Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one in six couples struggle with fertility. Approximately 10 percent of the female population has polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, which routinely leads to infertility. For many, medication can make a difference but for others it doesn’t work, or they face other fertility issues and complications.
Mr. Speaker, in the Northwest Territories, it can take eight months just to get an initial appointment with a fertility specialist. The GNWT does provide services to treat underlying medical conditions that may cause infertility. However, when it comes to in vitro fertilization, or IVF, it is not covered and there are no plans to include it here.
Mr. Speaker, the GNWT does absolutely nothing to cover any of the costs associated with receiving IVF treatment no medical travel, accommodations, or per diems, including no financial support for the cost of the treatment itself which starts at around $15,000 per round and often requires multiple rounds prior to conception. IVF treatment also requires a referral from a doctor adding a further barrier to wouldbe parents as they wait on our broken healthcare system to get an appointment, further clogging up the system.
Currently, five provinces in Canada provide financial assistance to residents undergoing fertility treatments. Some of the largest provinces in Canada provide financial relief to residents requiring family planning support. Therefore, it baffles me that a small territory like the Northwest Territories cannot do the same. The government is clearly letting down NWT residents in this critical healthcare area. Often a person's desire to build their family is so great they will move away from the NWT to be closer to treatment sites, or to avoid continuous travel and work disruptions. Building our population to receive more federal transfer payments should be a goal of our government, so why don't we support residents to start and build their families here? Fertility financial support would likely only be accessed once, maybe twice, in a lifetime and would not be a recurring annual cost. As little as a $20,000 investment in supporting residents to conceive would return $37,000 annually in federal transfer payments per each newborn.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to see a jurisdictional scan to learn what other provinces and territories are doing to support their residents to conceive. In turn, I hope this will provide ideas for the GNWT to pursue to better support their residents. And I look to the Minister of Finance to look into this for GNWT employees, including the support to travel for treatment. Fertility benefits should be a basic part of our healthcare plans. Northern residents deserve this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
