residents here.

We do have a large transient population. We get about 150 applications a week for health care cards. So we are building in a process to make sure that we do monthly audits. There are audits being done of all these files on a daily basis and a monthly basis to look at any kind of pattern of out-of-jurisdiction claims, whether of services or medication for extended periods of time. Whether there’s inactive/activity on file for any length of time, we want to make sure that...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated, it’s not something I can comment on right now. He will see the budget when it gets debated in this House in the next day or two.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is well aware that we will be reviewing our interim appropriation in due course. I believe it is on the agenda. I would not be able to speak about what is in the detail of that.

I would be happy to talk to the Members about some benefits of consolidation of clinics in Yellowknife. It’s a project that has been going on for a very long time. It’s an idea I support. I look forward to having more discussions on that in due course, in the fullness of time.

All the cards, the people who are registered with health cards, are assumed to be residents of the North unless they are proven otherwise. I could advise the House that we get reports from Blue Cross on a regular basis for all out-of-town claims where the services are purchased from outside. We do look at inactive and irregular files to make sure that those claims are from people who live here. We do understand that there is a possibility that among those 5,000 claims we have, there is a possibility. So we’re strengthening our check and balance systems to make sure that all those who have a...

I thank the Member for the question. We are taking steps, both on a long-term and short-term basis.

In the longer term, we will be sending out renewal forms for health care cards in 2009. We're looking at options in detail about what extra measures we could put in place to verify the residency of health care card holders, and what kind of documents we could ask for that, and to meet all the technical requirements in doing so.

We will be looking at possibly asking for tax files as well as asking for physical residential addresses in cases where the address is written down as PO box numbers.

In the...

I don’t know if the Member was there, but I voted for that project in the budget last year. That was in the budget last year. It is not true that all the leases are coming due this year or in the immediate future. It’s a phased expiration of the lease. I am aware of that, and I’m working toward consolidating the clinic in time for those leases coming up. We will have further debate on that, I’m sure, as we are able to review the interim appropriation in coming days — this week and next.

I totally agree with what the Member has to say about the benefits of this program. I don’t think I agree with the Member that the money spent will necessarily be less, because the programming of this is looking at the long term. That’s a benefit to be gained by consolidating the clinics, which will be absorbed by extra programming and extra hours that the medical and health care professionals in Yellowknife want to provide.

It’s a project that is a priority for the department. It’s a priority of mine, and it’s something that I look forward to working on with the Members through the business...