Mahsi, Madam Chair. I am looking at page 189, addictions treatment facilities. The 2019-2020 actuals were $2,482,000, and moving on from there, they are flat-lined at $2,096,000. I am wondering if there was anybody sent out during the 2020-2021 fiscal year and if that is the correct number. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Minister.
Yes. Thank you. COVID did have an impact on the number of people who sought facility-based treatment in the South. The number, if I recall correctly, is down by about two-thirds. These are, of course, estimates. The actuals may be different. The spending actually varies according to the demand, and we know that there was less demand this year because of COVID. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Deh Cho.
Okay. All of my other questions are not budget-related, so I have no further questions on that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Deh Cho. Do I have any further questions on out of territory services on page 189? Seeing no further questions, please turn to page 189. Out of territory services, operations expenditure summary, 2021-2022 Main Estimates, $77,888,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. We will move now to supplementary health benefits, beginning on page 191, with information items on page 192. Questions?
Madam Chair, I would like to call a different witness for this division, so I wonder if the Sergeant-at-Arms could escort Ms. Mathison out and escort the other witness in.
Sergeant-at-Arms, can you please change the witnesses? Minister, could you please introduce your witness for the record?
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Joining us now is Mr. Derek Elkin, assistant deputy minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you. Welcome. Committee, we are on supplementary health benefits. Are there any questions from Members? Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know there has been discussion previously in this House and in the department about the possibility of providing supplementary health benefits to those who are without. That would be people who don't already have them through their employer, who are not covered under the medical Metis benefits here or the federal Indigenous benefits. Do we have a recent figure of how many people that would be? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. It's approximately 2,200 people. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Does the department have a cost estimate, or has any work been done to get a cost estimate of what it would cost to provide those 2,200 people some form of supplementary health benefits? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to refer this question to Mr. Elkin.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Elkin.
Thank you. To date, no, we have not undertaken a cost estimate at this point. As we go forward with review and look at what types of benefits would be covered under any possible changes, then we would explore it at that point in time.
Thank you, Mr. Elkin. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding is that there is some talk about including the Metis Health Benefits or the federal government providing funding and rolling that up into the current benefits provided to Indigenous peoples. Can I just get an update of whether the federal government has made any progress on that or any information the department may have? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. The department did a consultation with Metis organizations of the NWT about Metis Health Benefits just before Christmas. My understanding is that the results are being analyzed, and for further information, I am going to refer the question to the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister Cooper.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly can't speak to where the federal government is in their deliberations, but I can advise that we have certainly been contacting them when we have an opportunity to discuss these issues, post-Daniels decision, particularly. We have been putting forward the position that Metis Health Benefits should be covered the same as NIHB. As yet, we continue to have our own Metis Health Benefits program. No leverage as of yet within our discussions. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My hope is one day the federal government will extend NIHB to Metis benefits and then that frees up $3 million in our budget, and perhaps we can then find a way to extend it to those 2,200 other people. Along those lines, I look forward to the department doing that work and hopefully getting a cost estimate. Has any work been done about a jurisdictional scan? Are there any other jurisdictions out there who provide some sort of supplementary health benefits to their citizens? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to refer the question to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Cooper.
Thank you very much. Yes, we do jurisdictional scanning as part of our ongoing policy analysis. Certainly, there are an array of programs across the country, different approaches. Most in Canada are income- or needs-tested. We are certainly going to build on that jurisdictional analysis as part of the review that we are embarking upon of the program. Thank you.
Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just end with a comment in that I think we are a very unique jurisdiction in that half our population automatically falls under NIHB, and then the largest employer in the territory is the GNWT and their dependents. We end up extending health benefits to numerous other people. We end up with these 2,200 working poor who don't get health benefits. If you did this analysis, I imagine any other jurisdiction except, perhaps, Nunavut, it just wouldn't be feasible to provide everyone benefits with such a small amount of money. I just would encourage the Minister, during this review, I think there is a way to do this, and maybe it's creative negotiating with the federal government for some sort of territorial health benefit package that exists or looking at what other jurisdictions do where they needs-test it. I really encourage the department to take a serious look at this. I think it would be a great legacy to give the working poor Extended Health Benefits. Do we have a timeline for when that review is done? Madam Chair, thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The first phase actually we completed last year. That had to do with covering drug costs, and the next phase is scheduled for work this year, but ongoing. There will be a very heavy public consultation component to this review so that we can hear from residents of the Northwest Territories about their expectations for coverage, and we can provide answers to them. For more detail, I will ask the deputy minister to continue. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy Minister Cooper.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Not much to add. It is our intention to have the review completed before the end of this session.
Thank you.
I mean by the end of this particular Assembly, so end of government. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. We could do it by the end of session. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly look forward to the results of that. I think there is also a bit of a national conversation going on with pharmacare, and I think the department is also looking at what is driving health costs everywhere. That's obviously a national conversation. In that regard, I see both medical travel and Extended Health Benefits have quite significant increases from the revised estimates. I will start with: can we get a sense of what is driving the cost in Extended Health Benefits? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you. The biggest driver is medical travel. That involves both the costs and the volumes of scheduled air travel and inflation on the ambulance contract. That's what I am aware of. I am going to ask the assistant deputy minister if he would like to add more detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Elkin.
Thank you. As the Minister mentioned, under the Extended Health Benefits, which also includes medical travel for seniors, the medical travel pricing volume has been one of the factors. Also, while the overall cost of drugs has not gone up significantly, the high-cost drugs for a small number of clients has had an impact on our pharmaceutical costs. We are looking into that as well.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think one of the side effects of this pandemic is that we took a hard look at what medical travel was necessary. I know there has been work in the past for the department to sometimes avoid appointments in Edmonton where it's simply a pre-surgery consultation that takes an hour, and then that person flies back. I know the department spoke earlier about a couple of great initiatives happening in terms of Telehealth and digital health. I am concerned that I am seeing $2 million here, and I am seeing continued driving costs for medical travel. When can we expect some cost savings due to digital health and perhaps not necessarily always having to have people travel in the medical travel line item? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
