Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak to the issue of the supplementary health care coverage. Tommy Douglas was voted the greatest Canadian of all time by the CBC contest back in 2004. Why? Because he is considered to be the father of medicare for all Canadians.

I might vote for my mother as being the greatest Canadian. Why? Because she told me something that broke my heart when I was a young man. She told me how as a mother with eight kids she once had to go without food for herself for two days so she could feed us and still buy the medical care she needed for one of my brothers. We perhaps forgot today just how recently such decisions had to be made in Canada and in the North. The medicine chest in some treaties is still important today, but it

does not cover all aboriginal people. So they rely on the government’s extended health care too, just like half of our population that is non-aboriginal. Universal medical care is a Godsend.

Extended health care is of critical importance. We are told that 2,299 in the Northwest Territories go without access to the extended health care and that our Minister’s new plan will cover. That makes a lot of sense to me. I want to make sure no other mother faces that terrible decision like my mother, and no doubt that many others will have to make, to buy food or buy medicine. So for those 2,300 people, I support the Health Minister.

But I hear so many contrary arguments from both my fellow MLA and from the public that I have concerns, concerns that may impact my region in the future regarding health care.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister, if her current proposed plan is good policy, then please explain it to me. Help me understand it. What are the stakes here? We owe it to the 2,300 people who we are told will benefit and we owe it to those who may have to change the use of the current system. It’s about a basic principle, Mr. Speaker. It’s about bringing the 2,300 people into our health care coverage, plain and simple. First things first, Mr. Speaker, let’s get it right. Thank you.