Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if he could try to find one area in which there is something good to report that we could say there are fewer people smoking in the Northwest Territories today than there was 10 years ago. I know one indicator that seems to be good is people are living longer, but sometimes I just think we pronounce doom and gloom on ourselves by always coming out with the negative indicators. I would like the Minister, if he could, to try to find news that wouldn't overwhelm our people and just get them to throw up their hands in despair and thinking we are just the worst in every category. I think it would be encouraging to people to try harder. It would change maybe the psychology or the mindset of things. Of course, we have problems but if we could report some progress or we could say we invested this money and this is the result and things are better today than they were yesterday and they will be better tomorrow than they are today, I think that would possibly change people's perception of ourselves as northerners when it comes to those health and social indicators.
We hear so much bad news on that front in the North, if there is any good news, let's shout it from the rooftops so that people can feel good about something in that area.
Another area I just wanted to touch on, Mr. Chairman, was the area of fairness and transparency. I have raised this in the House before and it is still something I find kind of curious. That is the non-insured health benefits that relates to the formulary for status, treaty, First Nations as opposed to what our health insurance for the GNWT covers in terms of pharmacy. That's been raised to me again by a constituent just in the last month. Again, there would seem to be quite a disparity between what NIHB provides to aboriginal citizens for what they have responsibility for versus what the GNWT benefit pays for for others. So just to put it in a succinct way, you could have been born and raised in the Northwest Territories, you could be 80-years-old and you could be a First Nations person and you would receive far less in your old age in terms of coverage under the pharmaceutical formulary from the federal government than you would if you were an 80-year-old who arrived in the Territories last year and you were covered by our insurance program on that same item.
People who work in the frontlines find this a peculiar statistic and I don't know what's being done to address it. The programs for seniors in the Northwest Territories are very comprehensive. Everything from vision care to pharmaceutical to all the different types of support and services that seniors receive in the Northwest Territories. It just seems unthinkable to me that people who have lived here their whole lives could possibly receive less. One would think that where the NIHB benefits end, our government would pick up but that is not the case and people are treated very differently. I wonder if the Minister could comment on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.