Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ditto. I’d like to thank the Minister for her Member’s statement today.
Frankly, the Executive Council’s decision to rescind the 2007 policy on supplemental health benefits is a great step forward. Since this policy came into place and it was passed by the 15th Assembly in
their dying days, it’s caused nothing but problems. It’s fundamentally flawed.
Sure, something needs to be done. We can’t argue that. We need to find a way to provide support to the low-income families who don’t have access to insurance or can’t get insurance. Clearly, that needs to be done. We’ve heard since the Minister started bringing this forward that the direction that this government was going wasn’t the right way. I
think they’ve finally heard all the information, they finally gathered all the information that they needed to make a decision. I’d like to thank them today for rescinding that policy.
I do have one area of concern. I’ll ask the Minister later today. In her statement she said that she will make a further announcement next week regarding the implementation of these changes. I think it’s important, given the interest on this side of the table and the interest in the community, that the Minister meet with us and talk to us and give us a bit of an idea of what she means by an implementation plan. I’m not 100 percent certain what is ready to be implemented. I’m not sure that anything is ready to be implemented.
In my opinion, we need to go back to the drawing board on a lot of the issues. The Minister is working on a Foundation for Change for the health system in the Northwest Territories and I think that’s part and parcel of everything that needs to be done in order to fix the health system overall. I’m looking forward to the Minister coming to us and talking to us about what she means by implementation plan next week and that anything that does start to roll out that has a clear plan, that people are informed, that people are consulted, that people understand what’s being done and why.
Communication is important. A solid communications plan on any changes that come forward with extended health benefits in the future is required for anything that’s ever implemented. Let’s work with our people. Let’s make sure they understand. Let’s make sure they have input.