Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, first of all compassionate travel for individuals on social assistance is not within the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services because the income support is with my colleague, Mr. Dent. But having said that, even if it were still within the jurisdiction of Health and Social Services, it was a tough decision to make. I can say that it was not taken lightly, and it was considered in great length. We discussed it in Cabinet when we knew that this reduction would bring a lot of controversy as it has as all Members have been approached at various times about this issue. When I go to leaders' forums or health board forums or meetings throughout the north, it does come up, but I go back to saying that our first priority is to the patients who require the treatment. If we could, we would provide compassionate travel for all those families or individuals who required it, but we just do not have the financial resources to continue to provide all the programs that we did. We have to set the priorities and unfortunately, compassionate travel was not much as we would like to, was not one of the priorities when it came down between having travel for the patient or having travel for escorts, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Kelvin Ng on Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on October 23rd, 1997. See this statement in context.
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 19: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
October 22nd, 1997
Page 94
Kelvin Ng Kitikmeot
See context to find out what was said next.