Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few more questions on the $250 medical co-payment. First of all, I don't agree with the Minister's assertion that to deal with this issue without dealing with all the other ones will be nothing but tinkering and that's not what he wants to do. I think that's just a way of avoiding dealing with something that can be dealt with separately. There is no rational connection between medical co-payment questions, and whether or not certain diseases should be included, or certain services should be included as a health benefit under the NWT health care system. I think they are connected and they're put together because the Minister chose to do it that way. So I just don't think that that washes in a defense of inaction.
Mr. Chairman, I have a question on the possibility or the option of coming up with a rebate for those people who have to pay $250 and not have any other means to pay for it, other than out of their pocket because they're not insured by their company or any other extra medical insurance that they might have. I think that this issue is fundamentally different than the other issues of whether or not this is an extra health benefit or not for that reason, because it's fundamentally wrong for some people who live in Yellowknife because they have doctors down the street, but they don't have to pay $250 when every other community that might not have that service has to pay for it. Then to say that most of them get covered in one way or another, but those who are not fortunate enough to have insurance packages don't.
The Minister was asked a question about what's the percentage of people who do not have the benefit of third-party insurance, and the Minister took the question as notice. But I'm hoping that the Minister will provide that answer as quickly as possible. Given that he's been studying this thing for months and months and months, for 14 months, I'm sure that the Minister and the department have looked at this. I would like to know if the Minister has reviewed the option of providing a rebate, because we had a precedence for that not too long ago. There used to be a rebate for property taxes. There were a lot of residents in the Territories, or in Yellowknife and I'm assuming in other places, too, that they pay property taxes and they applied for a rebate and they got $200 or $300 back. I'm sure that that had to go through the scrutiny of whether or not it meets the standards that the Minister suggests it has to meet for any exceptions that he might make for this one. So I would like to know if the Minister and the department have reviewed the possibility of a rebate. Thank you.