Debates of October 31, 2012 (day 26)

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the Minister mentioned a couple of times the information report from this film forum. I think Regular Members would appreciate that and having access.

Finally, the topic that was mentioned of tax incentives. Not as prevalent as we may think, but it would also be an economic benefit for this industry. If jurisdictions like Yukon and Ontario are leading in this area, and provinces like Saskatchewan only learned that by dropping it, their film industry recently dried up, we don’t have any form of tax credit or rebate program in this industry.

Will the Minister commit to this House that he, his department, the Department of Finance will come up with a form of tax incentives, travel rebates, lodging rebates, or expenditure tax refunds to make the NWT a lead player for the future investment of the professional film industry?

Again, we are working toward that. We will continue to work with the folks at the Department of Finance. We will get that information. It’s a work in progress.

I appreciate the Member’s enthusiasm about the film industry here in the Northwest Territories and its importance to our economy here. We’re going to make sure that we get this right and continue to work with both Finance and Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Again and again I hear from constituents that don’t know that they are not covered for medical travel expenses by NWT Health Care when that travel originates outside of the Northwest Territories. I want to ask the Minister what measures our government has undertaken, or if they feel any obligation to make sure that people are aware of this or are reminded of this. What responsibility do we have as a government to make people aware of this?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Although the government or Department of Health and Social Services does not have an obligation to advise people on their travels to get medical insurance, I think it’s a good idea. I know that travel agents, when you’re going by plane, advise you to get medical insurance, but people who drive out don’t usually bother getting medical insurance, although it’s a good idea. I think the premiums are very reasonable and it’s something that if you do, as the Member indicated, have an accident while you’re down south, medical bills can be astronomical. Even getting to and back from the hospitals down south can be a big cost.

No one thinks about these things until it happens to them and then it’s too late. I’ve had two really serious incidents of people requiring medical travel for accidents and issues that took place outside of the Northwest Territories, in Alberta actually, and it cost a lot of money.

I know the Minister is saying that we don’t have an obligation to tell people, but I’m wondering if it would be worthwhile to have this information posted somewhere. Like when we issue health care cards, would it be worthwhile to have one line on the health care card that says this health care card will entitle the cardholder to medical services within the Northwest Territories and medical services in Canada at other health service providers, but have a line on it that says this does not include medical travel that originates outside the Northwest Territories. Would that be one way of conveying it? Would a public announcement? We put public announcements on the green screen for all kinds of things. Would something like that go some ways?

I’ve just been amazed at how many times this has happened to constituents of mine and I’ve spoken about this in the House many times before, but it’s still not something that comes into people’s consciousness when they’re about to travel.

I definitely think it’s well worth advertising this. I think that it is something that I could advise the department to start working with the authorities to get the word out to people who are going to travel outside our jurisdiction, to ensure that they are carrying medical travel insurance. I think it would be well worth doing that, even if it only prevents one person from having to pay huge medical bills as a result of an accident or something like that.

Because of this one particular incident that happened to a constituent of mine, I recently went on the RBC website and clicked on travel insurance and, actually, for my husband and myself for $75 per year you can buy medical travel for multiple trips. They even send you a little card that you can have plasticized so you can carry that in your wallet. It is as you said, Mr. Minister, extremely inexpensive.

I’m wondering, most of our constituents visit a clinic or a health centre or a health authority or a hospital or wherever they receive their medical services. Most of them would attend there at some point during the year. Do we have a poster that conveys this information that we could post in a public place, such as our health care facilities? Do we have one now, and if we don’t, could we get one that warns people of this cost to avoid?

We may have that type of poster in the health authorities. I’m not aware of that, but if we don’t, we should. I think that after today I will advise the deputy minister to contact the health authorities to ensure that these posters are in all of our health centres across the North, advising people that it would be a good idea to have medical travel insurance.

I didn’t know you could buy sort of like an annual medical travel insurance. That would be even better. It’s usually per trip, but if you can buy something on an annual basis, much better.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I was surprised to find out that you could buy it for multiple trips over the course of a year and how cheap it was; $75 for myself. I’m over 50, but it was $75. But there are a number of sources for this, so that’s something else I’d ask the Minister if he could also put together, because people may not know where to go to look on line. But there are several sources, and I would like to include that in the public information we make available to Northerners so they know where they can easily access this coverage.

I will commit to providing the sources on advising people to get medical travel insurance. I will also commit to putting on the posters where they can get the medical travel insurance from.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services if there is a policy on patients who get or receive surgery at the Stanton Hospital. Is there a policy that they have to stay there so long, and then they have to leave the hospital back to their hometowns? I’m not too sure what that policy is called, but is there a policy in place?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess not so much as a policy but more of a clinical practice. A decision as to when the patient is released is a clinical decision made by the physician that’s responsible for that patient.

Thanks for the clarification from the Minister. I’ve been told, when I went to Fort Good Hope, that there are several patients from the Sahtu that had surgery in Yellowknife’s Stanton Hospital and they were released based on the clinical decision by the doctor of when they came back to their home communities. Because of the operation and because of the sensitivity of it, they were released a little too early and then they had to come back to the Stanton Hospital for some more medication and recovery.

I want to ask the Minister what assurance he can give me that these patients, once they leave back to their communities, that they possibly, to the highest degree, will not come back to the Stanton for further medication on that surgery.

Every patient that has had surgery has a plan, a care plan as they are discharged from the hospital. This could include medication, follow-up appointments, and also advising the patient to look out for certain warning signs, post-surgery warning signs, and if anything comes up, they are to report back to the clinic. I will just make sure that these post-surgery plans are thorough and that everyone has a clear understanding of this plan prior to leaving the hospital.

Is there any sense the Minister has in regard to some of the patients… Sometimes they are released, and even they know that they are released a little too early, and they just need to stay an extra week or two for the recovery. Sometimes they do not speak up and they are released back to the communities, knowing that it’s not quite right.

Is there any sense that the Minister can assure me and the people of the Sahtu that they have the right, if they would insist that they stay an extra week or two at the hospital, to make sure that their recovery is well in good terms?

That’s a very tough question. It’s something that only the doctor or the surgeon can answer. They are going to determine, based on the condition of the patient, on whether or not the person should be released. If the patient is unhappy, that they think they’re being released from the hospital too early, yes, they do have an avenue where we have had situations down south, in Edmonton to be exact, where the family felt that the patient was being released too early. They contacted us. We contacted the medical people and the person got to stay a couple of extra days. I mean, there is something in the system that can allow us to do that.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people I spoke to about the surgeries in the Stanton Hospital were very concerned because there were a number of incidents that indicated that these patients left the hospital a little too early and their recovery wasn’t quite healing up, or somewhere along the line it brought them back to Stanton. It cost a lot of money and it caused a lot of heartache.

I want to ask the Minister, within Stanton I’m speaking about, when people have these surgeries that they are fully informed when the doctor is going to release them. However, they have the right, also, to say we want to stay because something along the system is not quite right for them to go back to their communities, fearing that they are going to come back here because of the nature of the surgery. Can the Minister help me out in terms of how do we get to that point where patients would be staying here a little longer than they expected to?

Specific to the Stanton Territorial Hospital, we can touch base with the CEO and advise the CEO of the issue and the CEO will have that discussion with the doctor that, at any point, if the individual is indicating that they themselves don’t feel well enough to be released from the hospital, that we then have some system where the CEO and the physician would have that discussion at that one time when this occurs. I can ensure that that happens.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice, and each is requesting information for the calendar years 2010, 2011 and 2012.

How many charges have been laid to individuals by the RCMP and then withdrawn or stayed?

How many charges have been laid under:

causing a disturbance;

breach of probation; and

breach of undertaking?

How many times has the Alternative Measures Program been proposed, how many times has it been accepted and how often have the program’s objectives been fully achieved?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a letter from the Union of British Columbia Chiefs to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, entitled Canada-China Agreement Abrogates Rights of Indigenous People, wherein the request that they direct the Government of Canada to reject the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 2, 2012, I will move that Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 3, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, November 2, 2012, I will move that Bill 16, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2012-2013, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 14, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2013-2014, be read for the first time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Bill 14, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2013-2014, has had first reading.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 14, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2013-2014, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, the bill authorizes the Government of the Northwest Territories to make infrastructure expenditures for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Bill 14, Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), 2013-2014, has had second reading.

---Carried

Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Tabled Document 84-17(3), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2012-2013, with Mrs. Groenewegen in the chair.

I call the Committee of the Whole to order. We have one item before the committee today. What is the wish of the committee? Mr. Menicoche.