Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not surprisingly, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to start by again thanking the Minister and Cabinet for moving forward in this way. I think they’ve heard the people, and this is democracy in action. I’d like to start by saying this whole process has been like crossing a wide and dry desert and finally having a glass of tall, cool water offered by the Minister here. So it is greatly appreciated. But this is relief that needs to get out there to all as the first step. There’s an anxious and traumatized public awaiting relief from the previous highly objectionable proposals. So I’m asking, in the interest of good communication that’s needed immediately with the public, what action is the Minister taking to immediately let the public know? Is there a press conference with the ability of reporters to ask questions and get the word out to our public immediately that we’re back to a reasonable approach here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is the most public of public forums. We made the announcement this morning. Mrs. Groenewegen, as chair of the P and P, as well as my co-chair of the Joint Working Group, we have agreed and we are committed to working together on any of the communications that we do. We will do interviews together, because we would like to continue to work together in the spirit in which we worked together in that Joint Working Group. So, Mr. Speaker, we will be open to any interviews or anything and we will be tabling the document this afternoon, followed by a statement next week. Thank you.
I appreciate that. This is a public process, but we need lots of public processes on this, as I mentioned. There’s a highly traumatized public awaiting some relief here.
In terms of next steps, I think this decision and this work between Cabinet and this side of the House is an additional step towards resolving some of these issues. We have made some agreement on the principles that are detailed in the report and this is important progress. But it’s not a simple measure. Even our next actions still require, as the Minister has profiled and this side of the House has profiled, some back and forth and careful discussion. Can we agree that a high priority, perhaps a first priority, is progress towards ensuring that the basics of supplementary health coverage are available to everybody in the Northwest Territories through one plan or another very soon?
That’s the precise question that is the crux or main theme of all the discussions we’ve had in the last three or, actually, last seven years since I’ve been in this House.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say again that I think that the Joint Working Group report and its recommendations and principles went a long way in making statements on that. We are committed, as I stated in the Minister’s statement, to do what we can in the time we have left, what is doable, to lay out a work plan and try to do as much as possible. I agree with Members who stated earlier that this requires a lot of work and we need to work through it. The important thing is, as Mrs. Groenewegen said, there are things we need to do to improve the program. So I, as Minister, am committed to work with the Members to see how we can move forward on those. Thank you.
There are clearly different perspectives on how much information analysis has been provided towards the consideration of the proposal put forward. So putting that aside, Mr. Speaker, I’m asking the Minister if she will commit to providing thorough and transparent analyses whenever she’s bringing forward proposals for consideration of committee. Mahsi.
That’s the expectation that we live under on everything we do. So we will be following those. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
