Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Member's correct; this issue has been raised before, and I've just had discussion in the department. But of great importance to us is looking at the system and the exceptions that happen that cause concerns to be raised, or MLAs to be approached so that they have to come either to myself or to the deputy to resolve issues, and we're trying to eliminate those. So as I indicated to the Member from Nunakput, we're constantly trying to improve the service. We know that this is a very critical time in person's lives, when they're on their way for medical treatment, and we tend to hear about the exceptions. We do our best to resolve them. We haven't made a final decision about how we could possibly move ahead on a toll-free medical line. It would be much different than the line we have to phone nurses. This would be talking about very specific circumstances, policy interpretation, sort of online adjudication in trying to sort out the information so that you could, in fact, make that kind of determination which would be very difficult when you're, for example, on the phone with a distraught individual from the Hay River Airport on their way to Edmonton and things haven't fallen into place and it's 4:00 on a Saturday. We tend to respond to these on an emergency basis, and as the best way to deal with those circumstances, and then try to sort out what happened after that, make sure that the immediate need is met, and then we try to adjust to make sure it doesn't happen again. Thank you.
Michael Miltenberger on Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
In the Legislative Assembly on February 10th, 2006. See this statement in context.
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
Item 20: Consideration In Committee Of The Whole Of Bills And Other Matters
February 9th, 2006
Page 944
See context to find out what was said next.