Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, this issue has been discussed in and out of this House since 2003. You will hear very frank input in the report that we have submitted today. I know people are very concerned about these programs and whenever you are making changes, it is difficult. It is difficult for us to talk about what we need to do. We need to be clear about what we need to do. We need to be able to find a way to help those who are currently excluded. We need to be able to do it in a way that minimizes the impact of the changes. We need to do it in a way that we have a sustainable health care system where...

The Member is right that we have lots of people in our communities who have a permanent, twenty-four hour medical and health staff. Their services are provided by communities outside. We have to rely on medical travel to do that and obviously the people who live in these communities are entitled to good service and quick access. So, no, we don’t expect people who aren’t well to be waiting in pain. We do have a policy in place to do that. I know the medical director team in the Beaufort-Delta is reviewing the response policy and I will get back to the Member with the details of that. We are...

Mr. Speaker, we have a proposal before us and we have an opportunity to work on that. I believe, as I’ve stated already, this is a difficult issue and it does take some courage and resolve on our part to make changes, Mr. Speaker. We cannot say that cover the working poor, cover those 2,200 people, find the money to do it, raise taxes, go without. We can’t continue to say that, Mr. Speaker. The Members here have an obligation to listen to everybody as well. I keep being told that I need to listen to everybody. Yes, we are listening to everybody and we have to make decisions. We are here to...

This is an important issue and I’m not sure if we want to talk about who sent what e-mail and when. I can assure you that I do have a chronology of the invitation from the pharmacy association and our response was prompt and swift. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, the pharmacy association is welcome to give their input, but the fact of the matter is, yes, they’re a front-line provider.

The Supplementary Health Plan we are suggesting is in place in every other jurisdiction in Canada. That’s what all the other pharmacists and pharmacies do use. So, Mr. Speaker, as a front-line provider, that’s not...

We are investigating the situation to see, in fact, exactly what happened and obviously we want to make sure that all the steps that were to be taken were taken. But first of all we have to have the facts, because this just came to light in the last few hours. Thank you.

I don’t believe there is anything I can say that would make people change their mind on that issue. The fact of the matter is we do have an NIHB program in this country and in Canada that the federal government funds. The GNWT funds Metis health benefits that is on par with NIHB. The changes we are trying to make are because we have a non-aboriginal program that excludes a whole bunch of non-aboriginal people that need us, and that’s where my focus is. We are coming up with a program that is as generous and as fair as possible to cover all non-aboriginal people into that program. Thank you.

Because, Mr. Speaker, I think that the one thing that we need to remember is that all governments try to have a program that supports the residents on low income, or seniors, or a person with disabilities, those people who need the government for non-insured health benefits. So in that way, this program that we have designed is very generous and much more comprehensive than any that is available in the rest of the country.

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Speaker, we have to put this in the context of other obligations that the Department of Health and Social Services and the government has to...

As I indicated earlier, suggestions such as how do we minimize the opportunity for our people to dump their insurance, I think we should put our heads together to see how we could do that and we should look into that, Mr. Speaker. We are going to work through this because we know that there’s a time limit to this and I’m willing to work with the Members about how to improve this. There is a challenge to expanding the program to those who need it, without making some changes within. Thank you.

As I indicated in the House, every health authority, every health profession, professionals have a very strict protocol on patient records and medical information and they are to follow those protocols. When there are situations like this as sometimes does happen, then you have to investigate and work with the Privacy Commissioner to make sure those breaches don’t happen again and we are doing that with the latest information. Thank you.

I’m sure if I read all of those 3,000, which I will, I probably know almost all of them. This is not impersonal to me. This is not just an issue that we’re talking about. This is very near and dear to me, as well. I talked to the people. I know who was at those meetings. I know people who are writing me. I’ve known them for all of my life here. I understand that this is a very, very pressing issue and dear issue, Mr. Speaker.

So we will continue to work on this package. We have done everything we can to… We have done a lot of work. The Department of Health and Social Services spent a majority...