Just in terms of the strategy in the other regions, does that mean the Health and Social Services department has contacted the leadership, the band councils, the village councils, the Metis councils? I think part of the press conference they are talking about is it’s a community approach that’s got to be taken in this, especially if there are increased numbers in some of those communities. Does the strategy include advising the local leadership, Mr. Speaker? Thank you.

The communication is to the front-line staff and the regional health authorities. They will be going out to the communities to do a publicity campaign. I will make sure that they make contact with leadership to ask for their assistance, very much like we did with H1N1.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me comfort that we have strategies in the other regions and communities. In terms of monitoring, is that something they are doing with the health centres and the community health nurse? They are aware of the symptoms to watch for in local community members? Thank you.

Yes, every health centre and staff at the health centre and hospitals are aware of what symptoms to watch for and what precautions to take to make sure that this does not get contracted or spread once contacted. So, yes, there is a very close monitoring going on of all infection cases in all health centres. Dr. Kandola’s office keeps very close touch in that they know exactly what numbers and what the trends are and fighting aggressively on this situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I have questions for him in regards to the concerns of a constituent of mine and some concerns which were recently brought to my attention. A complaint was laid against my constituent. She’s a member of a self-regulating professional body, and an independent investigator was fired by that body and the investigation took place. The resulting decision, unfortunately, compromised my constituent’s ability to practice. The problem is that the individual feels that the investigative process was flawed and unfair and that it should be reviewed. I would like to ask the Minister what recourse for Justice exist for someone in these circumstances. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The particular investigation, of course, is under the RCMP “G” Division. At the same time, there are avenues that individuals can pursue. One of the avenues that is always open is the Public Complaints Commission. That is an avenue that we encourage people to apply if they are not satisfied with the outcome, whether it be an investigation at the local level, at the district level or even at the headquarter level. But those are just the avenues that we usually send them to first at the local level and then, if they are not satisfied, then the Public Complaints Commission is always open for them. Mahsi.

Unfortunately, the Minister did not understand the nature of this situation. This is a member of a self-regulating professional body. It has nothing to do with the RCMP. This individual had a complaint laid against them. It was investigated by the NWT body. The individual feels that the whole process was unfair and that it wasn’t valid and that it should be reviewed. Again, what recourse exists for my constituent? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we need to be aware of what kind of investigation it was. We don’t have any background in this area. If the Member can share that information, I can have my department look at it even closer, what kind of investigation was undertaken by whom and what kind of processes are available to that individual. We need that additional information before I speak to it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I am afraid I have to disagree with the Minister. I don’t think that the details of this particular situation are relevant at all. This is an example that I feel goes extremely… It is a very pointed example relative to the need for an ombudsman. This is an investigation that was done under the regulations of an NWT professional organization. There is nothing within that organization which allows for any kind of an appeal. The only avenue of appeal is then presumably through the courts, which is something that this person does not want to do. Other than the courts, can the Minister tell me if there is anything for someone who is a member of a professional body, has been investigated by them, feels that it is unfair? What can they do?

Mr. Speaker, there again, I need to look at the file. There are processes within our GNWT system, within Justice, but we need to know what happened along the process. What kind of options are available through our department to assist those individuals? Of course, there is the court avenue that the Member has alluded to. That might be an option, but they

can be dealt with in a manner that satisfies both parties, those are options that we need to look at. We need to look at the case file. I am not aware of this case file, but if the data can be shared with us, we can certainly look into it further.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I reiterate, I don’t think the details of the file should impact. The Minister mentioned there are things available, but he didn’t go into the detail of what things he is referencing when he says there are things available that can be done. Could he itemize for me the things that are available for such an individual as he mentioned in his previous answer?

The process I can certainly share with the Member in writing about the process itself, what kind of assistance is available to this individual. Due to the nature of the incident, we need to clarify that as well. Providing options of where this individual can certainly look at when it comes to options, I will commit to providing that information to the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue questions with the Minister of Health and Social Services on the area of medical travel and services provided to our constituents. Part of the issue here is that we go to great pains to provide medical services to people who self-inflict particular issues to themselves, whether it’s through alcoholism or drugs. We have people with weight-loss problems and diabetes problems. who the Minister is saying are exempt from the policy. I think that’s wrong, because people are burdened with an unfair chance and we don’t provide them the support.

I’m trying to get the Minister to go back and review these files, because I’m talking about people who were previously approved and even recently approved, as far back as last fall, to go to Edmonton for specialized services. Would the Minister go back and review these files to see if we can make sure these people can get back in the queue and get services for medical treatment?

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

As I’ve already indicated, we have very good medical and health care coverage. The weight loss reduction procedure is not a health

care program that’s covered anywhere. We have discovered that some of them were approved by mistake and we are not going to approve that. We are working on developing a program that can help these clients in the North, because we have in fact discovered that some of the programs they were getting down south were in private clinics and something that we could look into doing here. We do need to do more here.

With respect to paying clinic files, those are private clinic treatments and the only thing we’re asking is that they make contact with their physicians to make sure that the physician supervises their files. I don’t think that’s asking for much. Our program is still very good and we need to respect the integrity of our programs.

I appreciate the Minister’s answer but it’s lacking a particular element that even recently, this last fall, that this constituent went for medical advice, they got a recommendation from the doctor, the doctor processed the papers through the normal channels, the normal channels approved them, and they went to Edmonton to start their treatment. Then, of course, when they tried to do their follow-up, all of a sudden the policy doesn’t apply. So one day it applies and the next day it applies. That same type of treatment was successful on another family member and they used the same travel policy to get services. Would the Minister review this file and take a serious look at this and say, wait a minute, why are we doing this to people? Why are we supporting them?

I’m not sure what files he’s talking about and we can’t talk about private files here. I do want to say that our Medical Travel Policy, I don’t think he’s talking about the Medical Travel Policy because medical travel comes when our residents are approved for a procedure outside of the NWT and we cover for that. It comes from what the original procedure is that they were approved and our policy is sound. We found out that the policy was not applied properly and we made sure that whoever was approving those procedures was informed about the fact that those procedures they were approving are not allowable within our guidelines. So we’re following the procedure.

I continue to get further disappointed, if it’s possible, on this particular case. We have a system that has approved people to travel. We have a system now that says, well, I’m sorry, our system doesn’t like this particular case, we’re not going to allow you to travel down for needed medical care. This is doctor prescribed care. This is not sort of somebody saying, hey, you should do this. This is needed care. It’s quite demoralizing when one day you go down for treatment and the next day you’re told, sorry, you don’t qualify. I’m asking for some empathy in this

particular question. Could the Minister show some compassion to these particular files? I brought three recently to her particular attention. Would she be willing to review them and see if there’s a way to make this work?

The Member knows that a lot of situations and files come to my desk. We review them to make sure the policy is applied. If the physicians order procedures that are not eligible for coverage under our program, they would be advised, which is the situation that happened with the weight loss reduction procedures. All the doctors have been given clinical guidelines to make sure that they understand this. We have lots of doctors coming and going in the Territories and they need to always be getting these messages. So I’ll be happy to look at any file that the Member is asking, but we would always make sure that our policy is being adhered to.