Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have another question for the Minister of Health and Social Services, but probably to her great happiness, it’s not regarding supplementary health benefits. It’s regarding hearing tests.
I’ve had some complaints from constituents that it’s taking 18 months or more to get hearing tests here in the Northwest Territories. They’re gravely concerned. I’ve brought this to the attention of the Minister’s office and at the time the response was yes, that’s the reality. In short, what is being done on this problem and has the Department of Health and Social Services solved this problem by finally being able to bring somebody in and shorten up those wait times?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right that this issue was brought up. I believe I followed up on it with the status of what was happening at the time, but I don’t have the most recent updates. I will commit to getting back to the Member on that.
The Minister is right; she did provide a response that, yes, they know that. Her response also said they’re looking at it, but the reality is that this response was lacking in the sense that it didn’t seem to have a plan to bring someone in or a long-term plan to solve the solution. The issue comes down to the fact that I’m being contacted again by more constituents saying that this continues to be a very important issue and they’re concerned is the government hearing them. Would the Minister commit to getting an answer and update before the end of this sitting so if there are problems, we can deal with them in a timely way before session ends? We usually get better answers to our questions while we’re in the House than outside.
To be fair and just going by my recollection, I believe what we were working on was to have some of our local people trained so that we could create more of a human resource pool for that office. I believe the starting time for that training program was this fall. I don’t have the most recent updates, so I’m willing to look into that. I believe our response last time was more than we know about that. I think it was more precise on our action plan. I will get back to the Member.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This is a very important issue for many people who have hearing loss. It’s difficult for some people who have hearing loss to finally admit it, let alone deal with it. It is a significant challenge in families and I’m well aware of some families out there that struggle trying to communicate with each other in the way of dealing with this particular issue. The important thing is, will the Minister respond to this issue with a plan of action to show how the department is going to deal with this particular issue and showing the resources that can be committed to this problem with some time frames on how we plan to do this on the short term, again back to a long-term solution?
As I stated, I will get back to the Member with the details.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
