Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few words on the supplementary health benefits. Again, I come back to the principle of the 2,300 people that do not have coverage as we speak today and sit here today. These working-poor families, people who can’t afford to have coverage, are my main focus of this discussion here.
As we sit each day, each day these families do not receive coverage. That’s why I’d like this policy to see if there’s room there to continue moving with it. I understand, in terms of the benefits, that we’re going to be affected by some of the people in the Northwest Territories. We heard them outside the Legislative Assembly. We have seen them in the newspapers. I’d like to see at least one of the 2,300 people that are not affected come to this House here and sit here. They can fly down from the smaller communities or outside communities and sit here and talk to us face to face and say what it is like for them not to have this coverage, Mr. Speaker.
The principle of this is that we are doing this to see what is a benefit to all the people of the Northwest Territories. I would also like to know about the impacts of this if we are to delay or defer or scrap it.
We are looking for health care in Colville Lake. We have been crying for health services in Colville Lake for a nurse. How is it today that a young girl has to wait a day to get medical service out of Colville Lake with a broken leg in this 21st Century?
We cannot have that. That is what I am fighting for, for basic health service that we have in this city here that is taken for granted. They can go to the health clinic. They can go to a consolidated clinic. We can’t even get a nurse in Colville Lake. People have to fight, yet we are having this discussion.
We should be talking about first things first, the basic principle of health care in our small communities. That is what I am going to stand on principle grounds for of this supplemental health benefit. If that is going to take away from services in my community, I’ll be damned if I am going to let this thing go. I am going to fight for the poor people. I will fight for the families. I will fight for my region.