Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Will the Minister commit to completing a jurisdictional scan to learn what other Canadian provinces and territories are doing to support their residents with infertility and report back on it to this House? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the question from the Member. We've done a jurisdictional scan, and there are some large jurisdictions with big populations and big revenue bases that can support specialized services such as fertility treatments. But that is not the case here, and fertility treatments are not covered. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would ask that the Minister maybe share that with me. I've missed it somewhere in my research.
The Minister's alluded to it a bit, but what other options and ideas has Health and Social Services explored to help our residents on their fertility journey; can she elaborate a bit on what work has been done so far? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for the question. So the GNWT provides services to individuals who need a diagnosis and treatment for an underlying medical condition that is preventing pregnancy from taking place, and this is part of our insured health services. So if that service is required here, it would be provided here. And if is required in the south, then medical travel would pay for that to happen in the south. So that's the "why aren't I getting pregnant" answer.
In terms of assisting people who don't have underlying medical conditions to get pregnant, that is not part of insured services in the NWT. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I guess I struggle to understand how we can spend money and support people to learn why they're not getting pregnant but then not help them to get pregnant after the fact when we talk about growing our population. So can the Minister speak to whether or not she would look at changing the medical travel benefits to include those that are seeking fertility in the south? As I mentioned in my statement, a small investment here could lead to further babies being born in the Northwest Territories and future cotransfer payments from the federal government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, falling pregnant is not a medically necessary intervention provided by our healthcare system, and we have no plans to change that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think this speaks a lot to how women's health is treated in our medical profession and healthcare system. If it were men that wanted to get pregnant and they couldn't, I'm sure we would have found a cure for it a long time ago, so. I would like to ask that the Minister work with her counterpart, the Minister responsible for Human Resources, and look to at least adding this to GNWT benefits going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you for the comment.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
