Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask some questions with regards to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program potential changes.
As I mentioned in my statement, there’s been an obvious lack of information from the Minister or from the department regarding this very controversial issue, which we dealt with about a year ago. So at this point I’d like to ask the Minister when we can expect some information from her department in regard to the Proposals for Change and what sort of consultation is in the works, consultation that has to occur prior to any implementation. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the last 24 hours I did send a communication to the Standing Committee on Social Programs to update the Members on where we are with the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. As the Members are aware, we heard loud and clear, when it was last introduced, that we need to take this back and look at it further and we have been doing that. We’ve had a working group set up of non-government organizations, including the seniors’ groups, I can’t remember all of the names, but they are stakeholder groups that have been meeting to work out the details. They are in the final stage of providing us with the detailed information and we will be bringing that forward to the standing committee over the next two or three weeks and to the Cabinet as well. Once we finalize those programs we will be going out to the public so that the public is made well aware of what is involved. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for that response. I do acknowledge that we received a letter recently from the Minister. It provided some insight into what’s been going on, but it had very little detail. It describes the actions which she just told us about, but I was particularly struck by the statement in the letter which says this public working group was presented with detailed program information. I wondered why that detailed program information was not also available to Members. If the Minister could answer that question? Thank you.
That information will be made available to the Members. As we do, in all our dealings with the committee, this is a consensus government, we share information and we make decisions together. The program information the Member is referring to, our data is that we needed for the group to do the work. I think there should not be a misunderstanding about that. It’s about who in the North are eligible for supplementary health benefits, what are their needs, what are the costs, what are the numbers, what are people’s income levels, what are the groups and numbers of people that are in need of government services, how many people are getting third party insurance? All of that raw data that would help the public working group to make the best decisions and have input into the process, those are the kinds of information that we are referring to by that phrase. At the appropriate time, I would be more than happy to share with the standing committee members in our discussion on what information was reviewed/analyzed and what suggestions are being made.
I just want to make sure that the Members know and that the public knows that this government had heard very clearly that we didn’t do this right the first time and were asked to go back and work on it. I realize the silence might be alarming, but I think people should be assured that we have been doing the work and we know that we don’t want to bring out premature work. We need to make sure that the work is done and that we will seek input and participation from the committee and the public. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I want to thank the Minister for the answer, but I think the Minister also knows that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has been intimately involved in this particular issue over the last year and remains involved and wants to be involved. I think it wouldn’t have been a disservice to the committee if... It was a disservice that we didn’t get the information, but I think the Minister should have given the information to committee who would have taken that information and studied it on their own.
I look forward to the response from the working group, but I would have rather had the information, the background and the data myself.
The Minister has referenced consultation, I would like to ask the Minister what kind of a timeline she’s referencing in terms of consultation when the public, other than the working group, are going to be involved in seeing either the data and/or the recommendations from the committee. Thank you.
Over the last two weeks or three weeks, we’ve received at least three letters from the Standing Committee on Social Programs to my department thanking us for the cooperation and collaboration that we are providing to the committee. So the Member knows anytime they would like information about anything we’re doing, we’re there. We are able to provide the info. The Member can have any data we are working with. We just wanted to have a reviewable, workable data done. I mean, that’s the work of the department and the department is doing that.
Also for the Members of the public and the House, I’d like to advise that working groups of the supplementary health benefits is the YWCA, NWT Council for Persons with Disabilities, Hay River Seniors, Centre for Northern Families, Yellowknife Seniors, NWT Seniors’ Society. So those are the groups that have been involved. So, Mr. Speaker, the Member knows that we will not be moving ahead without discussions with the Standing Committee on Social Programs and Members. We hope that we will have a package done by the beginning to middle of next month. Upon review and approval, we will have the spring months to have an information session with the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I would like to advise the Minister that we would have gladly asked for the data if we had known that it was available. I take her statement to mean that it’s a commitment to provide it to committee. So I look forward to receiving that info.
In terms of the consultation, she said something about three months. I didn’t quite understand exactly what that is referencing. If I could get a bit more of a firm or definite statement as to which months she’s referencing when this consultation with the public will start. Thank you.
The expectation is that we will have a product for the committee and the Cabinet to review within the month of February. That will give us, if all goes well, March, April, May, June to do consultations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
