Sandy Lee

There is no other jurisdiction in Canada where there is not some kind of income testing. In fact, in most jurisdictions they do asset testing. This one, we are saying income as a possibility of determining access, and no matter what your age, your ability to pay should factor in.

Secondly, Mr. Speaker, one thing that the Member for Hay River South mentioned earlier is that our previous plan that came out was designed in such a way that if you didn’t make an income threshold, you are dropped off. We’re not suggesting this. This is an idea. We’re saying should there be gradual responsibility for...

The other side of that is the money is voted in this House. We could, as a House, decide that we would provide supplementary health benefits to anybody; we pay for dental, we pay for drugs, we pay for homecare, we pay for anything, just because we want to. Then the Member will just need to pass the budget on that.

That’s not how we do our business here. Supp health benefits programs are very generous in this jurisdiction. We will continue to keep it that way. We have a group of people who are excluded from it and it is very important for us to have a very informed, evidence-based discussion...

Number 3 tells that answer. So I would encourage the Member and everybody else to look at this questionnaire that we posted on the website. The Member is suggesting, and others are suggesting, that we have a predetermined course of action and that we have a date in place and that we’re shoehorning the public into a decision, which is absolutely not true.

Number 3: Knowing what we know now about the costs and needs of the various existing uninsured health benefits programs, the Department of Health and Social Services is considering rolling the three programs this paper has discussed into a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member stated that he read the document on the website, but I don’t believe he understood what he read.

---Interjection

As the Member knows, these changes were done and announced in 2007, as a result of what I know because I was here for about seven years’ work. Those were announced in 2007. The motion was passed in 2008…no, 2009, last year, to go back and do the work. We have done that. We have done a lot of intense research on who this program is serving right now. We feel we have an excellent set of information to go out to the public to engage public discussion on. I think that we should be applauded, actually, for going out to the public with the information we have and asking the public to give us input.

M...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the drug cost is a key part of the landscape of health care spending going forward. In the Globe and Mail on Saturday, there was a two page spread about health care issues and drug costs being one of the biggest items. I think we are much more advanced in the North in terms of this issue than most other jurisdictions.

To answer the Member’s question, the department is right now working on a formal strategy. It is highly complex. It has lots of stakeholders, but we have undertaken to do that work. Thank you.

I could commit to the Member that I will work with the Housing Corporation to see what we can do in Ulukhaktok. I think the Member is talking about a different facility in Ulukhaktok than the dementia centre. The dementia centre is not a regular long-term care facility; it’s for the residents of the entire Territories and there are different levels of facilities that our elders need. I can commit to working with the Minister of Housing to see what we can do in Ulukhaktok.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government recognizes that this is a very important issue that we need to work on. We understand demographics tells us there is going to be an increasing need for facilities and support systems for our elders across the Territories. We are engaged in long-term care planning studies where we will have a prototype of long-term care facilities so we can lessen the time required to put these facilities in place. We are also doing a needs assessment for long-term care facilities all across the Territories so that we have a comprehensive plan as to the need so we can...

That’s absolutely right, Mr. Speaker. A lot of people have been asking about why we don’t we have catastrophic drug benefits. We don’t have national catastrophic drug coverage in Canada; the national government is not interested in doing that. We know of residents in other provinces who are actually having to sell their houses to pay for cancer drugs. This program speaks to providing coverage for catastrophic drug coverage so that no matter how high your income is, in the Northwest Territories you are not going to be saddled with having to decide whether you should sell your house to pay for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. March is National Nutrition Month. Although healthy eating is important all year, March is the month when healthy eating is emphasized and promoted across Canada.

A healthy eating survey was concluded at the end of February. In March, activities will include the promotion of healthy eating in schools through family nutrition fairs in communities. The department will also have nutrition tips posted daily on our website.

The national theme of Nutrition Month is “Celebrate Food...From Field to Table.” This gives us the opportunity to promote the inclusion of healthy...