Thank you, Mr. Chair. There’s not much that has been left unsaid for me. Mr. Abernethy covered most of my points but I will speak to them as well because I think the more times they’re mentioned, perhaps the more it reinforces the position.
At the top I want to also indicate my appreciation for the statement made by the Minister in her opening remarks to the change to the date for the implementation of the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. It’s great to have a motion passed on this side of the House that actually is heeded by the other side of the House. We thank you for that. I only hope that the policy, the intent of this change is not predetermined and that everything will be on the table; means testing and all.
There were a couple things that the Minister mentioned in her remarks that I wanted to highlight and one is that we’re developing a framework for children with disabilities and that’s something that I think is very positive. The other thing is that we’re finalizing an NWT Diabetes Strategy. Certainly, diabetes is a condition in the NWT that is almost an epidemic and is one that really needs to be worked with. I’m very glad to see that we’re going to have a strategy that can be put in place and hopefully will reduce the incidence of this particular disease.
A couple of things in terms of a little more specific stuff in the budget. I, too, am concerned about cost overruns at the Stanton Hospital Authority and the Inuvik Hospital Authority. They have been in deficit positions for many years now and I will be asking the Minister what sort of plans are in place to deal with these particular cost overruns. I know the department’s been working on it but I know that Members are looking for something concrete, so I will have questions in that area later on.
I mentioned in my statement the other day that I’m disappointed about the lack of a milk subsidy in the budget. I’m encouraged by the Minister’s comments today that it apparently is still being considered. I think that’s great. The sooner we can get that in place the better. Again, I want to reiterate that I think to depend upon the commercial Power Subsidy Program for businesses is not going to be in place as soon as we can put a milk subsidy in place. It’s something that needs to be...It’s a program we need to have within a few months’ time, not in a year or two years’ time.
I, too, have concerns about the funding agreement that we have with the federal government relative to insured health benefits. I believe that the Minister has previously told Social Programs committee that that’s being worked on and negotiated and I’ll be looking for an update from the Minister on where that’s at.
There is absolutely no way that this government can continue to absorb the cost for the NIHB program if we are not being funded adequately by the federal government. We either have to reduce the services or we have to get more money from the feds, and it’s something which is creating a real drain on our health budget.
I, too, have difficulty with strategic initiative funds being used to pay for, or being identified for, an operations and maintenance cost, and I am referring to the Dementia Centre and the Hay River...I have totally lost the title, but the Hay River.
---Interjection