Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, a number of issues the Member touched on have been previously covered. A new issue which was raised is the existence of infrastructure. Some of the things which effect the use of these facilities is the amount of utilization, say like a hospital in Hay River, which was set up with extended care and acute care wings. If we lose an anaesthetist in Hay River, that shuts down the surgery part of the hospital. The utilization of the infrastructure is connected to the staffing. When a facility becomes under-utilized, then we have good infrastructure sitting there that is not being used. That should be a concern of this government.
I agree with the Member that we could look at specialities in certain areas. For example, I know in Hay River, surgery facilities are used for dental cases that come from out of the community and out of the region. That is one area, but there are certainly other different focuses we could bring to some of these buildings we have invested money in.
Another area of speciality is palliative care. We have an opportunity here in the North to regionalize or bring into one central place people who are requiring special care, who are perhaps in the late stages of terminal illness. A place where they receive specialized treatment and be close to their loved ones at a time when they are going through the last stages of their life.
The Member raises the issue of medical travel and the situation he refers to when he says some people have everything paid and others have nothing. We have an interesting situation in Hay River where the deductible amount is $250, which in fact gets you to most services which are available here in Yellowknife.
When you are implementing a deductible, and it happens to be the amount it costs to get to the service, it is not very much help to people. The Member is right. If you work for a large company, you have medical coverage. Or if you work for the government, or if you qualify under various aboriginal programs. This leaves out a segment of the population, which we would call the working people. These are people who do not have the higher wages or most substantial benefits. It is unfortunate. I have discussed this with the department already. I have wondered if we might develop some form of co-payment, which is based on a percentage of the cost of the travel as opposed to the full amount, which is unique probably only to Fort Smith and Hay River. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.