Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a process internally for all staff, you know, and I think that's the tool that they need to use. And from when I speak to the senior staff, they're not hearing. And so if that's an issue, then, you know -- and this is what I recommended to the staff. If they're not getting an answer from their immediate direct supervisor, then they go to the next level. And, you know, and I mean, coming to the -- directly to the Minister's office, a lot of this stuff is operational. A lot of it is staffing, you know, and the things that the Member, like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I appreciate that question because the process for the NTHSSA is, you know, they have the authority; we've been questioned on how the money is being spent in there. We have a deficit. So over the years, in order to deal with some of those issues, has been they are running a deficit because they're trying to fit in areas where there's not -- you know, where the staffing vacancies are, where there's only a certain amount of staff per unit, there's -- you know, and so there's a process for that. And right now, what the process is is they run a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following five documents: Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority 2023-2024 Annual Report; 2024-2025 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets by Activity; Hay River Health and Social Services Authority 2023-2024 Annual Report; NWT Department of Health and Social Services 2023-2024 Annual Report; and, the Tlicho Community Services Agency Health and Social Services Annual Report 2023-2024 . Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, autism has a wide range of needs, and so every case would be assessed and identified as to what their needs are and then they would be, you know, referred to those appropriate services within the health authority to do further assessments. However, a lot of the services in those areas, we have a lot of vacancies and so there are -- there might be wait times for those services to be assessed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that level of detail here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, I don't have that level of details here in the House, so I will have to get back to the Member with that information. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, that level of detail, you know, if there are -- information at that level of detail, I can get the information for the Member and get back to him on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, Mr. Speaker, within our child and family services we have extended services to the -- before I think it used to be to 18 and now it's expanded to 24. My understanding within the system, these supports are supposed to be there to assist. However, this -- like, you know, coming from the Member, this is -- I've never -- I haven't had this come up through my office before so I'm willing to work with the Member to deal with, if there's a certain specific case or a family that's not getting the services that they require, I would work with the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the administration of the GNWT public benefit plan has been contracted to Alberta Blue Cross since early 1990s. So Alberta Blue Cross is a non-profit organization that processes benefit claims for multiple organizations, both government and private. And Alberta Blue Cross has the infrastructure, the adjudication expertise, systems to do this, whereas GNWT does not have the capacity nor the financial resources to deliver this service. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, just to be clear, additionally, when the rollout of the program, we made a -- we made changes on, you know, when Regular Members had, you know, raised issues with this and rolling it out. So what we did do is we waived from September 3rd, 2024, to August 31st, 2025, the deductible for the first ten income bands to be able to determine what the annual costs, so those Members that fell within that band two to ten, so they could determine what their actual costs are for the year, and then they were aware of what their deductible would be coming up for September 1st, 2025. As for...