Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Recently I was down in Edmonton with a number of my Social Programs colleagues and the Minister of Health to visit the medevac centre at the Edmonton airport. I’m certainly glad to see the operation that has been put into place.
As we all know, presently there’s a medevac contract out and one of the requirements of the contract is for what’s called CAMTS, Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transportation Systems. This is a critical component of the medevac contract that’s out right now.
The Minister will probably cite his three-line sentence that he repeated four times yesterday, but this isn’t specific to any proponent of the contract. For the public’s sake, why was CAMTS selected as a critical element in the medevac contract for accreditation for a particular proponent to have to substantiate this? Quite frankly, the director of the Edmonton medevac centre said it was a system that didn’t make sense for the volume of patients the Northwest Territories has, would cost millions of additional dollars that we can’t maintain through the volume of medevac patients we have where it balances itself out. In other words, you need the patients to keep accreditation and it’s impossible.
Could the Minister help enlighten this House why CAMTS is an important accreditation for this medevac contract? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. An RFP is currently out for the delivery of air ambulance services in the Northwest Territories. It is being overseen by a fairness commissioner, who will make sure that all aspects of this RFP are fair, reasonable and equitable to all applicants. As a result, I will not be speaking about this RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m certainly glad the public sees the response to these types of questions, because these are fair and honest questions. Quite frankly, it will cost multi-millions of dollars in addition to a medevac contract than it normally does just because there’s a demand.
An RFP is currently out for the delivery of air ambulance services in the Northwest Territories. It is being overseen by a fairness commissioner. As a result, I will not be speaking about this RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m going to ask a question specifically to CAMTS, not the RFP. Maybe the Minister can explain what this is and why it’s important in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
I will get that information from the department and share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, is the department able to provide a cost analysis of CAMTS versus other types of accreditations are out there? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be happy to provide that information to the Member. Thank you.
