Sandy Lee

Thank you. Later today I will be tabling a document called What We Have Heard, and we outline everything that we have heard in all of our consultations and meetings we have had. We’ve had very frank and direct comments from our people. Also on the website there might have been yes or no questions, but there was always room for somebody to put in their input.

People have called us; people have e-mailed us; people have talked to me on the phone; they have called me. In the Northwest Territories we live in a very small space and we know everybody, a big space, but we know each other, and so I have...

Last the Joint Leadership Council met with all of the health chairs we did an in-depth briefing on this supplementary health benefits and we talked about the pros and cons of this in our health care system. The department staff met and wrote to NGOs, the seniors’ societies, the seniors’ groups and other groups such as the Centre for Northern Families or Persons with Disabilities. So we had a group of NGOs that looked at the proposal, they gave their feedback and we have incorporated those. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I will commit to do that with the Member. We are reviewing the medical travel and we are reviewing the very issue that the Member is raising. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I just need to correct that. I was not in any way suggesting that anybody couldn’t put an input into this unless they wore a title. So if the Member understood it that way, I do apologize. What I meant to say yesterday in answering the question why have you not consulted with the pharmacy association or Nurses’ Association or any other medical related health care professionals, and my answer was yes, we did. We wrote a letter to the pharmacy association. I have actually asked the staff to put that on the website. I have consulted with many people about this supp health plan. My...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents to table. The first is the document entitled Supplementary Health Benefits - What We Heard. The second document is the document entitled Slave River Journal Newspaper Article, Supplementary Health Benefits Across Canada, dated May 4, 2010. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the number in front of me, but we have a number of staff that run the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. We believe that the new program would cost $200,000 to $300,000 to administer. Thank you.

I’d be happy to share that. We know that policies exist, but it’s the people and machines that implement those policies and procedures. The latest information is that the information was faxed from an Alberta facility and our Privacy Commissioner is in touch with her counterpart to follow up on the details of this. Details are not clear at the moment, but we are following up on that as we take these issues very seriously. Thank you.

The legislation sets out a very clear process on the steps that a complaint would go through. A board of inquiry would obviously follow the administrative rules which speak to apprehension of bias, making sure there is no apprehension of bias and natural justice and all that. Mr. Speaker, my role in that regard is to appoint the Members into that board of inquiry, and the Medical Profession Act states clearly how that inquiry will take place and then they will make recommendations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I have waited until today to raise this point of order because I wanted to review yesterday’s Hansard.

On Tuesday, May 11th, during the question period. Mr. Abernethy said, and I quote from page 27 of the unedited Hansard for that day: “So what she is saying, that they are not covered, it is not completely true. It is doublespeak. She is saying one thing when really she is trying to say another…”

Mr. Speaker, the Merriam Webster Dictionary defines doublespeak as, “language used to deceive, usually through concealment or...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe there was ever a compassionate policy. I am aware that there is a Medical Travel Policy. If you need a medical escort, you get one. The elders would have an escort. Somebody with a language issue will get an escort. Mr. Speaker, the Member is asking me to do a compassionate analysis. Maybe the Member could tell me how do we decide what is more dire: a family who needs to be near a child who has had a transplant, a 90-year-old elder from Fort McPherson who’s dying of cancer who we don’t know how long it will take, somebody who’s had a brain… I’m just thinking of...