I agree with the Member that this is not a simple matter and it does involve patient care and comfort and continuity of care that the patient expects.

Specialist service in the Territories and at Stanton Hospital is one of the most important and expensive services. We’ve spent about $13 million on specialists and they’re often over budget. We also spent a lot of money on out-of-territory services. So it is important that when we get a specialist service such as a neurologist, that we use those resources at maximum.

With respect to wait times, we did review that and I certainly could work with the specialist to make sure that those wait lists are managed as much as possible. I am aware that, especially with MS patients, we have quite a few of them in Yellowknife. It seems it is more common in Yellowknife and Hay River. It is important for us to have a neurologist service here. We’re lucky we have those and we just need to make sure that we manage as well as possible so that we communicate well with the patients.

For further clarity then, in the case where a patient with MS has had a longstanding relationship with a physician, with a specialist, a neurologist in the south, has been travelling out to see that specialist, is it only the medical travel portion that is affected? So, in fact, if the patient said it is so important to me that I need to see this particular doctor because they know my case, I know them, there’s a trust relationship built, is it possible for that patient to say, okay, I will pay for my own medical travel to get to Edmonton? Will the department then continue to support that patient

to receive that service in the south? Is it the medical travel that’s the issue or is it the actual care that the service that the position is delivering?

I’ll have to get the details, but I would venture to guess that actual service of that specialist that we would have to pay in wherever place that they go would be as high, if not higher, than the medical travel and related expenses. There is a formula for the services like neurologists and inter-jurisdictional billing and such. So we would be paying for that specialist in Edmonton or wherever, while at the same time we are paying for our in-house specialist.

Specialists are, as you know, quite, I don’t want to say expensive, but we pay a lot of money to have somebody like a neurologist. We have to minimize occasions where we are double paying when we have an in-house specialist in the Territories.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister consider grandfathering people who already have a longstanding, established relationship with a specialist in the south?

Also, can the Minister confirm that the neurologist who is currently located in Yellowknife, does that specialist have a full patient load or do they have capacity to take on more patients?

I would be happy to get back to the Member on the load, the wait times and such. Also, we should be mindful of the fact that the Medical Travel Policy says that we pay for medical travel and treatment of patients where those services are not available in the NWT. It may be that somebody may have to see another neurologist because the service that they provide here is not exactly alike. So we make sure that we have the services there. I will get back to the Member on what the patient load is, wait times.

With respect to grandfathering, that is always not a good idea. I will just get back to the Member with that information.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve got questions today to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It goes back to my Member’s statement where I was talking about deficits that have been accruing specifically at Stanton, which is what I want to talk about today, but at other health authorities across the Northwest Territories.

Eighteen months ago the Minister came to committee and presented a plan that would see

those deficits get back to zero. In fact, over the past 18 months deficits at not just Stanton but at other health authorities across the Northwest Territories are growing at an uncontrollable level and pace. I’d like to ask the Minister, over the past 18 months what is leading to increased deficits being run up at health authorities across the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have discussed on many different occasions in standing committee and in health information dialogue and in the health community, deficit is a common issue everywhere in Canada. Every jurisdiction is faced with rising health care costs, rising health care services, rising drug costs, equipment costs, labour costs and the demand of service. NWT is no exception.

Stanton Territorial Health Authority is a territorial body. Their deficit is not Stanton’s deficit per se, but it is a system deficit. Dr. Corkal, who is the medical director, and the CEO, Kay Louis, and the public administrator are tasked with this issue. They are working very closely together to see how we address and get to a complete and comprehensive plan. I’d be happy to work with the Members on the other side to make sure that we make prudent and very clear decisions that would minimize the impact on our residents, but that it shows a systematic change that will require courage and foresight and vision about how we go forward with respect to our health care.

Obviously this isn’t a new problem. It was a problem in the time I’ve been here, almost seven years; just over seven years. It was a problem two years ago when the Minister came forward with a plan to address it. She says there’s a plan being worked on today. How am I supposed to believe that the Minister and the government can come forward with a plan that’s workable? The one that she brought forward two years ago, they haven’t done anything with. In fact, things have gotten much, much worse.

When is this plan the Minister speaks of going to be presented to the Standing Committee on Social Programs so that they can see a way forward on fighting deficits at the health authorities across the Territories?

I’m sure the Member would appreciate that our overarching goal in this House cannot be about reducing the deficit to zero without understanding what the impacts of that would be. I don’t think the Member would support reducing or eliminating programs at Stanton that would impact our residents and the regions across the Territories.

It is important that we work as leaders of the Assembly and work with our health care partners

and health care administrators to get advice from them on exactly where the cost drivers are, what are the things that we must have, what additional resources should we support them with, but what are the system efficiencies that we need to make decisions on. If that means moving some of the offices out of Stanton, if it means charging for parking or whatever else the Member mentioned, they have to be ranked with all of the other priorities.

These are very, very serious issues. Every day on the national media you cannot go a day without somebody talking about the pressure in the health care system. My part as the Minister is to make sure that I’m not trying to balance the budget for the sake of balancing the budget. That would not be the easiest, but it would be the most blunt way to do it. I think it’s important that we do it the right way so that we protect the core services and important services.

Going back to the plan that the Minister presented two years ago and talked about balancing budgets, I’m not sure exactly what she’s talking about. I’m not standing up here today suggesting that programs be cut, services be cut. I’m suggesting that we come up with a workable solution and a plan going forward.

I have a question that I don’t need a long, verbose answer to. I’d like to ask the Minister, is the department and Stanton Hospital, is there an intention to start charging people for parking at that hospital?

I am not aware of that plan. If there were, I would let the Member know.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Staying on the same line, looking for a short answer, how about for the utilization of television and phone services in patient rooms at Stanton Hospital? Will patients be charged for utilizing those services?

On the note of parking, there are lots of government buildings where the employees do pay for parking. That would be the kind of thing that administration would do on their own. I will get an update on that. I am not aware of patients being charged for TV or any other service, but I think anybody who has travelled to southern facilities, all those are charged. So I’d be happy to talk to the authority to see if there are plans like that or any other plan. It hasn’t come to my desk. I’ll share that with the Member when it does.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once the application process is over today I will be able to provide some numbers to the Members, if they wish to see the number of applicants in their communities.

During my constituency tour this fall many of my constituents continued to tell me that because they’re being in arrears, that they’re not eligible and they actually didn’t want to apply again this year. What kind of flexibility in terms of eligibility does the NWT Housing Corporation have when they are viewing a client’s application if they have some arrears or big arrears? How do they manage those?

Mr. Speaker, arrears is a huge concern. That is why I have been trying to get the message out across the NWT that arrears need to be taken care of because it affects your ability to access some of the programs. However, that being said, one of the programs, the HELP program, does allow a minimum amount of arrears. I believe it is up to $5,000, and the flexibility, I have also asked the corporation, as I have said in my Minister’s statement, to look at the core need income threshold and maybe be a little more flexible in that, because we have a lot of people out there that would be good homeowners, however, some are just likely over the core need threshold. I have asked them to be a little more flexible when looking at that. That is why I am quite confident, Mr. Speaker, that we will see a good majority of these vacant units fill up after the intake period, once all applications are processed. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, look for some success in this intake period during the fall time. However, those constituents that do have arrears, Mr. Speaker, still speak to me about their disputing how those arrears occurred, how they happened. Some of them are very old. I have

raised continuously with the Minister and in this House about it and an appeal mechanism within the Housing Corporation. When is the Minister going to enact such a committee? Or, actually, it should be an independent committee, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.