Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we hire these frontline staff in the community, they're usually members of the community, they're usually -- like, most of the CHRs that I have met along the tours that I have done as a health Minister are Indigenous people from the communities so they know their communities. They know that they can access -- they can do presentations in the school, they know that can -- you know, they can work with the home care workers to do community events. Whenever there is a community hall event, they can do those types of things. You know, that's where I think...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in most of our communities, we have community health representatives, we have health care staff, we have home care staff; however, you know, there are some initiatives that are sent to the schools. You know, they may work with the health centre to get information if there's certain things going on in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now, as the implementation of integrated care teams, they are in Yellowknife, Fort Smith, and Fort Good Hope at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all say that we have studies and research and reviews on many different areas within the health care system. Specifically to primary care, there are -- there are -- you know, there are different things that have been done. Some of those things aren't -- they don't necessarily meet the primary care reform needs. Some of -- some past -- you know, if there's reports out there, they might take pieces of them that meet the need of primary care reform. But we are moving away from the way that we used to provide services in the Northwest Territories...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this is very operational on the framework, as the Minister I don't -- you know, that is not something that I -- that's not where my expertise are, as to just finding what is the right amount of numbers. I mean, in this House, you know, we've heard many people say everybody wants a doctor. Well, everybody does. And in Inuvik, you know, you can go there and depending on the time of the day, you may get a doctor, you may get to see the nurse practitioner, you may get to see the nurse. In the health centre, you may not even get a nurse because there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the Member's question, what's happening here is is that part of the primary care reform. So, you know, whether we move to four teams within Yellowknife, those teams have been equipped with -- from the ten teams that they had that did not have enough staff down to the four teams that -- you know, they've been placed and that way the remaining of the people in Yellowknife can be assigned to that team. Not every person on that team or in Yellowknife needs to have access to a physician. What they need is they need access to a health care provider. So...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't speak to the details of this case so I will look forward to having a further conversation with the Member and with staff within my department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, Mr. Speaker, within our child and family services we have extended services to the -- before I think it used to be to 18 and now it's expanded to 24. My understanding within the system, these supports are supposed to be there to assist. However, this -- like, you know, coming from the Member, this is -- I've never -- I haven't had this come up through my office before so I'm willing to work with the Member to deal with, if there's a certain specific case or a family that's not getting the services that they require, I would work with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the administration of the GNWT public benefit plan has been contracted to Alberta Blue Cross since early 1990s. So Alberta Blue Cross is a non-profit organization that processes benefit claims for multiple organizations, both government and private. And Alberta Blue Cross has the infrastructure, the adjudication expertise, systems to do this, whereas GNWT does not have the capacity nor the financial resources to deliver this service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, additionally, when the rollout of the program, we made a -- we made changes on, you know, when Regular Members had, you know, raised issues with this and rolling it out. So what we did do is we waived from September 3rd, 2024, to August 31st, 2025, the deductible for the first ten income bands to be able to determine what the annual costs, so those Members that fell within that band two to ten, so they could determine what their actual costs are for the year, and then they were aware of what their deductible would be coming up for September 1st, 2025. As for...