Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I guess I’ve got some great concern over some comments that the Minister made at her constituency meeting where she talked about the proposed changes to supplementary health. In fact, one of the quotes that the Minister made at that meeting was that portions of that plan would be implemented in November. That’s two weeks from now.
The report from the working group has just come forward recently. I’d like to ask the Minister what exactly she is referring to. What exactly is going to be implemented in November as she mentioned at her constituency meeting?
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member is aware, the joint working group on the Supp Health Benefits Program completed its work. We have jointly submitted the report to the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning and Cabinet. The supp working group’s work is done and we are looking forward to getting feedback from the committee on the work that the joint working group has completed.
I was wondering if the Minister could outline for the Regular Members here and the public -- obviously there are going to be questions and concerns stemming from the release of this working group’s report -- what process is going to be followed that is going to allow questions and concerns for Members and the general public to be addressed by the government before anything is implemented.
The joint working group recommendations and suggestions are in the report. It is in the hands of the committee. The committee is made up of all the Members on the other side, and I look forward to the feedback from the committee as to what their response is to that and if the details of the report will show exactly the questions that he’s asking.
I’m not sure how officially the report got to us today. We did receive it and I’m not at liberty to discuss that report right now. Obviously it’s not before the House. However, what I want to ask the Minister is: Is that report the gospel according to this Cabinet? Is this Cabinet going to entertain parking the proposed changes to supplemental health until next fall when rightfully it can become an election issue here in the Northwest Territories?
As the Member knows, the joint working group was made up of three Ministers and three Regular MLAs. We were tasked to look into certain things about supp health benefits. We looked into those and some other issues that came up. We made recommendations on those. The report was officially transmitted by myself and Mrs. Groenewegen, who is the co-chair. I don’t think we need to preclude the work of the committee. I am sure that the committee will take a look at the report and give us considered feedback on the recommendations, and I and the Cabinet Ministers, my colleagues, are looking forward to hearing from the committee on their response.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the recommendation of the committee is to look at shelving the proposed changes to the supplementary health benefits in the Northwest Territories until next fall when it can become an election issue, is that something that the Minister could support?
We have a consensus government. I don’t know what the committee’s feedback will be. I would like to ask the committee to consider all the recommendations made there. There are some very good recommendations that I think would benefit and that I think the committee would want to adopt. We haven’t had enough time for the Members to give us their feedback. I am open to receiving whatever feedback the Members have on that report.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
