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.
I realize that for some out there this could be studied for 10 years. I’ve been here for 10 years. This Supplementary Health Benefits Policy was studied for seven years, that I was here in 2007, before changes were brought about. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right; the last motion was in April, but I believe we set after the motion was passed. We worked on it through the summer and the fall. Perhaps, for some, we could spend 10 years studying this before any changes are made.
Mr. Speaker, I believe it’s a judgment call. I believe it was more important that we go out with the profile of the program: what is it, who’s accessing it and who’s not accessing it. We are going out to the public so that they could have a discussion, because we get daily questions from people wanting to know where this is at.
I think we need to give people a chance to speak. The Members can continue to give us their input. The Member is asking why do you not have the answer to what would happen if X happened. My point is we’re not saying X will happen without going to the public. Let the public decide whether the X should happen or not and, if that’s the case, how. Just to make sure that we let the people know that this is not a cost-cutting exercise, it’s about educating the public about what the supplementary health benefits are. It is the most generous of any. We want to keep it still generous, but we want to look at who is accessing that. Right now it’s only those who are over 60 and those who have a specific condition. There are a whole lot of people who are not able to access it. It’s only fair that those who don’t have access to it have a chance to say I think we should relook at who accesses this program.
The motion is clear. I was wondering if the Minister could tell us why the Minister ignored what the motion said.
The motion was a recommendation to the government. We have adhered to the motion. They told us to take it back, look at the facts, do that analysis and do the consultation. We are doing that right now.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
