Thank you, Mr. Minister. Committee, we are on page 6-29, health services programs, grants and contributions, grants, $25,000.

Contributions, $124.332 million.

Total grants and contributions, $124.357 million.

Page 6-31, activity summary, supplementary health programs, operations expenditure summary, $17.698 million. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. An issue related I believe to this aspect of our sort of a health insurance program was a decision made earlier or last year at some point I believe by our principal insurer to not cover the provision of...Sorry, let me start over again, Mr. Chairman. The decision was one that impacted the staff of the GNWT and I believe the federal government where an insurance provider changed their administration on this and where our staff were required to purchase non-drug supplies. Now, this would be things like test strips for diabetes or ostomy products. The system that we had in place before, Mr. Chairman, was that a staff person or someone covered under the GNWT plan could go to a pharmacy, purchase the materials, pay I believe 20 percent, which was their share and the rest of it would be administered through our Inuvik health care system. However, Mr. Chairman, because of a change in administrative procedure, staff who needed these supplies were now required to pay all of the cost and submit individual claims to the Inuvik office. Mr. Chairman, at the end of the day, these employees received reimbursement for the cost of the supplies. So technically they're not out of pocket. However, this had to have created a much greater new administrative burden because instead of a few pharmacies or outlets billing our health department perhaps on a weekly or monthly basis, we have probably got dozens of eligible staff persons submitting bills on a monthly basis and it just seemed to be a whole administrative step that was quite unnecessary and in fact may be causing some staff who otherwise would not have to pay for this through the convenience of their health care plan to actually be absorbing the cost of these supplies because it's such a hassle.

The other impact that was felt, Mr. Chair, by some constituents was that in the case where they may have needed several hundred dollars worth of supplies a month, their cash flow could not sustain this and the speed at which Inuvik was able to reimburse this was usually several weeks and their own personal households took a real hit because of this change in administration. Earlier this year or last year when I made some inquiries about it, the Minister was not able to identify really why it happened or what could be done to change it and I was wondering if anything new had developed on this file, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the department, as this came about, I guess our side of it is, is the existing program was working fine. We've noted our concerns with the changes. Ultimately it is a Sunlife program that affected our employees and other employees that fall into their plan and we have not got any further with this issue with Sunlife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Mr. Chairman, okay, Sunlife is bigger than our government. It's unfortunate we can't get anywhere. Aren't we the customer here, aren't we the client? Shouldn't Sunlife be trying to help us out? Mr. Chairman, the impact is on my constituents and I think others around the Northwest Territories who are otherwise out of pocket at least for some period of time while Inuvik processes their claims. Is the Inuvik office alert to this and doing the very best they can to turn reimbursement cheques around, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as stated earlier, this is totally a Sunlife issue. We don't deal with any of those purchases or reimbursement issues through our health services administration office. This operates through the HR department and Sunlife itself. So that's how that flows when it comes to the changes that Sunlife had made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Anything further, Mr. Braden?

Mr. Chairman, are we continuing to press this with Sunlife on behalf of our staff at least, or have we closed the file on it?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we've been working with the human resources to continue to try and address this issue and the last discussion we had trying to get to the next level of where things sat.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Finally, I understand this also affects the federal government. They're a much bigger payroll and staffing component than we are. Are they also pursuing this or have they given up on it, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Braden. Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're not aware of what the federal government has been doing.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Next on the list I have Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have questions on the initiative the Minister is working on to revamp, change or refine the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. He's been working on some policy changes. Is that money incorporated here, or is that still in the works? Thank you, Mr. Chairman.