Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Perhaps your question is why are you frustrated. Order please, Members. Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to the lack of infrastructure in the NWT to house adults with many different disabilities.

Please provide information, by community, about NWT residents in need of independent, 24/7 supported living housing.

Please provide information on all waitlists for independent supported living housing, with particular regard to Yellowknife.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here I wanted to ask with regard to data collection from the Health and Social Services authorities. It has been expressed to us in committee a number of times that the department sometimes has difficulty in providing information to Members because it’s not all that easy to collect data from the authorities. Is the department working on that with the authorities and does that mean that there’s a money issue here? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Dolynny.

Thanks to the Minister. I didn’t mean a committee that was established almost a year ago. I hope he meant terms of reference for including bariatric surgery under our insured services.

Since we don’t currently provide insurance coverage for bariatric surgery, I’d like to know from the Minister if an individual in the NWT chooses to improve themselves, chooses to go and get the surgery done on their own and pay for it on their own, why do we not then assist them with any follow-up procedures, follow-up consultations that are required because there is very often, following the surgery, several...

One last question. It has to do with the administration of supplementary health benefits, which I understand is done on this page. I’ve said this before, there was quite an involved investigation, consideration. There was a joint working group that looked at the administration of our supplementary health benefits, and there were a number of recommendations that came out of it. Some of them have been implemented, and I think they were changes to the good.

But we still have a certain segment of our population which has no supplementary health benefits coverage. I would like to know from the...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I want to follow up on my statement. I mentioned a number of statistics in my statement and I want to provide a few more.

Diabetes prevalence rates among Aboriginal populations are at least three times higher than the general population. Aboriginal populations face higher risks for prediabetes and obesity, and Aboriginal women are particularly vulnerable to diabetes. They have four times the rate of non-Aboriginal women. They also have a higher risk for gestational diabetes.

I spoke to the cost of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple other questions on this page. One has to do with – and it was briefly mentioned I think when either the Minister or the DM talked about governance and change – there has been talk about centralizing the administration of the authorities. I didn’t quite understand where things were at with regard to that centralization of the administration for authorities. I gather it’s in the works. When might we expect that is going to be finalized? Is that another four- or five-year project?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next is Mr. Dolynny.