Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The government has been talking about attracting more people to live in the Northwest Territories and encouraging people who already live here to stay. I know that we are open to ideas to do this. I have a suggestion to offer. Let’s be a little more flexible in providing health coverage to people who like to travel outside of the territory. In turn, that may keep them living in the Northwest Territories and not moving out to some other province that allows them to travel for a longer period of time during the year.
For those people who do long-term travelling in the winter, we call them snowbirds. It is also worth noting here that our snowbirds are people with the means to travel and who are usually healthy enough to travel. Right now we require our residents to remain in the Northwest Territories for at least six months of the year to maintain their health care coverage. I propose we change that requirement to allow snowbirds to travel for seven months of year, which would then require them to remain in the Northwest Territories for five months a year.
There are major advantages to doing this: maintaining our population, our federal transfer payments and the number of tax filers that we have. A less stringent residency requirement for health coverage will encourage seniors who might like a warmer climate to keep their residency in the Territories and travel in the winter. Some might even be discouraged from moving to Alberta, which presently requires you to remain in the province for six months of the year. So we would have an advantage over our southern neighbour in that regard.
Most importantly, on top of wanting people to move to the Territories, we want our visiting residents to stay. A one-month change in their residency requirement for health coverage is not going to cost us very much. It’s probably far less than the benefits that having them here brings to our territory.
This is not a radical idea. Ontario requires its residents to be in province for 153 days per year, which is basically five months. It is the same in British Columbia, who also has five months. That’s two of the three most populous provinces in Canada. A resident of Newfoundland only has to be present for four months of the year to keep their health care coverage.
Let us follow the lead of these enlightened provinces. Let’s be among the first. Let’s do our homework and let’s get this done during the life of this Assembly. Let’s figure out how much it will cost us and what the benefits are of keeping these Northerners, who like to travel in the South, living in our territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
