Like I said, any time we lose a business it’s a sad thing for any community, big or small. If the NWT Power Corporation does a post-mortem on the situation, because it was ongoing for awhile, if they look back and assess the situation, they can learn from it and it’s something that can be a positive thing to share with the community or any other businesses that might be experiencing the same type of pressure and extra costs with power, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Under the existing structure that we have to operate in as a Power Corporation with the rate bases as they are, the

collections that must be brought in to ensure we keep the corporation in a healthy state means the more arrears or accounts that are in arrears, it affects the rest of the customer base in that area. That is why we have to look at a different way of operating and how we structure ourselves as the Power Corporation. That includes setting direction as a government overall. We will look at the process and information there. I know there were many steps taken to try to help out, but ultimately it comes down to trying to stop the arrears from starting to begin with. One of the bigger ways of doing that is to make a fundamental shift in the way we deliver energy across the Northwest Territories and that work is being done and hopefully we’ll have Members supporting the recommendations that are made. Thank you.

I am really pleased to see the work that the government is doing with the review of the electricity rates and, if the Minister can confirm it, we’re also looking at the commercial power rates as well. We know about the cost of living pressures and we want to prevent this type of situation that’s happening. Will the Minister tell us if the commercial rates will also be reviewed fully under this review? Thank you.

The commercial rates, as the Member has discussed, is one of the high cost areas of doing business in the Northwest Territories in our more remote communities, especially in the thermal communities that don’t have access to hydro possibilities. Besides expanding that and trying to create that, the existing framework needs to be changed. We are looking at potential ways of doing that that would lower the commercial rates in our communities. We are hoping, again, that as we bring that work forward, Members will support it and we can make the necessary changes going forward and that will, again, benefit the commercial side of power in the Northwest Territories.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member knows that we don’t have fee systems in our health care system. I don’t believe there is a co-payment for medical travel for those whose income is higher than a certain level. I could only think of that. In long-term care facilities, people pay minimal for staying there. But by and large, we have the most generous and open health care coverage compared to anywhere else in the country and probably around the world. Thank you.

I keep telling the Minister we’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table, whether it’s through WCB… We charge through WCB but we don’t charge through federal programs where they provide individual insurance. Mr. Speaker, I’m asking the Minister what do we do to make sure we’re collecting all the fees and services, and I’ve pointed out whether it’s insurance through, for example, auto insurance, like I said last week, whether it’s getting full payment from Nunavut on services we provide to them. Thank you.

I don’t know why he’s getting the impression that I don’t think that we should do that or we are not doing that. We are doing that. I said that in our Committee of the Whole discussion. Our health system as a whole, we bill for services that we need to bill, we collect money, we have people that do that, whether it’s a visitor or out-of-towner or it’s a physician-to-physician arrangement. That’s part of the health care system and delivery system. I just want to make sure that there’s not a linkage that we are somehow trying to reduce services in everything to make up for something that we’re not collecting. That is wrong and if the Member doesn’t understand that, I don’t understand why he thinks that’s somehow making politicians look bad. I’m just giving him the answer; he should hear that, Mr. Speaker.

I have said in the Foundation for Change and our collective challenge is that we have a fiduciary obligation to protect the health and social services system we have, and that we look at the long-term outlook at where we are heading and that we make sustainability a priority, and that is not a cost reduction, that’s just about protecting, and protecting what we value. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure how the Health Minister can keep saying that there aren’t changes coming to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program when there are changes. What are we evaluating then? It doesn’t make sense. How can the Minister keep saying that there aren’t

changes coming without it being reflected on the costs of the system? I’d like to understand that from the Minister’s point of view. Thank you.

If the Member read the public discussion -- perhaps he has, maybe wants to read it again -- there’s no mention there. I think anybody who’s had that presentation -- and we’ve had that presentation with the seniors, with Joint Leadership Council members -- it’s a good package of information to start a dialogue on.

I want to say it again, that we’re not proposing changes that take away benefits. What we are saying is we need to look at accessibility, who accesses that. And anybody who could afford to pay a co-payment or something, perhaps we should consider that. That is part of our discussion.

So I think the Members are jumping the gun in saying we’re ahead of this. This is a very important discussion and we need to have that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Co-payment is a reduction in services. Mr. Speaker, when you grandfather people, that’s a reduction of services to the people who follow after them. Mr. Speaker, I’m trying to understand from the one-sided point of view of this full evaluation, as I’ve been trying to highlight, we can save money so we can make sure we don’t have to make these changes. I’m trying to understand how come the Minister keeps defending that there are no changes when we keep highlighting that there are. Thank you.

I want to say clearly that we are not looking at reducing costs. In health care services it’s about making sure that our system works well so that we plan for the future. The health care budget in this government continues to grow and we expect that it will continue to grow and that we will continue to spend the money that we need for the health and social services system.

The review of supplementary health benefits is different. It’s been around for a long time and we have very good information about who is using it and what the people’s backgrounds are, and that there is not as much fairness and equitability in that program as it is delivered now. So we are going out to the public with the information we know about the program and asking people for feedback. To say that we shouldn’t even do anything like this is I don’t think very future-oriented or responsible. I think we have a collective responsibility to see how we can make this better. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the subject of SCAN legislation was raised in the House without any final context provided. This is a big concern to my constituents so I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice where is SCAN legislation at in the priorities of this department. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the SCAN legislation, we have visited the Yukon, our neighbouring Territory, to see how their legislation was going. We met with several of the leadership of that community, Whitehorse, and also visited the First Nations group and also the community council. So we just wanted to have a firsthand look at how that legislation was operating.

At the same time, Mr. Speaker, we are currently conducting our own research in other jurisdictions as well. The SCAN legislation is at the preliminary stages at this point. We want to make some changes so it reflects on the northern perspective, it’s northern driven, it captures the North, as opposed to legislation that came and we changed the title. So, Mr. Speaker, there is still a lot of work in this area. So we continue to work on the legislation itself on a going forward basis. Mahsi.

I very much appreciate the comments of the Minister. I’m wondering, there have been concerns because of the cost of it. I know in other jurisdictions, some areas where the cost is low it might work, other areas the cost is prohibitive. I wonder if the Minister will be doing a cost analysis as well, so when he does comes forward with the results of the preliminary investigations we could also see that cost analysis. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, indeed, the cost analysis, the consultation, the fee, how much it would cost us and also a centralized model and other options, that we are dealing with. So, Mr. Speaker, we will finalize our overall cost, whether it be the equipment, the assets, the offices, the staff. Mr. Speaker, it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. So we will continue to provide that information to the Assembly Members when we gather all the information from other jurisdictions. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on the questions I was asking earlier today. First off, I’d like to recognize that I agree with the Minister in her response to Mr. Hawkins that, yes, we have a collective responsibility to make this program work better for the residents of the Northwest Territories. I couldn’t agree more. The problem is I think we need information to do that.

The Minister also said, in responding to some of my questions, that we need some good dialogue between us and the stakeholders and the department. Once again, I couldn’t agree more, but we need to make sure that we have the information to do that. I didn’t hear the Minister commit to actually gathering some of the information that they have failed to commit. I’d like the Minister to commit to gather that information and do some of those cost-benefit analysis that address what will happen when people decide to leave the Northwest Territories, or may choose to leave the Northwest Territories, if changes do occur to the Supplemental Health Benefits Program. Thank you.

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