I don’t believe there was a question. I just want to clarify that the public working group did have a… The department officials met with the public working group, the NGO groups. They wanted to have good information to base their discussion on. They’ve had a look at the information that we’ve provided and they are working with us. We will continue to work with them, work with the Members, work with the public, because I agree with the Member that this is the best program there is in supplementary health anywhere in Canada. We will continue to maintain that and we want to make sure that those who are in need the most will have access to it and that it will continue to be fair and equitable. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister keeps telling us that this is the best program in Canada. I can’t argue that. On paper, it’s the best in Canada and certainly the most lucrative. But when she says that it doesn’t actually include the cost of living in the Northwest Territories, and slight changes will send us to a tipping point that may well result in people leaving the Northwest Territories, yet there’s no evidence of research done -- and I’ve said this several times -- to suggest that they’ve even done any analysis on that. Will the Minister commit to actually doing the research on the ramifications of people leaving? If 39 seniors leave, that’s $800,000 out of our pockets. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do believe that it is, bar none, the best Supplementary Health Program that is available in Canada. What we know is that there is a group of people who are excluded as it is currently administered. So we want to look at the access and see if those who are most in need are accessing those. I believe we have lots of good information out there that could start the debate. It will be facilitated at public hall meetings and I am sure that all of the questions that the Member is asking could come forward and we will have a good dialogue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources. In my Member’s statement I talked about the duty of employers, and particularly the GNWT, to accommodate and reintegrate employees, who have been off the job, as quickly as possible. Some of my anecdotal evidence indicates that that doesn’t necessarily happen within the confines of our GNWT employees. So I’d like to ask the Minister what policies and procedures exist. What timelines do we identify in policy and procedures to integrate, reintegrate or accommodate employees who have been off the job due to injury or illness? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As an employer, our government has a legal obligation to accommodate employees who have a mental or physical disability, to enable them to return to the workforce to their full capacity. The accommodation that we determine it through is information provided by their physicians that sets out their limitations, and we work according to those timelines that generally are determined by the disability that the employee has. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I guess I’d like to know if we are working with statements from physicians, if I have been injured on the job and my physician says that I need an assessment to determine whether I can go back to work, when an assessment is required is it standard policy or practice for the GNWT to go to local resources first before we go outside to get these sorts of assessments done? Thank you.
Each situation has to be assessed on a case-by-case basis in order to determine what accommodation is required. Some of the areas depends on what type of special equipment needs to be provided, what kind of amendment to duties are involved, whether there is retraining involved or whether we have to amend hours of work. If there are assessors here, and I understand we do use local assessors or, depending on the situation, we may be required to go south for an assessment. But, like everything else, if there is the capability here, we’ll use it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I certainly would hope that we would go local and that sending somebody outside would be a recourse of last resort. In terms of training that our HR staff get, I know they are certainly trained in many areas, but in the area of accommodation of workers returning to work after injury or illness, I would like to know what kind of training our HR staff get. Thank you.
Our main objective is to enable employees to return to work as active and productive members of the public service. We do have sensitivity training. We do have a training calendar that outlines the needs. I am pleased to advise that with the passage of our budget, we will be hiring a duty-to-accommodate consultant that will ensure that the employees that deal with this have the proper training or we identify the proper training. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I am glad to hear that we are expanding our view on both persons with disabilities and accommodating people who need to be reintegrated into the workforce after a time away. I would like to ask the Minister, I mentioned in my statement I think it’s important for staff to be trained. I also think it’s important that workers know what things are out there for them, that they need to know our policies and procedures. So what kind of training do GNWT workers get in the area of accommodation and reintegration? Thank you.
We are taking steps to advise everybody that the GNWT workplace is open to all Northerners, and anybody that is planning for jobs with the Government of the Northwest Territories, if you currently have a disability and you require accommodation, we encourage you to identify your needs if you apply and we will accommodate those needs during the hiring process.
As far as training, it’s something that our whole focus is on delivery, service delivery to our clients, and we will provide all the training that is required to our workers that deal with persons with disabilities and ensure that they understand what is meant by duty to accommodate and that they fulfil those responsibilities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement, with regard to the NWT Power Corporation, with the Minister in the specific case of the grocery store in Fort Simpson that failed. Can the Minister do a post-mortem on that whole situation and provide some recommendations that this cannot happen to another business? Just to work backwards, Mr. Speaker, I think it would be a good thing to look backwards to ensure those types of businesses don’t get into those same types of arrears situations with the NWT Power Corporation. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Roland.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member stated, on the closure of this grocery store, this is something we would preferably not have happen in the Territory. Unfortunately, the cost of electricity in our smaller communities is high, hence the review that was done by the government on the electricity rates regulation distribution subsidy process. We are hoping to come back, as Minister McLeod is the lead on that, with solutions for the next fall planning cycle.
Specifically to this piece, there is a lot of work that has been done in trying to work with the customer here. But it comes back to the cost of energy in that area. I will commit to the Member to provide him the information I have. On the bigger picture, we must do what we can to ensure we try to minimize these types of occurrences from happening in the future. Thank you.
Like I said, any time we lose a business it’s a sad thing for any community, big or small. If the NWT Power Corporation does a post-mortem on the situation, because it was ongoing for awhile, if they look back and assess the situation, they can learn from it and it’s something that can be a positive thing to share with the community or any other businesses that might be experiencing the same type of pressure and extra costs with power, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Under the existing structure that we have to operate in as a Power Corporation with the rate bases as they are, the collections that must be brought in to ensure we keep the corporation in a healthy state means the more arrears or accounts that are in arrears, it affects the rest of the customer base in that area. That is why we have to look at a different way of operating and how we structure ourselves as the Power Corporation. That includes setting direction as a government overall. We will look at the process and information there. I know there were many steps taken to try to help out, but ultimately it comes down to trying to stop the arrears from starting to begin with. One of the bigger ways of doing that is to make a fundamental shift in the way we deliver energy across the Northwest Territories and that work is being done and hopefully we’ll have Members supporting the recommendations that are made. Thank you.
I am really pleased to see the work that the government is doing with the review of the electricity rates and, if the Minister can confirm it, we’re also looking at the commercial power rates as well. We know about the cost of living pressures and we want to prevent this type of situation that’s happening. Will the Minister tell us if the commercial rates will also be reviewed fully under this review? Thank you.
The commercial rates, as the Member has discussed, is one of the high cost areas of doing business in the Northwest Territories in our more remote communities, especially in the thermal communities that don’t have access to hydro possibilities. Besides expanding that and trying to create that, the existing framework needs to be changed. We are looking at potential ways of doing that that would lower the commercial rates in our communities. We are hoping, again, that as we bring that work forward, Members will support it and we can make the necessary changes going forward and that will, again, benefit the commercial side of power in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Roland. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was listening to the Minister of Health’s answers really closely and I think what she represents is the exact reason why people hate politicians. Because when you move something around, it’s called a change; and when you reduce something, it’s called a reduction. So, Mr. Speaker, that frustration is articulated out there by playing with semantics. So I’d like to ask the Minister again -- perhaps another way we’ll get the answer -- what work and analysis is done by the Department of Health and Social Services to make sure that they’re collecting all the fees and services that we are providing to clients out there so it does not have an impact on our revenue so we have to reduce services to our health and benefits program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member knows that we don’t have fee systems in our health care system. I don’t believe there is a co-payment for medical travel for those whose income is higher than a certain level. I could only think of that. In long-term care facilities, people pay minimal for staying there. But by and large, we have the most generous and open health care coverage compared to anywhere else in the country and probably around the world. Thank you.
I keep telling the Minister we’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table, whether it’s through WCB… We charge through WCB but we don’t charge through federal programs where they provide individual insurance. Mr. Speaker, I’m asking the Minister what do we do to make sure we’re collecting all the fees and services, and I’ve pointed out whether it’s insurance through, for example, auto insurance, like I said last week, whether it’s getting full payment from Nunavut on services we provide to them. Thank you.
I don’t know why he’s getting the impression that I don’t think that we should do that or we are not doing that. We are doing that. I said that in our Committee of the Whole discussion. Our health system as a whole, we bill for services that we need to bill, we collect money, we have people that do that, whether it’s a visitor or out-of-towner or it’s a physician-to-physician arrangement. That’s part of the health care system and delivery system. I just want to make sure that there’s not a linkage that we are somehow trying to reduce services in everything to make up for something that we’re not collecting. That is wrong and if the Member doesn’t understand that, I don’t understand why he thinks that’s somehow making politicians look bad. I’m just giving him the answer; he should hear that, Mr. Speaker.
I have said in the Foundation for Change and our collective challenge is that we have a fiduciary obligation to protect the health and social services system we have, and that we look at the long-term outlook at where we are heading and that we make sustainability a priority, and that is not a cost reduction, that’s just about protecting, and protecting what we value. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure how the Health Minister can keep saying that there aren’t changes coming to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program when there are changes. What are we evaluating then? It doesn’t make sense. How can the Minister keep saying that there aren’t changes coming without it being reflected on the costs of the system? I’d like to understand that from the Minister’s point of view. Thank you.
If the Member read the public discussion -- perhaps he has, maybe wants to read it again -- there’s no mention there. I think anybody who’s had that presentation -- and we’ve had that presentation with the seniors, with Joint Leadership Council members -- it’s a good package of information to start a dialogue on.
I want to say it again, that we’re not proposing changes that take away benefits. What we are saying is we need to look at accessibility, who accesses that. And anybody who could afford to pay a co-payment or something, perhaps we should consider that. That is part of our discussion.
So I think the Members are jumping the gun in saying we’re ahead of this. This is a very important discussion and we need to have that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Co-payment is a reduction in services. Mr. Speaker, when you grandfather people, that’s a reduction of services to the people who follow after them. Mr. Speaker, I’m trying to understand from the one-sided point of view of this full evaluation, as I’ve been trying to highlight, we can save money so we can make sure we don’t have to make these changes. I’m trying to understand how come the Minister keeps defending that there are no changes when we keep highlighting that there are. Thank you.
I want to say clearly that we are not looking at reducing costs. In health care services it’s about making sure that our system works well so that we plan for the future. The health care budget in this government continues to grow and we expect that it will continue to grow and that we will continue to spend the money that we need for the health and social services system.
The review of supplementary health benefits is different. It’s been around for a long time and we have very good information about who is using it and what the people’s backgrounds are, and that there is not as much fairness and equitability in that program as it is delivered now. So we are going out to the public with the information we know about the program and asking people for feedback. To say that we shouldn’t even do anything like this is I don’t think very future-oriented or responsible. I think we have a collective responsibility to see how we can make this better. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the subject of SCAN legislation was raised in the House without any final context provided. This is a big concern to my constituents so I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice where is SCAN legislation at in the priorities of this department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the SCAN legislation, we have visited the Yukon, our neighbouring Territory, to see how their legislation was going. We met with several of the leadership of that community, Whitehorse, and also visited the First Nations group and also the community council. So we just wanted to have a firsthand look at how that legislation was operating.
At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we are currently conducting our own research in other jurisdictions as well. The SCAN legislation is at the preliminary stages at this point. We want to make some changes so it reflects on the northern perspective, it’s northern driven, it captures the North, as opposed to legislation that came and we changed the title. So, Mr. Speaker, there is still a lot of work in this area. So we continue to work on the legislation itself on a going forward basis. Mahsi.
I very much appreciate the comments of the Minister. I’m wondering, there have been concerns because of the cost of it. I know in other jurisdictions, some areas where the cost is low it might work, other areas the cost is prohibitive. I wonder if the Minister will be doing a cost analysis as well, so when he does comes forward with the results of the preliminary investigations we could also see that cost analysis. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, indeed, the cost analysis, the consultation, the fee, how much it would cost us and also a centralized model and other options, that we are dealing with. So, Mr. Speaker, we will finalize our overall cost, whether it be the equipment, the assets, the offices, the staff. Mr. Speaker, it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. So we will continue to provide that information to the Assembly Members when we gather all the information from other jurisdictions. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the questions I was asking earlier today. First off, I’d like to recognize that I agree with the Minister in her response to Mr. Hawkins that, yes, we have a collective responsibility to make this program work better for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I couldn’t agree more. The problem is I think we need information to do that.
The Minister also said, in responding to some of my questions, that we need some good dialogue between us and the stakeholders and the department. Once again, I couldn’t agree more, but we need to make sure that we have the information to do that. I didn’t hear the Minister commit to actually gathering some of the information that they have failed to commit. I’d like the Minister to commit to gather that information and do some of those cost-benefit analysis that address what will happen when people decide to leave the Northwest Territories, or may choose to leave the Northwest Territories, if changes do occur to the Supplemental Health Benefits Program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t have a problem with doing that. I think what I wanted to make sure that the Member knows is that we have not decided on how this is going to look. We haven’t decided that, Mr. Speaker. We have done the research and analysis that we were asked to do. I think the Member might think… The Member has suggested that the Minister knew what she wanted and engineered the research to look like that. I disagree with that. I believe any fair-minded people that look at the facts will see that the facts take us to a certain direction, and that’s what we want to take out to the public. The public working group had input, but we’ve also been getting lots of inquiries from the general public saying where is your consultation. So we made this decision and I made a decision that we have to get out to the public as soon as possible, show them what we have, ask them for some guidance. The Member knows that we go back to the committee and the discussion will be held here again.
So, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the Members and the public to give this a chance, look at the information and give us our input in the best way possible, by writing, by e-mailing, by calling us or by answering the questionnaires. I think this is a very open and transparent process and I ask for Members to continue to give us their input. But I don’t believe that we needed to have everything done before we went out, because we need to talk to the people. The public has been asking about what we are doing with this. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I don’t believe for a second that the Minister has done everything that we asked. Our motion was very, very clear. We said we wanted the financial analysis done and what would happen if the changes that they’re proposing, or maybe aren’t proposing. Who knows what they’re doing at this point. It’s hard to tell because it’s not particularly clear. But what are the ramifications of putting in a program that may result in people leaving? We were very clear. The Minister didn’t do that.
The process is going forward. She’s outlined the timeline for the process. We’ve got, you know, over the summer and they want to implement something in September. It took them two years to get to the point where they are; two years to gather the information that they’ve gathered. So as we go through this process, they’re going to hear more things and they’re going to be asked to go out and do more research. Do they really think they’re going to be able to implement this in September? I think it’s important that the Minister recognize that.
I’d like the Minister to acknowledge that the timeline is too tight and commit to extending the timeline so that we can actually do the research that’s required in order to design a program that’s appropriate for the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
