Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to assure the NWT residents that healthcare services for transgender individuals, including children and youth, will continue to be available under our existing model as there  at this time we are still utilizing the same referral plan as usual. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker, you know, I know that the  like I mentioned in the House, like I mentioned to the Member, mentioned to you, Mr. Speaker, is that the list is monitored. The questions that I have asked have come from questions that the Member has raised. You know, if there's more detailed information that the Member would like, you know, I would like to  I would work with the Member to get that information and be able to provide the accurate information and the clear direction on how we communicate that to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time within the Department of Health and Social Services  like, within my department, we are, as I mentioned, connecting with the Alberta health department on the proposed policies that Alberta has made. We will continue to keep those discussions ongoing to see if there is any changes and if there are changes that are going to impact the residents of the Northwest Territories, then we  like I said, we will have other options for those members to be able to access the care that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if an outofterritory referral is made for an NWT resident, including child or youth, and medically necessary service is not available in Alberta, we arrange to have these services made available in other locations in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, I will commit to doing that and making sure that there is some kind of information that can go out to Members and to  a communique on how this list is monitored. Thank you.

Thank you, Member, for the question. And after our back and forth on this question the last time, I did try to get more and more of the information that I would be able to provide to the Member. And so the list  this list has been in place  it sits within the like, the  it's an electronic list. So people  and it's monitored regularly. And the information that I can provide is that there  if there's a need for a patient that, you know, has chronic illness and things like that, then they, you know, they may, you know, be able to be assigned a doctor sooner. As for how long people have been on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned before, this is not taking away benefits from anybody who was previously covered. In the previous policy, it was outdated and there were it was put in place where specific diseases and you had to have a specific disease to fall to be able to qualify for the program. Within that program, there was no like, it just it was a blanket so we didn't you know, and so this time what it's doing is people who are applying are going to be you know, if they make above the threshold, there's and that was part of the standing committee, that there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you for the Member for being able to have this conversation. And I was. I was a Member of the Standing Committee on Social Development, and we did make we did have lots of consultations on this. And what we we did reduce the costs. Like, with the changes that we've put in place, there are members of the residents of the Northwest Territories that had no access to any benefits will now be able to fall under the extended health benefits policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mean, I can we have health centres. We have staff within those health centres. We have community health representatives in the communities. There are we provide information. We work with in collaboration with Indigenous governments. You know, there's wellness departments in some communities. You know, there's mental health and addictions programs in all of the communities. I'm not clear on what the Member is asking. So I mean, if there's more detail that the Member can provide for me as to which areas that she's looking into, I'd be willing to provide...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the scope of practice being considered is in line with the scope of other jurisdictions. The work will hopefully align the Northwest Territories with best practice and establish standards with the rest of Canada provides practitioners and patients and an understanding of what's required and expected of professionals. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.