Mr. Speaker, I rise too in support of the motion. I have had the opportunity to travel throughout my communities of Nahendeh to speak to the seniors about this particular issue. As well, many seniors from Fort Simpson attended a constituency meeting. I was very happy to have them there.
As I went to explain the program and how it works I really found myself in the position where I couldn’t make a good explanation of it. There was no analysis in the documents given. There was no costing of the initiatives. How much does it cost to provide these supplementary health benefits? How much will they save if they remove it with the income testing program and the two-tiered program they had designed, and the costs for actually helping those that were identified in need and are unable to access our Supplementary Health Benefits at all?
As I discussed it with them it was apparent that there were two different issues here. One was that the supplementary health benefits were going to be removed from seniors that made, I think the Minister said roughly $66,000, in that area. I don’t think it’s actually working income either. I think it’s retirement income that is included into it. The seniors have made it very clear to me that they have worked hard for these benefits and they work hard in identifying communities they want to stay in. They make a conscious effort to stay in our North. It’s not something that they just do. It’s a conscious effort. It’s planned. They make arrangements to live in the North. Knowing that it costs slightly more, this is their home. That’s very, very important.
When they spoke about it they said, well, this is paramount like taxing us. That’s the way they view it. It’s an additional tax to the seniors to live in the
North. In fact, one of my constituents felt very strongly about it. He said. “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to put up with it”. He goes further to say, “If you don’t like it, we’ll leave.” Pretty serious words. That’s nothing that we, as legislators, as MLAs, want to see happen. We want our people, especially our seniors, to continue the good work they do in their community. They’re volunteers. What income they have they’re spending in our communities and sharing their wisdom and knowledge with our communities.
Once again, no information, apparent lack of recent consultation, and there must be a better way of doing this. The Minister has deferred it, but the motion speaks about a little bit more examination and analysis of this whole area. I think that there are two different issues here. Supplementary health benefits is one and the other one is to find funding for citizens that cannot access any benefits now. In fact, I’m a firm believer that Supplementary health benefits should not be taken away at this point.