Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this is very operational on the framework, as the Minister I don't -- you know, that is not something that I -- that's not where my expertise are, as to just finding what is the right amount of numbers. I mean, in this House, you know, we've heard many people say everybody wants a doctor. Well, everybody does. And in Inuvik, you know, you can go there and depending on the time of the day, you may get a doctor, you may get to see the nurse practitioner, you may get to see the nurse. In the health centre, you may not even get a nurse because there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the Member's question, what's happening here is is that part of the primary care reform. So, you know, whether we move to four teams within Yellowknife, those teams have been equipped with -- from the ten teams that they had that did not have enough staff down to the four teams that -- you know, they've been placed and that way the remaining of the people in Yellowknife can be assigned to that team. Not every person on that team or in Yellowknife needs to have access to a physician. What they need is they need access to a health care provider. So...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't speak to the details of this case so I will look forward to having a further conversation with the Member and with staff within my department. 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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that there's -- you know, there each specific -- like, right now, we're hearing illicit drugs across the territory so the Office of the Public Health has started to be able to come up with the materials that are needed to give to the people on the ground. I believe that it's each individual community, whatever their priority is in their community they should be reaching out to the health centre saying we want education on this stuff. You know, we have elders that are asking this kind of information. Every community's going to do it different...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within each community -- and I had the privilege to go to the Sahtu, and while we were attending the AGM there for the Sahtu Secretariat, there was the CHR there and they were there in collaboration with health and the RCMP and they had a campaign going on for illicit drugs. You know, we've heard many times that there are those things. That was happening. And I spoke to the CHR, and she just goes out to the community and sees what the needs are in that community, and then she tries to design her program what's based best needs, and she utilizes her support...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are -- you know, there's the CEO, the territorial medical director. There is a vacancy that's being covered. How there are -- members of physicians that sit on the primary care reform team. So how and who wasn't informed, I can't -- like, I can't specify how that communication went to the physicians and how the information was released or how it was reported to them that it was going to be released at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, within the primary care reform, you know, whatever tools that they had, whether it be the physician work plan, you know, I can't speak to exactly what parts or which sections or -- that are being used. But what I'm being -- you know, being advised of is that this plan is being integrated and parts of it that meet the needs of primary care reform. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.