Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on my statement and her statement as well.
I noted in the Minister’s statement that there were no words that I read or understood which referenced that coverage would be extended to those residents of the NWT who do not currently have either chronic conditions coverage or catastrophic drug coverage or supplementary health benefits coverage. So I’d like to ask the Minister, is it the intent of the Minister and the department to do that? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated in my Minister’s statement, I will be coming back next week with more information on the work plan or the time frame within which the recommendations made in the Joint Working Group report need to be reviewed and considered, so I will be looking into that. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. I’m afraid her words don’t give me much comfort. She’s mentioned that she’s coming back to announce the process to talk about implementation. I have several concerns there. The coverage of people who are not currently covered is a very basic need and it’s one that certainly all Members have agreed upon. It was not one that at the Joint Working Group there was any kind of disagreement on. So I need to know from the Minister, in terms of these announcements of process and implementation, will there be an opportunity for the public, I guess, to have input on those? I know she’s mentioned the Standing Committee on Social Programs, but will the implementation plans and suggestions be out there for the public to comment on?
I do agree with the Member that the most important pillar of the Supplementary Health Policy that we rescinded is the fact that we would have been able to expand the coverage to the working poor as of next Monday. That aspect was the most immediate and present Anti-Poverty Strategy that we had that we are not able to implement. I agree with the Member that we need to look at that. We’re going to look at that in a package with all the other suggestions that the Joint Working Group had asked us to work on and Cabinet is committed to looking at that.
Of course, in any changes, we work with the Standing Committee on Social Programs. Standing Committee on Social Programs and every other committee can give and invite public input. We have a process in place. I’m making a commitment in today’s statement that I will be coming back with a time frame and what we are planning to do in that regard. We will have lots of time to review those and follow the regular consensus government process.
Thanks to the Minister for her comments. I appreciate, I think, Standing Committee on Social Programs will certainly take advantage of the Minister’s comment that we can go for public input. I imagine there will be certainly some of that.
The Minister mentioned the 2007 policy, which has now been rescinded. It kind of leads into my question. I guess two things: I don’t think we need a policy to extend coverage to people who are not covered, but in the absence of a Supplementary Health Benefits Policy -- which I presume we now have -- what will govern extended health benefits, Metis health benefits and any other sort of catastrophic condition benefits?
Whatever she wants to do and she’s suggesting these policy changes. As it is now, the Supp Health Policy that would have come into effect on November 1st has been rescinded. Everything is status quo until we change anything. If we need to include anything or change anything else, that’s a policy change. So we need to do more work on that and I’m making a commitment, as I did in my Minister’s statement, that we are working to come back with a proposal on the recommendations made by the Joint Working Group and anything else. Until we bring in new policies, the status quo remains.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess we have to agree to disagree. I’m puzzled that we need a policy change or a new policy in order to implement some of these efficiencies and changes to supp health and chronic conditions coverage.
The last thing I want to ask the Minister is whether or not... There have been a number of changes that have been mentioned in her statement. I have to assume, I’m hoping these are not all the changes that are being proposed. Are these the short-term changes and are there medium- and long-term changes coming?
Those are the changes that I will be coming forward with next week with a time frame and short-term, mid-term and long-term implementation plans, what we need to do and work together on in order to implement the changes that were suggested in the Joint Working Group and where we could move forward.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
