Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The matter of medical travel outside of the Northwest Territories not being covered has been brought up to me again by a constituent recently. When a resident of Hay River had a serious illness and a very poor prognosis, naturally she wanted to make another trip to where she was originally from in Canada, in the east. While she was there, she became ill and had to be transported to a hospital with specialized services in a large centre. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this constituent unexpectedly passed away while she was there. Now her family is back in Hay River and they're not only grieving her loss, but they're also hit with the medical travel bills.

Mr. Speaker, I know of many more such incidents. I'd like to know what does the Department of Health and Social Services do to inform NWT residents of these potential costs and the fact that medical travel is not covered if it does not originate in the NWT. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a website that lays out the concerns and cautions people travelling outside of the NWT that they should have supplementary health coverage. As well, we have pamphlets in the health centres, plus I understand all our travel agencies have agreed to work with the department and authorities to ensure that travelers are aware of health insurance requirements when they travel outside of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Do you have a supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen?

Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister has he ever contemplated putting some kind of a flyer in with the health care cards when they go out for renewal? This would definitely hit every person in the Northwest Territories who is covered by NWT health insurance. Has he ever contemplated that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, I haven't, but it is a good suggestion and I'll take it under consideration with the staff.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll only ask one more supplementary because it sounds like the Minister needs some medical attention himself.

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, in the incident of the constituent that I referred to who was already ill before she wanted to take this trip, it would have been difficult in this instance for her to go and get medical travel insurance because knowing that she already had a very serious illness. So on a compassionate basis, is there any way the Department of Health and Social Services could have a group insurance policy that could be assessed by people who are not eligible for medical travel insurance through the normal channels? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's another suggestion that we'll take into consideration as we review the Hansard and look at the issues raised by my colleagues.

Thank you. Item 6, oral questions. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, yes, the department has had some consultation with the communities that rely on Yellowknife, particularly the communities in the North Slave area. I don't know if they went to Lutselk'e or not. That would be the only other community where the people do have some reliance on goods from Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, no one has ever presented that argument to us before so it's a new one. Mr. Speaker, I'd just like to remind the Member, as well, that the department did a lot of consultation as we prepared this schedule. This has gone through the standing committee. I know the governance and economic development committee did have public hearings in at least Fort Providence, Rae-Edzo and Yellowknife. I'm not sure what other communities that committee would have gone to. We had standing committee discussion on it. We passed the Deh Cho Bridge Act, so there has been a lot of consultation on it, but we now have legislation in place which lays out how the costs of the bridge will be covered through a toll mechanism. So I appreciate there may be other ways of doing it that we may want to look at in the future, but we did just pass legislation in June outlining this process. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Supplementary, Mr. Nitah.

Thank you, Mr. Nitah. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Handley.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is right, even though we have legislation we still have an obligation to continue to consult. Yes, I'll raise this with the land claims organizations and see if they have concerns or if they have other alternatives they'd like to look at. But in the meantime, we will keep moving along on this one. I should point out, Mr. Speaker, that some of the businesses, in Yellowknife at least, who did an analysis of this, show that there's actually a savings for individual consumers. I believe it was the Yellowknife Co-op that did an assessment and said that this will result in a lower cost to them in providing groceries and other supplies to people who shop there, because they no longer have that period of two months, counting the winter and the spring breakups, where they've had to either bring in supplies early or have them flown over. If I remember correctly, there's a small increase in the North Slave communities, but it was a very, very small one, again because of the certainty of being able to bring products to this area any time they choose.

In terms of the impact on land claims organizations, I will check with them on that. Certainly the mining companies and industry have also given me their views already. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your final supplementary, Mr. Nitah.