Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is working with all of the health authorities and also the health centres right across the territory to try to make this renewal of health cards as smooth as possible.

As of the middle of this month, we were to process 11,600 health care cards starting in January 2013. We have about an 86 percent compliance. We have about 86 percent of those processed, so there are a lot of health cards being done. Overall, we need to process about 38,000 health care cards in 2013.

For the most part we think it’s going fairly smoothly. We do have some glitches in the...

I don’t have that information with me. The last information I have is there was some issue about the land tenure. The Hay River Reserve, the majority of the land is federal land, if not all. So we’re just sorting out the land tenure and I believe that that has been sorted out. So I could maybe commit to trying to get the centre opened this summer.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Health Information Act is currently being drafted and the bill will be introduced in this fall session of the 17th Assembly.

I hope to have the Beaufort-Delta board in place, whether it be an advisory board or a management board, before the end of this government.

The previous board was disbanded. It was for reasons that I’m not totally familiar with at this point. However, one of the requests from the Beaufort-Delta, in speaking to some of the leadership, there was an indication that if we are going to reappoint the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Board, that individuals sitting on that board should have some knowledge, good knowledge of sitting on a board, good knowledge in being able to read financial statements, having some skills to sit on that board, and they’re able to effectively report the workings of the board back to the communities...

It’s no secret that the majority of the issue seems to be focused in on communities outside of Inuvik and outside of Yellowknife. Definitely we are looking at how to close that gap.

Like I indicated, we thought that it was an anomaly that individuals were having issues, but if you look at the numbers, we have a fairly high compliance rate. Most people are not having issues, they are getting their cards on time. We have taken time to ask individuals. There are some in the system that do come forward to MLAs, that indicate that there is a problem. We are trying to address those problems as...

I’m not sure that putting more resources in the Inuvik office, which is responsible for processing the cards, is the answer. Perhaps we could deal with trying to provide them some assistance in the processing of the cards.

The process is that people in Inuvik are dealing with the cards as they come in. They’re processing and sending them to Ontario, they’re being printed, and then they’re being mailed out to the individuals in the Northwest Territories that are to receive health care cards. But if I can commit to the Member that we will contact the Inuvik office and see if the issue is a lack...

I will commit to having the department advise the health centres and the drugstores that individual clients who prove that they have applied could do one of two things. The drugstore or the clinic can do an immediate check to see how far along in the process their card approval is, or also just to prove that they have applied and they will be covered.

Clients who have applied for renewal will continue to get coverage. The fact that they may not have the physical health card in their hand at the time may not be that important. I recognize that individuals want to have that card in case of travel, but for the sake of seeing a physician or getting pharmaceuticals, it shouldn’t be an issue.

Individuals, if they apply and their health card is not there on time, has not arrived by the time their old health care card has expired, we are still going to be able to provide coverage for those individuals.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The department has had discussions with the Deh Cho Health and Social Services and also the Hay River Health and Social Services on a way to open up the health centre. We are looking at providing the health services from the Hay River Health and Social Services in that office and trying to determine what the level of needs would be for clinical needs on the reserve. So whether or not there would be, as you know, we only have one doctor in the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority. So we would be using locums and nurse practitioners to assist in the operation of...