Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, maybe I'm so simple minded that I'm not able to explain very well here. I like to think that I'm focused on this issue at the moment. Mr. Chairman, maybe I'm wrong, but in his answers earlier today, when I suggested that maybe if the Minister needs to collect the money -- and I'm assuming that he's having to collect it from those people without third-party insurance, because he doesn't know how to find a way to exempt them from that because he doesn't want to forgo the revenues that he's getting from the federal government by way of non-insured health benefits or from his NWT counterparts by way of government insurance or any other agencies that provide insurance for the people so they can pay for this. I thought it was a way of suggesting a solution, then why don't you come up with a rebate for those who can't afford it? And then he said that the federal government may object to that, because then they will be singled out for paying for this and they may not pay for it. So I just assumed, in my simple-minded way, that he looked at this option. Now I'm being told that, no, he doesn't have documents specifically on this thing. So maybe it's too premature for him to suggest that this is not workable. So now I have to ask, will the Minister consider the option of giving a rebate for those who don't qualify and don't have the luxury of third-party insurance? He should cost that out, like Mr. Delorey asked earlier. How many of those people who are paying this $250 because they don't have any third-party insurance, what is the percentage of that out of the millions that he's collecting? And what will be the cost of a rebate? And what is the legal implication of that? Does he have legal authority to do that? Do we have to pass a law to do that? I mean, he should have looked at all those by now, because we know that he's been studying this for 14 months. So if he hasn't done that, would the Minister commit to looking into that? Thank you.
Sandy Lee on Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
In the Legislative Assembly on February 18th, 2003. See this statement in context.
general Comments
Bill 3: Appropriation Act, 2003-2004
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 17th, 2003
Page 153
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