Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased that our Minister is willing to raise that the next time she meets with the federal Minister. Also, as they work towards it there must be some creative solutions, like providing incentives of getting a private dentist into the region. Often when that is the case, they are able to take up the workload of NIHB. I’m glad the Minister is willing to do that. Will she raise the issue the next time she meets with the federal Minister?

Yes, I will undertake to do that.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spend about $8 million for non-aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories. We spend a couple of million dollars for Metis health. The aboriginal residents of the Territories receive their extended health benefits through NIHB, which is a federal program.

I want to ask the Minister a technical question. How much does it cost the government to top up payments for people who already have 80 percent coverage of their drugs and earn large incomes?

I don’t believe we have our stats broken down into that detail, but it is true under our current system that those with employer insurance, whether they work for the government or whatever third-party insurance they have, if they are over 60 they get a top-up. Nobody else would get the top-up. Same for those with chronic conditions. If they have private insurance they will get a top-up. But because our system basically covers 100 percent of it all, they come straight to us.

Will the Minister implement a program which supports low-income earners without coverage so that these people and their families can get assistance with the cost of their drugs, visits to the dentist and costs of eyeglasses?

The consultation that we are doing right now on the basis of the public discussion paper we have out there is geared toward having a discussion about that, explaining what our extended health benefits are doing right now. Right now anybody who is over 60 or with a specified condition that is on the list gets 100 percent coverage no questions asked, as long as they have NWT health care. What the program does not provide is for those who are not 60 or who are not eligible for the specified medical condition and they do not have insurance coverage. Even if they don’t have any insurance coverage, they can’t access any top-up or anything like that.

What the public discussion paper states is why don’t we roll this all into one program where the benefits will stay the same. We do want to still offer extended health benefits, but we need to look at who should access this fund. We’re not talking about eliminating anybody from the program, but those with the ability to pay, perhaps could help us with that. That’s part of the discussion. Everybody will get a fair chance to have access to benefits, but their ability to pay should be a factor, as well as other factors. The information we give out here says that in fact the ability to pay, an income level does not discriminate by age. There are high-income earners and low-income earners of all ages. We want to have that thorough discussion with the public.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Interesting response in terms of the health benefits. In my Member’s statement I talked about the various programs the federal government has for aboriginal people, the GNWT has for the Metis people, and now we’re talking about the non-aboriginal health benefits here. I would like to ask the Minister, if we don’t do anything, would these benefits that are extended exceed the other benefits that people have such as the ones that we’re talking about, the ones who do have the

ability to pay. That’s what I’m looking at in this program here. Will that exceed what the aboriginal and Metis people are going to be getting if we do allow this program to be wide open?

I think it’s important for people to know that the NIHB Program is completely separate from extended health benefits. That is a federal program and what happens there would not have a bearing on what happens with extended health benefits. This is our GNWT program. This is extra health benefits that we provide to our residents above and beyond what’s normally considered under the Canada Health Act. We have some of the most generous programs. We cover prescriptions, vision care and dental care for our seniors. We cover 100 percent of specified conditions.

We are not talking about reducing benefits, but what we are saying is we need to recognize that income level in quite similar in all age groups. There are people who are young and who are making low income and there are people who are older with high income, and we are saying let us look at income as one of the threshold questions and see how we can make the system more fair and equitable. We are wanting to listen to the people about what they have to say about this, but it is something that we need to have discussion on. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about the need for capital projects in the community of Lutselk'e and the inflexible policies of MACA that has not allowed Lutselk'e to access this funding for several years. Can the Minister tell me what the department can do to rectify this situation to ensure capital projects are delivered in Lutselk'e soon? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s actually a federal act that prohibits the community from owning real property under the federal Indian Act. We have been working with the community and other communities to try and find solutions so the communities would be able to deliver their capital plan, and we would continue to try to work with the community of Lutselk'e to come up with some options for accessing the capital money. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since this can’t continue or shouldn’t continue that the community is unable to access, can the Minister outline some of the options that are available or some of the options that they spoke to the community about? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, one of the options is the community can seek hamlet status or they can incorporate an interim corporation that would be able to hold real property on behalf of the community until the land claims are resolved. We have seven of the eight band communities that are already in that process, some have formed their interim corporations and some are just in the process. If you go to hamlet status, that process could take several months to get completed. If you were to form an interim corporation, that whole process could take as little as a month. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, should the community of Lutselk'e not wish to seek hamlet status at this time or have their infrastructure held by an interim corporation, would MACA consider delivering Lutselk'e capital plan directly before another construction season is lost? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, since the introduction of the New Deal we really don’t have the capacity to deliver capital projects on behalf of the communities. The department has been restructured to support the communities that want to deliver their own capital plan and if we were to do that in this particular case, I would see that as a step backwards in not being able to develop community capacity. But, like I said before, we continue to want to work with the community so they can set up an interim corporation so that they would have all the authority to make the decisions that affect their communities and not have those decisions made by the government, which is what the whole idea of the New Deal was and we’re trying to get away from doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister discuss with Cabinet to see what can be done within the provisions of the acts, like within provision of the Indian Act, within the provisions of the NWT Act, to allow the community to receive interim appropriations for capital projects for this coming construction season? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. McLeod.