Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I still have a few more questions for the Minister of Health regarding our experiences or relationship with Capital Health and our contract.
A lot of people in this House know, I’m sure, that Capital Health is an approximately $13 billion sort of conglomerate of hospitals and whatnot; that’s their budget area. To put that into perspective, the GNWT’s budget is only 10 per cent of that. It’s a sense of magnitude I’m drawing on that.
In negotiating our contract with Capital Health to provide services to Northerners who need services, I’d like to know if the Minister is aware of how this government defines service levels that need to be provided to Northerners when they are sent south for treatment in southern institutions.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, we have a contract with the Capital Health Authority. They guarantee that NWT residents will receive the same level of medical care that Alberta residents will receive.
Is that the actual statement in the contract, or does the contract actually take the time to identify what is considered reasonable wait times for Northern residents who’ve contracted specifically with Capital Health? Is that exactly how it works?
My understanding is that we get the same service that Alberta residents receive. If the Member would like to have a briefing on what kinds of contracts we have — what kind of service agreements we have with Alberta Health or any other organizations or governments that this government has contracts with — I’ll be happy to provide the Members on the other side with a briefing or any background information.
I’m sort of perplexed. It sounds like we’re not getting any additional services than anyone else who would walk in off the street, yet we have a very specific contract with Capital Health. I find it an odd situation that this government wouldn’t try to negotiate some type of preferred experience, preferred customer. I’m certainly well aware that the GNWT makes every effort to make sure we pay our bills in a timely way — to get recognition for that — so Capital Health doesn’t need to sit and wait for payment.
Why do we contract specifically with Capital Health? Why don’t we consider going somewhere else where we’d get recognition for our Northerners and make sure our tax dollars are actually recognizing their importance?
Notwithstanding this particular situation, most of the feedback we do receive is that we get very good service from Capital Health. Capital Health Authority and the services that the Government of Alberta provide are, I believe, among the best. I just don’t know where else we would go to get the services that our residents receive.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I’ll help the Minister: there’s Grande Prairie; there’s Calgary; there’s Saskatoon. There are other places if the Minister is looking for suggestions to consider.
What is the Minister doing to make sure we have recognizable service levels defined in our contract with Capital Health? If she chooses to do nothing, why isn’t she doing something on this issue?
As I stated already, I’d be happy to meet with the Member or the Standing Committee on Social Programs to go over the contract we have and to have further discussion on it.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
