Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It gets back to my Member’s statement talking about the proposed changes to supplementary health benefits.
Obviously everybody’s been giving this a lot of thought. We have to come up with a new solution. Mr. Speaker, if I could, I would just like to share a solution. We’re about 16 months away from the next territorial election in October of 2011. I’d like to ask the Minister if the government has given any consideration to taking this policy and the proposed direction that they want to take supplementary health benefits in, take it the electorate in the fall of 2011. It’s only 16 months from now, and in the meantime you can continue to do the research that should ultimately get done so that we can make the right decision. Will the Minister commit to taking this to the public, where it rightfully belongs, in the fall of 2011? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the implementation plan on this policy, since it was released in the fall of 2008, it’s had about two and a half years of review. We believe, as a Cabinet, that this is a good policy change. It will expand the program’s access to a lot of people who, as the Member said, are the most vulnerable. It will bring in 2,000-plus people who do not have a basic supplementary health care benefit such as dental and vision care. And the plan, we will be reviewing with the committee, as we had promised, but the plan as it stands now is to implement the changes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think, as I mentioned during my Member’s statement, it’s a foolish direction that the government is embarking upon. If you have a rally of 200 people in front of the Legislative Assembly, that’s got to send a message to the Minister and to the government that the direction that they’re taking is wrong and they should revisit that direction. If the government, like the Minister said, actually cared about those people that are outside of this protection right now and today, this government’s been in office for over three years, Mr. Speaker. What have they done about it? Why haven’t you found the money to address that gap? Why do you have to take money from one portion of the populous to pay for another, Mr. Speaker? Why is that the only direction that this government is embarking upon? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Member is the loudest and the greatest advocate for fiscal responsibility. The Member knows that we don’t have all the money we need to do all the things that our people ask for. The Member mentioned in his statement that $2.6 million is small chump. I don’t know. As the Minister responsible for the biggest budget department, the Department of Health and Social Services, that sees growth between 6 to 8 percent, $2.6 million is not a small amount of money. That would allow me to set up a specialists’ shop at Stanton; that would pay for a number of nurses; it would pay for a lot of insured services.
Mr. Speaker, I think what we need to remember is that supplementary health benefits is a non-insured service. It’s a program where in the rest of Canada people pay out of their own pockets, and usually by a third party or employer insurance. What the government is trying to do is establish the best program possible which would allow people without insurance, employer insurance, to have a very nice insurance package.
In order to expand the service, we’re determining it by determining the need by one’s ability to pay, because we believe that is the most fair and equitable way to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is all fine and good, but the bottom line is this Northwest Territories, the land that we govern, is not the rest of Canada, Mr. Speaker. It is the Northwest Territories. We have unique needs. The cost of living here in the Northwest Territories, people cannot afford to live here. We are losing people because they can’t afford to live here and the government again is embarking on a decision to even increase costs more to our residents. It is the wrong decision, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, again, I want to go back to an earlier question. I will ask the Minister again, will the Minister delay the implementation date of this until the 17th Legislative Assembly is duly elected and will she go out and knock on door to door in her riding, campaigning for this policy, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we as leaders are put in this place to make decisions on behalf of people and not study things to death and delay and debate. Mr. Speaker, as the Member has stated, the cost of living is a big issue in the Northwest Territories, but we also know that the NWT and especially Yellowknife, for many years, we have people on a very high income. We have to recognize that fact. The thing that the Members have to know and the values that the Member speaks about, we need to talk about low income working families who are struggling every day to pay for basic dental care and basic vision care. They do not have an option of getting employer’s insurance because their work doesn’t cover it, government doesn’t cover it and they are having to decide whether they are willing to pay for pairs of glasses or not. We are making this program. We are expanding it. We are making it accessible to 100 percent of non-aboriginal people. We are making it in a way that 80 percent of our population will have as good or better policy than anybody with a government job. I had to tell you, Mr. Speaker, if I went to Ontario right now and said that we are going to offer non-insured health benefits to everybody there that is as good as a government package, I believe that that would be a winner and it should be a winner here too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I think that the Minister is missing my point. I think the ultimate test is for the Minister to delay the implementation of this until the next government is elected -- and that is only 16 months away -- and let her go door to door in this city and campaign on this policy and let’s see if she gets re-elected, Mr. Speaker. I don’t think she will get re-elected. I would like to ask her if she thinks she’d get re-elected if she went door to door in her riding with this policy. Thank you.
It is not a question; it is more of asking for the Minister for her advice. I don’t think it is an appropriate question. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
