Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a constituent who is a student attending full-time studies at the Grande Prairie Regional College in Grande Prairie, Alberta. My constituent had a medical specialist appointment booked in Edmonton. She had gone through the appropriate channels for this appointment. She had been seen by a doctor in Hay River, referred to Yellowknife, and in turn received a referral to a specialist in Edmonton. When booking her medical travel for her appointment in Edmonton, she was informed that she could not access assistance from where she was attending school because medical travel must originate within the Northwest Territories. She was told that she would need to return to her home community of Hay River, fly from there to Edmonton, return to Hay River, and then go back to Grande Prairie. The inconvenience of this process was too difficult for my constituent to manage and, therefore, she had no alternative but to cancel her appointment with the specialist in Edmonton. My constituent’s medical condition warrants being seen by a specialist and it would be unhealthy and possibly even risky for her to wait until a school break in the summer to return to Hay River to go to Edmonton for an appointment.
Northern students residing outside of the Northwest Territories on a temporary leave of absence to attend college or university are still northern residents. They retain their residency status and they have valid health care coverage. I am uncertain as to why the government would not accommodate someone in this situation, especially in the case of my constituent, considering that the cost of travel between Grande Prairie and Edmonton is less than it would be from Hay River to Edmonton and would in fact be saving the government money.
I am requesting a review of this policy to enable students to tend to their medical needs while going to school, whether inside or outside of the NWT. My constituent would like to rebook her appointment and be seen by the specialist in Edmonton and I would also appreciate if the Minister could provide options available to my constituent for accessing medical treatment as soon as possible.
This is not the first or only case that we have had like this. I understand that it may get complicated in instances where we have students that are perhaps not as close to the medical facility they’re being referred to, but somehow, some way we have to apply some discretionary common sense to these types of decisions and policies.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
