Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. Final

supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Obviously, from the answer of the Minister, you can tell what a difficult challenge this one is.

But on the point I raised about the vacation travel allowances: you know, if we looked a little deeper into this problem, we’d realize that if we started setting aside some of the wages onto a taxable benefit, that would offset and work out in the employee’s favour, if we described it that way. It wouldn’t have to be a return of a lush agreement. It could just be a modest contribution that works toward the employee’s benefits.

Mr.

Speaker, on that point, would the Human

Resources Minister look into the idea about reallocating some of the wage that’s attributed to a vacation allowance so that the taxable benefit works out in favour of the employee and would probably go a long way to improve employee morale?

Part of the reason for moving away from the vacation travel allowance was to move toward a made-in-the-North workforce and also to try to maintain benefits in the Northwest Territories.

We realized that what the vacation travel allowance would do is encourage people to leave the North, to go south and spend their money in the south. What we want to do is have a made-in-the-North workforce, and we’ll continue to work in that direction.

Thank you, Mr.

McLeod. The

honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask some questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services on the issue of dental surgery. I did hear my colleague, Mr. Beaulieu, speaking to this earlier today as well.

We had occasion to have Ms. Lee in Hay River recently, but even prior to that we had heard from the people who are still offering dental surgery in Hay River about a situation whereby there is a significant waiting list right now of mostly children waiting for dental surgery.

The portion that the non-insured health benefit is prepared to fund is less than the actual cost for these procedures. This is something where the difference could be paid, I suppose, by the GNWT, or they could choose not to step up with the difference.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister of Health: given the importance of a child’s health and how it can deteriorate if the dental surgeries are not carried out, what steps are being taken to address this backlog of children waiting for dental surgery?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right. With respect to the cost of doing the children’s dental surgery in Hay River, which is an option we could consider, most of the cost is with the anaesthetic service and the anaesthesiologist, who is a specialist who needs to provide that service, as well as with all the related costs of performing that procedure.

Just for anaesthetics, Mr. Speaker, our cost for doing it in Hay River per 90 minutes is $952. NIHB

is willing to cover $700, and there is a gap of $244 per situation.

It is our position that it is not an insured service. We are willing to let the hospital be used for that, and we are saying that the dental surgeons, who are getting compensated for most of it, would cover some of those costs of using the facility and using the anaesthesiologist.

As well, we would like the federal government to step in, because when you are saying $244 per child — and we have numerous children on the waiting list — it really does add up. It’s a cost we’re having a difficult time covering.

So we understand what the problem is. The problem is the difference between what the service costs and what NIHB is prepared to cover. It is $244, as the Minister says, per child. I know of at least 130 children who are on a waiting list today waiting for dental surgery.

In the interest of processing their cases, the Minister is expecting the federal government to perhaps come back and raise their contribution. Maybe the dental surgeons will lower their fees.

In the meantime, these children are sick. Many of them are on pain relief to try and alleviate symptoms of their various conditions, such as abscesses and so on. Mr. Speaker, these folks are in limbo right now. What is the plan?

Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the plight of the children as well as of other residents in the Territories who are looking to have dental surgery.

We should remember that dental surgery is not an insured service. There are limits to what the government offers in terms of health care benefits. This is another case where NIHB has capped the amount of money they are willing to pay. It is $200,000 here, $300,000 there. Over the years it adds up to millions.

I am putting this issue on the list of things I need to discuss with the federal Minister of Health and social services. I also would like to suggest that when it costs $952 to do a procedure, most of the money goes to the dental surgeon. The services that surgeons and dentists provide are provided in their private clinics, and they cover the operating costs for that. We are willing to let them use our hospitals, but we’re asking them to come and work with us and be willing to cover some part of the cost of doing that. At the end of the day, they’re the ones who are getting most of the compensation.

I guess I’m not as interested in the politics of this as actually making sure that

the Northern clients who need dental surgery receive it. There are 130 people in a backlog right now, and $240 needs to come from someplace to close this gap, which is the amount that’s in question here.

Mr. Speaker, we have a hospital. We have dental surgeons in Hay River willing to do this. We have clients who need the service. Can the GNWT not bring anything to the table to help these folks get service?

I want to tell you that I feel sympathetic, and I want to do as much as I can for the children, just as the Member on the other side does.

I am responsible for the health care funding. All of our hospitals are going through a deficit, and they’ve had to make some choices. Where they have fiscal challenges, they have to put their first priority on insured services. Dental surgery is not an insured service. It’s not an insured service anywhere in Canada. For the aboriginal children NIHB covers a cost of that. There is a gap in the funding available. I think GNWT is willing to make some compromise on that, but there are the federal government, the dentistry industry and us being involved. I think we, all three parties, should work together to help the children who need that. I agree with the Member that we need to do something about the children who need these dental surgeries.

Thank you, Ms.

Lee. Final

supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you. Mr.

Speaker,

$244 will seem like a very small amount of money when we have to start sending these children on medical travel down to Edmonton or other places. In fact, no other place in the Northwest Territories wants to do dental surgery anymore — only Hay River. It is an affordable place to go. The alternative is much, much more expensive.

Would the Minister commit to continuing to work with NIHB and her department to try to find a way to fund this difference between what NIHB is currently paying and what the actual cost of these services is? I don’t think we can ask the dentists to do it, but we do need a solution. Will the Minister commit to work toward that?

Mr. Speaker, we have asked the dental association to come forward. They’re not as interested as we would like, but I think it’s something I need to pursue. Hay River is a facility that has the most surgery days open that they could facilitate. But even if we decided that that is the facility to do it, we would have to cover the cost of bringing all the children there. The GNWT, at the end of the day, is willing to step up to the plate and cover that to make it happen. The short answer is

that, yes, I will continue to push the federal government.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr.

Krutko. The

honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to say that the Member has raised a good concern in terms of one of our five ferry operations in the North. He wants especially for Tsiigehtchic and McPherson and Inuvik that…. We will take this question. I’ll relay it to my officials and see what we can do in terms of looking at our level of services for people so they can make their planned schedule. We’ll see how we can improve our services for the people in the areas the Member talked about.

Mr.

Speaker, the residents of

Tsiigehtchic would like to see this acted on immediately, since it’s a practice we’ve done before; it was in place. So I’d like to ask the

Minister: can he immediately implement the schedule of ferry services on the Mackenzie crossing at Tsiigehtchic?

Mr. Speaker,

the

Member again raises a good question. I’ll talk to my officials, to check in to this situation and see what plans we can do to look at the hours of operation of our ferry services, and also at the impact issues where we could improve our services for customers. I think that’s something I’m willing to work with the Member on.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know why the Minister has to go back to his department. If something works in the region, it saves government money, it saves us burning fossil fuels to the extent of 40 per cent…. There’s no madness to this; do it. I’d like to ask the Minister exactly when we can see this service back to what it was before, where we had scheduled service for the period on the Mackenzie crossing at Tsiigehtchic.

Mr. Speaker, as soon as I look at all the options, certainly I’ll get back as quickly as possible to the Member and institute, possibly, a new operation of services for the people of Tsiigehtchic.

Thank you, Mr.

Yakeleya. Final

supplementary, Mr. Krutko.

Mr. Speaker, people are missing their appointments. People are missing meetings. People are missing scheduled appointments in Inuvik because the ferry is holding them up or they’re not being able to make those appointments. That is a serious cost. The government is paying the cost of a lot of this medical travel. I’d like to ask the Minister again: for the sake of service to the people of the Mackenzie Delta, can you implement the scheduling process that was there prior to someone making the decision…. Can he do it tomorrow?