Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will follow up on my colleague’s questions on the health care cards and the renewals. I am wondering what the department is doing to commit resources to speeding this process up and the backlog that is currently happening in the system. What is the department doing? The Minister indicated 11,000 have been completed but they are estimating that there is somewhere around 35,000 to 40,000 that have to be completed, so we are only about a quarter of the way done. What is the department committing its resources to speed the process up and make sure it works faster?
Perhaps I wasn’t clear. There are 11,600 until birthdates, until the 16th of May of this month, and at that point we had processed approximately 86 percent of those. But right up until the end of 2013 we will have about 38,000 people right from January too. So another 26,000 and some-odd cards, people whose cards will expire from May until December. Then the rest of the people, the 3,000 or so residents of the NWT, their cards will be expiring in 2014.
I guess my question is still what kind of resources? Obviously, we as MLAs are getting e-mails, three or four a week from different people that are having difficulty getting renewed. Obviously, the process is not working quickly right now. What resources are we committing to make sure that the process works quicker?
The residents of the Northwest Territories are frustrated right now. Myself and Mrs. Groenewegen have given you several examples today of people who have applied, including myself. My card would have never renewed before my birthday. I had to go to the pharmacy and get it updated. What is the department committing to resources?
I’m not sure that putting more resources in the Inuvik office, which is responsible for processing the cards, is the answer. Perhaps we could deal with trying to provide them some assistance in the processing of the cards.
The process is that people in Inuvik are dealing with the cards as they come in. They’re processing and sending them to Ontario, they’re being printed, and then they’re being mailed out to the individuals in the Northwest Territories that are to receive health care cards. But if I can commit to the Member that we will contact the Inuvik office and see if the issue is a lack of manpower. If the issue is a lack of manpower, we’re prepared to put some individuals in the office to process the applications. Thank you.
As I indicated, some of these applications are going back and being mailed. We’ve looked at the website, and the website seems like it’s very inefficient. So these applications are being returned to people incomplete. Is there not a quicker way, either by phone call or e-mail, or an e-mail on the website that somebody can send information to or their questions to? Obviously, the applications are coming back, people are phoning in, the phone number is not working because half the mailboxes are full when somebody calls and they can’t even leave a message. So I understand maybe the resources and the bodies may not be the answer, but definitely communication systems. Is there a way that we can improve the communications system for residents?
Yes, I think there is a way that we can improve the communication and I will have that discussion with the executive, and they will, in turn, have a discussion with the people that are responsible for making sure that the lines are open when people want to get a hold of information.
The reason that the applications are often returned is an issue of ensuring that people are eligible for health care cards when they apply for it. There is information that is needed on the health care card that guarantees that those individuals are eligible, and we are trying to comply to previous issues where people that were not eligible for health care were holding NWT health care cards and that was a huge issue. We think that we’ve arrested that issue with this type of diligence, and if that’s causing some further delays, then we will try to address those delays as soon as we can. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along those lines of communication, what are we doing for the health care centres, the health clinics, the pharmacies, to provide them with information, to provide them with this excellent line of communication? Because that’s where residents, my residents that I talk to, have been going and several residents have been going to get the information. It seems like the pharmacy has a separate line of communication that they can use. What are we doing to assist those groups, those private groups that are basically carrying the ball for the GNWT?
It’s no secret that the majority of the issue seems to be focused in on communities outside of Inuvik and outside of Yellowknife. Definitely we are looking at how to close that gap.
Like I indicated, we thought that it was an anomaly that individuals were having issues, but if you look at the numbers, we have a fairly high compliance rate. Most people are not having issues, they are getting their cards on time. We have taken time to ask individuals. There are some in the system that do come forward to MLAs, that indicate that there is a problem. We are trying to address those problems as quickly as possible. But I will touch base with the executive to make sure that if there are simple things that are missing on the application and so on, that they are not returned, that a phone call is made to fill in information that can be filled in with a phone call. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
