Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my questions about the rate increases to long-term care room and board. It’s something that has been going on for awhile within Health and Social Services. I’d just like to find out a bit more about it and ask the Minister exactly what these charges are for and what they do with the money.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The long-term care fees for the tenants are for meals and accommodations.
I raise the issue that a senior went into long-term care and is charged the full rate of $746 and he still has a house and a spouse to take care of. How is the department taking these types of situations into consideration?
The fees are in accordance with the legislation for long-term care. These meals and accommodations are not insured services. All other services that are provided in long-term care, such as nursing and daycare, are an insured service. The two items that are not an insured service are accommodations and meals. Those are charged according to that and that’s what those fees are. I’m not sure if there’s consideration for what expenses they have outside of that, but this is to cover the areas that are not insured.
During my Member’s statement I spoke about the case that I’m talking about. He’s an Aboriginal elder. I know that in our treaties it says that health is going to be taken care of for our people. We do it many ways. The people that aren’t even elders get covered by Health Canada. Why are our Aboriginal elders being charged full fare at the long-term care centres?
The charge for meals and accommodations is under 10 percent of what they charge the cost of maintaining individual long-term care. There’s nursing care, medical care, medical supplies, nutrition, rehabilitation, housekeeping, laundry, janitorial services, which are all covered by the department and the organization providing long-term care. Those two expenses, as I said, are not covered and it’s outside of insured policy. There is no money coming from the federal government to cover those two specific items.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister is opening up a whole different area and I’d certainly like to ask more questions and debate this further. I’d like to ask him to review the situation. My question is: How does the treaty impact our Aboriginal seniors that are in long-term care and why are they paying fees?
I know for a fact that the treaty does not enter into any charges for long-term care. Long-term care is provided to individuals within the Northwest Territories whether they are Dene, Metis or non-Aboriginal. All charges are the same. It’s not really a treaty issue. The costs, like I indicated, were only charges to cover meals and accommodations which were uninsured. All other items in there are insured. If there is money in the overall federal transfer to the government and it gets incorporated into covering the other costs, then that may be the case, but for this particular item I don’t believe it’s a treaty issue.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
