Tom Beaulieu

The whole plan is all about prevention. We are trying to help people to sober up so that they lessen their use of the health system. What we think is common knowledge is that sober people are healthier, and there are serious problems with alcohol and that it has a heavy price tag on the health system. Generally, the way we view this is that the nature of the whole action plan is going to be on prevention. Thank you.

In the action plan, detoxification, I think, is the first gap that is identified in there. Our intention is to try to have people go through detoxification without necessarily building infrastructure for them to do it in. I think the intention would be to go to more programming than anything. Also, we have some confidence that if an individual wants to quit using drugs or quit using alcohol, that they will stop and go through their own personal detoxification. We have to have some confidence that people that wish to quit drinking, will quit drinking, and that at some point down the road they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The intention of this forum initially was to have the forum around December, depending on how much information we are able to gather. Although we thought we had a structure in mind on the forum, now we’re considering the deliberations that have occurred during Committee of the Whole and we’re looking at maybe changing the structure of the forum at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Member’s may know, Cabinet direction for all extended health benefits, any health benefits that we provide, and as far as drugs and other services go, are in line with the non-insured health benefits that are provided by the federal government for First Nations. So if we were to go off of that system, that would be contrary to Cabinet direction. But we do have a system to look at these cases on a one-on-one basis. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, I’m prepared to call the Health Minister in Ottawa or if she’s in her Iqaluit office, to have this discussion with her. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have tracked the situation. We recognize that it’s a federal government issue. We know the Minister and we have provided some information to the MLAs office, but we’re also prepared to make contact with that federal Minister to find out the details of why those cheques were late. Thank you.

We are currently with the MLAs from Beaufort-Delta to try to put a Beaufort-Delta health advisory council together that will work with the public administrator or with the chair, one of the systems. We haven’t made our final decision yet, until we review the terms of reference the JLC this week. We’re hoping to then provide the terms of reference to the Beaufort-Delta MLAs within that forum. Without pre-empting the decisions that those individuals on that council would make, I’d like to say that this is one of the things that we will look at very closely, where we’ve heard Members that there...

Recognizing the deviation from the NIHB formulary could potentially cost more money than expected and have other impacts, but I will commit to continue to look at off-label drugs and the positive impacts of off-label drugs on a one-off basis.

Thank you. At this point any drugs that are considered to be off-label drugs that have benefits other than what’s indicated and approved by Health Canada, is on a one-off basis, like I indicated. It’s requested by the physician so that an individual that is prescribed drugs and is having a positive effect in another area, the exception can be requested by a physician. The physician’s request will then go to Alberta Blue Cross for review and then it will come back to Health and Social Services for consideration.

Thank you. Yes, I’m prepared to do that. Thank you.