Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the drug cost is a key part of the landscape of health care spending going forward. In the Globe and Mail on Saturday, there was a two page spread about health care issues and drug costs being one of the biggest items. I think we are much more advanced in the North in terms of this issue than most other jurisdictions.
To answer the Member’s question, the department is right now working on a formal strategy. It is highly complex. It has lots of stakeholders, but we have undertaken to do that work. Thank you.
I assume the results of that will be brought forward in a timely fashion to the House or at least to Members.
On the question of affordability, I don’t see any analysis of the impact of different means thresholds or consideration of how our high cost of living, which is crucial for the great majority of low-income people who use these benefits, as being considered. Will the Minister commit to doing these detailed analyses and bring them forward as part of our consultation? Thank you.
We are asking that very question to our general public. In the material that we put into the website -- and that will go out to every household -- we do ask people about at what income level, if we were to consider co-payments, that we should begin to do that, instead of coming out and saying X, Y, Z and asking people whether they say yes or no. We are asking the people. We are explaining to the people what this program is, how it differs from the rest of Canada, who’s using it, and we are asking whether or not income thresholds should be used for a criteria for accessing information, whereas right now it’s whether you have a condition or your age is the determining factor. So we are opening that up to the public to tell us. Thank you.
Thanks for those comments from the Minister. I assume, then, she will be doing a second and third round of consultation taking that back with the implications of different selected thresholds.
On what basis does the Minister take a year -- that’s 12 months, Mr. Speaker -- to start producing the basic research into what should have been provided in the original effort 18 months ago, and then expect the public consultation to be done in six weeks? Thank you.
As the Member knows, these changes were done and announced in 2007, as a result of what I know because I was here for about seven years’ work. Those were announced in 2007. The motion was passed in 2008…no, 2009, last year, to go back and do the work. We have done that. We have done a lot of intense research on who this program is serving right now. We feel we have an excellent set of information to go out to the public to engage public discussion on. I think that we should be applauded, actually, for going out to the public with the information we have and asking the public to give us input.
Mr. Speaker, we’re not going to be engaged in paralysis by analysis and have every t crossed, every i dotted, and have an answer to those who would like nothing changed. I think, Mr. Speaker, it is important that we look at this and engage in public debate. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Mr. Speaker, what a scathing comment to our public that is. If there is one possible kernel I could pick out of that it is that the Minister has finally produced initial baseline research that can get intelligent discussion in the public, but it’s initial.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister recognize the need, duty and opportunity for meaningful public engagement in the Supplementary Health Benefits Program by extending consultation through the fall with an implementation target in 2011? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, the Members across often advise us that we should be open and transparent in what we do. As far as I’m concerned, I blew the door open. We are open. We want to hear from the people. We are not going to predetermine. The Member often tells us about the need for an Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Mr. Speaker, this one, we should be concerned that there are a group of people right now who don’t get benefits of supplementary health, even though they cannot afford it. I think the Member and everybody in the House owes it to us to make sure that we look at this, and we make sure that this program is fair and equitable. We’re going to go to the public and we are getting lots of interest from people. We’re going to have a very thorough, comprehensive, intelligent, two-way dialogue, and we’re going to improve this program for generations to come. We’re not going to wait for 10 more years to make this fair and equitable. We’re going to get it done. We’re not going to consult to consult. We’re not going to analyze to death. We’re going to ask the people, and people are going to answer. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions today for the Minister of ITI and it gets back to my Member’s statement where I was speaking about the government’s involvement in the secondary industry. Mr. Speaker, what started out with some very good intentions on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in a secondary industry established here in the Northwest Territories over the last number of years has been nothing but a train wreck.
I’d like to begin by asking the Minister of ITI what is taking so long to get a new policy established so that people here in the Northwest Territories involved in the secondary industry know what the rules of engagement are going to be going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The mining industry, and particularly diamonds are the most important part of the economy of the Northwest Territories. So I think the Member has his facts wrong or he didn’t check the facts, but the Northwest Territories was the first jurisdiction that provided for an allocation of rough diamonds from the diamond mines in order to provide for a secondary diamond industry. Plus, secondly, with the downturn in the economy, the largest market for diamond purchases is in the United States, and purchases dropped off by 75 percent. To suggest that we could operate outside of that environment is a bit of a stretch.
Secondly, we have been directed to revive the secondary diamond industry on a business basis only so that there will be no government funds involved. We are working on a policy. The Member knows that it’s very important to get the policy right. We have to make sure we got all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted, because it’s very important to get the process right, and we’re fully involving the committees. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve talked about this before. I mean, we need to pursue opportunities with the vigor and aggression that I think… You know, if we do not do this, other jurisdictions now across this country are going to pursue those opportunities when they present themselves. As I said earlier, we have investors here who are waiting for this new policy to be developed and to be out there. So, again, I’d like to ask the Minister, when does the Minister believe that we will have a workable policy in front of the committee so that we can get this out there to the public. Thank you.
We have undertaken consultation with the industry stakeholders and we have requested that they respond to us by the end of February. We now have all of the diamond mines responses. We’re developing a draft government response to proposed changes and we will be back to committee. Our expectation is probably April/May. If everybody concurs, then we’ll look at implementation shortly after. Thank you.
In my Member’s statement I also talked about Botswana, the world’s leading producer of diamonds, and the fact that they understand and appreciate that mining is not going to be forever in Botswana. The Government of the Northwest Territories, I think, could take a page out of Botswana’s book and develop something like the Diamond Trading Company Northwest Territories. In Botswana it’s called Diamond Trading Company Botswana, where they mix, sort and trade diamonds in Botswana. I’d like to ask the Minister if that’s part of the new policy framework that the department’s looking at. Thank you.
I should point out also that in Botswana they shut all their mines down for a period of about two or three months during the downturn in the economy. But I can assure the Member that his suggestion, we are looking, it’s part of our policy, but I don’t want to pre-assume what the recommendations will be or the responses that we would receive through our consultation process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I said, as well, one thing I’ve learned over the years is that access to rough and having control of the rough trade means you have a captive audience. I’d like to ask the Minister, I think we should be pursuing with vigor and with aggression the possibility of the Government of the Northwest Territories, under some secretariat or scheme or however we can work that out, we take control of the 10 percent allocation of rough and we control that rough, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could, again, pursue that with some aggression. Thank you.
Certainly it’s very important to make sure that all of the rough allocation is taken up and utilized here in the Northwest Territories, and cut and polished here in the Northwest Territories. We are examining every option and it’s certainly something that we’ve got some very strong recommendations on. I look forward to when I can share the conclusions of our consultations with the Member and his committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in the House I talked about the need for the NWT Housing Corporation to do repairs on seniors housing in Tu Nedhe. I have questions for the Minister of Housing.
Mr. Speaker, last year when I asked the Minister if there was a strategy to address communities with the high core need, his response was as soon as the need survey is done, we can look at something. The survey is complete now. I would like to ask the Minister what the plans are for addressing communities with the highest core need across the Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the community needs survey will go a long way in determining the allocation for repairs. We are planning on directing a lot of money to the communities that are in highest need so we can address the core need issue. Thank you.
Now that the needs survey has been completed, I am going to ask questions on the survey. The Minister and the staff may not have had a full opportunity to review it, but I’ll still ask a question. I would like the Minister to tell me what plans are undertaken to address core need issues for seniors’ households. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I was saying before, the results from the core needs survey will determine how we allocate a lot of the money and if that includes allocating more money to seniors, then that’s the direction that we’d be willing to take. We do have a lot of programs in place for seniors and there is a fairly good uptake on it, but we are always looking at ways to improve our product. Thank you.
Can the Minister tell me with the information gathered in the needs survey, if he’s able to determine the difference between core needs of seniors, singles, families and those different groups within the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The report doesn’t necessarily break it down into seniors and homeownership and that, but in the research that was done, I’m sure that I would be able to get some numbers and share those with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to directing his staff to deliver the maximum amount of repairs that can be issued with a promissory note where there is no need to encumber the land? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There used to be a program in place where if you were on untenured land, you were eligible for up to $25,000. We changed that. You are eligible to up to $40,000 now. As Members are well aware, part of the criteria for accessing any of these programs is to have title to the land. So we are continuing to try to take steps to work with those that don’t have proper tenure to the land and there are a lot of other issues that we continuing to deal with. One of the first issues that we are always deal with when we do get calls, the first question we ask them is did you apply. Five times out of ten, the answer is no. We encourage folks out there to apply to their district office and not try to circumvent the whole process by going directly to the MLAs or to the Minister. Thank you.
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 and I believe it’s directed to the Minister responsible for the Energy Coordinating Committee on the review of the power rates. Much work has been done to date and I would like to ask the Minister to explain to me, to my constituents, the basis of the work that was done to date. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the Energy Coordinating Committee, Mr. Bob McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our government has invested a lot of time and effort into looking at the high cost of power in the Northwest Territories, as well as the distribution and generation of power and also looking at alternative energy.
Starting with alternative energy, we’ve committed to spending $60 million over a period of three years to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. We are well into that process.
With regard to the electricity review, we appointed a panel of members that were experts in their field and they have undertaken a process of community hearings, meetings and so on, to look at the whole process that we use for setting electrical rates, for monitoring and control, for generating and transmitting of power. They submitted their report and have identified about 76 recommendations for the government to consider.
In addition to that, there was a review of the NWT Power Corporation. As well, there was a proposal with regard to ownership of the Power Corporation. The review of the NWT Power Corporation was submitted and the other proposal is being looked at by a committee of deputies, but it’s waiting until we, as a government, make some decisions on the electrical rate review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know that the Minister could have gone on and on about trying to fulfil the work we’ve done in the last year on the electricity review. I guess the most important thing for me in my constituency, and many small communities, Mr. Speaker, is the assurance that all this work is leading to reducing the rates, thereby the cost of living in our smaller communities. How much of this work that was done, Mr. Speaker, confirms that it is possible to do it in the short term and for the benefit of all as well in the long term? Thank you.
I believe working with all Members of this Legislative Assembly, I am very optimistic that we can find ways to make changes that would result in benefits for the majority of the communities and no one community will be unduly impacted. As the review team identified in the report, the system is broken and we have to fix it and I really believe that we have to make changes if we are to go forward on a sustainable basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As I had said the last few days, it’s our small businesses that own buildings that are really impacted by the high power rates. If we are looking at changes to the system, can the Minister explain how the impacts will be for the commercial rates, Mr. Speaker?
Our objective is to reduce the power rates for commercial businesses so they can also, in turn, pass on these rates to help reduce the cost of living in communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
I’d like to thank the Minister for his answer, Mr. Speaker, as well as passing on the savings to the customers. Are the planned rates commercial or residential? Are we still going to be looking at some type of territorial power support for the smaller communities?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The electricity review is a public document and recommended that we look at a three-rate system for power. The TPSP would apply to thermal communities. That was the recommendation. My expectation, subject to working with the committee or all Members of the Legislative Assembly, is that the TPSP would still apply to residential.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The manifesto is crystal clear. The Health Minister’s ambition to trim health benefits is obvious. Raising the cost of living for our constituents is obvious. Creating consultation that appears more like shoehorning the public into a direction by their design is certainly clear.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain to me how this does not look like a predetermined process that has a predetermined, scripted outcome?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member stated that he read the document on the website, but I don’t believe he understood what he read.
---Interjection
We’re not dictating anything. We’re asking questions like number 2: Would assistance with co-payment costs based on income make a difference to your preference? Yes or no? If no, why not? What are your concerns? Which income brackets do you think should pay a co-payment? Under $30,000, $40,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $69,999, all the way up to $150,000 and over?
We have at least 10 questions. We are most open. We are most willing. We’re most engaging. We’re just presenting the public with the basic facts about what the Supp Health Program is as opposed to the core Canadian health care. It’s a program that in the rest of the country that are income tested and that very few people get. I say once again, we are going to have the most generous Supp Health Program anywhere still. Right now we have a group of people who don’t have access and we are engaging the public as to how to improve this program.
