Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, I believe we did look into this, as the Member has brought this forward before. The variable in the cost that we need to look at is that we already pay for staffing the facility, the X-ray machine and we have just invested in DI/PACS and other electronic health equipment in Simpson, for example, for the entire Deh Cho region. Whether 10 people use it or 100 people use it in a month, there are fixed costs involved in this facility. It is the same with Stanton. If a number of residents decide to go down and use a B.C. facility, it results in us paying twice for the same service, so...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if I can convince him that the wall behind you is grey, I don’t think any information I give him can convince him of anything, but let me say, and like I said today, and I’ve given a lot of information already, Mr. Speaker. We have had a two-track process when it comes to the respite care program. We’ve had a pilot project in YACL for Yellowknife only. We’ve had a three-year pilot project outside of Yellowknife. I am suggesting that it is time now for us to look a territorial respite care program. We have heard from families in Yellowknife who are saying...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe I’ll have to get back to the Member on that. I believe it’s about $8 million, but we often ask for about $3 million for supp health.

The Member is right when he says that medical travel is an essential part of delivering health care in the North, and this is why we fought for and got, and we have a federal Minister who understands the importance of medical travel in the North and all across the North. That’s part of our additional funding we got under THSSI. What we need to do on the medical travel is that we use the money wisely so that anybody who needs medical travel gets to their medical care. So part of what we’re doing is using technology to make sure that we have the money available to those who really need to get...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member’s statement and question speaks to the importance of thinking territorially, that whenever we are planning the business plan, programming, we need to look at our work as being territorial. We need to make sure that all of our residents are treated fairly and equitably. This is why in our Foundation for Change we put so much focus on access, because what the Member is talking about is that every resident needs to have access to essential medical and health care and that’s one of the three pillars of the Foundation for Change. Thank you.

As we get further into operating this facility, the authority is, and will be, reviewing the staff makeup and the presence of staff at the front office. The way it’s designed, because of the physicality of the floor, we couldn’t have everybody in one place, so it just necessitated having two different stations. We have been able to train and staff additional personnel on the lab side. I have also talked to the management about using some of the equipment and TV screens and other things to advise and inform the public about how long they have to wait, why they are waiting, what’s expected to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I’d like to thank the Member for the positive statements he made with regard to this important project. It is an important initiative for our health and social services system, because the Yellowknife primary clinic services not just Yellowknife residents but residents from surrounding communities.

I agree with the Member that the facility is going through, and has gone through, some growing pains, and I agree with him that we need to be able to give that feedback. What I’m going to suggest to the Member is, I’m going to ask the authority and the management...

What we need from the Member and this House is continued strong support for the government to implement the recommendations that were made by the Joint Working Group. We’re going to need some really strong fortitude to implement the third-party use and encouraging people to get third-party insurance where they can afford to. We need to find some equity and parity between NIHB programs and Supp Health Programs. We are going to need to be strong to implement some of the changes to the pharmaceutical strategy so that we would encourage the use of generic drugs. All those things will require...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my statement yesterday, we will be working hard on a number of fronts as per recommendations of the Supp Health Joint Working Group. That includes encouraging employers to provide employment insurance or employers insurance, encouraging our residents to get private insurance where it’s possible, and to look at some savings through use of generic drugs. The department will be pursuing all those three options, and we will be doing some cost-benefit analysis and looking at ways to see how we can help those who are not without health care coverage or health...

The working poor and the excluded coverage that the Member is talking about, we are talking about those who don’t have dental or vision care coverage, because they would get health care and drug coverage and such from the regular health care coverage we have. At this time we could only guess how many numbers there are. We believe there are about 2,000 people in the Territories without employer coverage that gives them dental and vision care. We cover $1,000 for seniors for dental and $250 for glasses every two years. So that’s the cost we’d be looking at if we were to cover them immediately.