Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise today to speak about the supplementary health benefits. I want to talk specifically about the people that are demanding that we stop moving forward with this plan as it is currently outlined by the Minister of Health and Social Services.

On Tuesday there was a rally outside of this building where well over 100 people attended. There were young, there were old, there were healthy, there were sick, there was aboriginal and there were non-aboriginal, all calling for us to stop these changes to the supplementary health benefits.

I’ve also seen over the last couple of months a large number of e-mails, that I’ve been copied on, that went to the Minister of Health and Social Services as well as the Premier, demanding that we re-think what we’re doing and that we consider options and alternatives before we move forward with the plan that had been presented by the Minister. I’ve also been copied on a large number of letters to the Minister of Health that say the same exact thing. I have today two petitions that I’m going to table -- or present, rather -- one from the Yellowknife Seniors’ Society with 1,944 signatures. I’ve got one from the Union of Northern Workers with 495 signatures. It’s a significant amount of people who are opposed to what the Minister is planning.

Earlier last week in Elders Parliament a motion was put forward and the motion says: Whereas there is a proposal to implement a new Supplementary Health Benefits Program in September 2010;

And whereas the principle of universality should guide the delivery of the Northwest Territories health care system, enabling all citizens of the Northwest Territories to receive quality health care, including supplementary health benefits, on a fair and equitable basis;

And whereas the proposal rightly extends supplementary health benefits to the working poor and others who currently do not receive them;

And whereas the existing supplementary health benefits for senior citizens have served the purpose of caring for seniors and encouraging seniors to continue to live in the Northwest Territories during their retirement years;

And whereas the consequences of the proposed changes to supplementary health benefits for seniors are not clear and well defined;

And whereas the cost of existing benefits for seniors is modest;

Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that the Elders Parliament recommends that the existing supplementary health benefits coverage for seniors be continued;

And further, that the issue of changes to seniors’ supplementary health benefits requires further consultation, study and revision before the future implementation.

Mr. Speaker, this was approved unanimously by all Members of the Elders Parliament, Members from all over the Northwest Territories.

The proposed changes are bad for the non-aboriginal seniors, but what’s worse is that it’s devastating for people with severe, catastrophic conditions who currently have…

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

I want to ask today that the Minister actually listens to these people and truly hears what they have to say. Don’t implement your proposed plan. Let’s take it back and consider options that will truly work for all and not break our budget with the solutions that exist. The Minister needs to be open to options and desire of her constituents and our constituents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I expressed my concerns about the implementation of the Supplementary Health Benefit Policy and suggested that it will create a new class of working poor: the medically bankrupted. It’s eminently clear that Cabinet must be provided with a few real life examples of the effect this policy will have on our residents in order for them to understand the magnitude of the problems that this policy will cause.

So the first example: An MLA who, of course, has third-party insurance, similar to all GNWT employees, and who needs a drug to treat a specific condition. The third-party insurance will cover 80 percent of the cost of that drug but the remaining 20 percent is totally the responsibility of the individual. In my case, that’s about $8 a month. Certainly an amount I can bear, and I do do that. Contrast that to the situation described by Mr. Abernethy yesterday: a third-generation Northerner who will be required to bear the cost of some $2,000 per month. Who among us in this room could afford to spend $2,000 a month on medical necessities? Not me.

A second example: A family of four living in my riding, mother, father, two children, one of whom is severely disabled. The father has third-party insurance through his employer, which again will cover about 80 percent of the young son’s medical needs; special equipment, mobility aides, special food, drugs, the list is long. The cost of those medical needs can be as high as, for this one child alone, $25,000 a year. Is it realistic to expect this single-income family to pay the $400 or more just for their one child’s needs? I don’t think so.

These are extreme cases, Mr. Speaker, and Members may dismiss them as invalid or unrealistic. I wish that were true, but it is not. These examples are real and they point to the effect this new Supplementary Health Benefit Policy implementation will have on our residents. The

problem presented to us is that government must find a way to provide supplementary health benefits to those not currently covered and to find a way to cover that cost. So let’s find a solution to that problem, not create another problem with our solution. There are other ways to generate the required revenue without the drastic results that this proposed method will produce.

The Minister tells us she and Cabinet have looked at all the possibilities and rejected them all except the proposed system.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

The Minister says she has rejected all the possibilities except the one before us. She’s saying trust us, our analysis is perfect. Well, I can’t accept that. If an analysis of all the options has been done, where are the results of that work? Why has it not been presented to Regular Members so we can evaluate the decision for ourselves?

I have to ask again today the question I posed yesterday: how will this government help residents who face huge financial burdens due to medical conditions costs? Where is the safety net that the Minister keeps referring to for these medically bankrupted residents? I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time. Thank you.

The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health says the intent of her supplementary health proposals is to address the issue of affordability. In fact, the reverse is true. Look at the $50,000 threshold. Remember, this is the net income threshold and not the after-tax income. After taxes, a $50,000 net income shrinks to $40,000 or $42,000. Someone buying their own drugs for catastrophic issues could easily spend the 25 percent required, or $12,500. That means their real income after taxes and drugs would plummet to under $35,000. This is before any basic needs are covered. That’s not just working poor, it’s working sick and poor. It’s brutal and it’s wrong. And remember the net income figure used will be the previous year’s income; that is the last good income you had before you got sick and your income went through the floor. So the principle here is to use a person’s past healthy income to help them when they and their earnings are sick. Again, totally silly and cruel.

We still don’t know what administration of this program is going to cost. But as one senior in my riding knows, even under today’s simple system, you spend days of effort and months of time working and waiting to get paid back. How many people already on borderline incomes will be on the bigger and better waiting list this program will create? Does the Minister have time to fix these cases one by one as she has to do repeatedly for my constituent?

So how will people be able to afford to protect their health? When people get sick because they can’t afford their medicine, they can go to the hospital at a system cost of thousands of dollars a day and receive their drugs for free. Obviously, under the Minister’s scheme, many people will drop third-party insurance and go completely on the public purse.

Third-party insurance is a gift that can take our costs away. We should be requiring it and designing a program to top up these costs, not pass them off on the sick. We should be working hard with our fellow jurisdictions to reduce drug costs, by far the biggest supplementary health cost, through joint action.

Mr. Speaker, the roar of public protest that has greeted these proposals should tell us something. It says that when government sets its priorities for spending their taxes, health care should be at the top of the list.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Health care should be on the top of that list. Many have said they would even pay more tax to ensure coverage of everyone and to avoid co-payments when they are sick, elderly, and less able to pay. Let’s listen to what our employers and the taxpayers say and make fair health care for all priority number one. The public response has been clear, expressed eloquently through public submissions and beautifully captured by the Elders Parliament resolutions supporting supplementary health benefits for everyone.

Mr. Speaker, much of supplementary so-called health care is, in reality, basic health care. I am asking: could this government, if it had the will, find a way to provide fair and basic health benefits and services to all citizens of the NWT regardless of race or culture? Mr. Speaker, let’s keep our people here in the North. Mahsi.

The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to say a few words on the supplementary health benefits. Again, I come back to the principle of the 2,300 people that do not have coverage as we speak today and sit here today. These working-poor families, people who can’t afford to have coverage, are my main focus of this discussion here.

As we sit each day, each day these families do not receive coverage. That’s why I’d like this policy to see if there’s room there to continue moving with it. I understand, in terms of the benefits, that we’re going to be affected by some of the people in the Northwest Territories. We heard them outside the Legislative Assembly. We have seen them in the newspapers. I’d like to see at least one of the 2,300 people that are not affected come to this House here and sit here. They can fly down from the smaller communities or outside communities and sit here and talk to us face to face and say what it is like for them not to have this coverage, Mr. Speaker.

The principle of this is that we are doing this to see what is a benefit to all the people of the Northwest Territories. I would also like to know about the impacts of this if we are to delay or defer or scrap it.

We are looking for health care in Colville Lake. We have been crying for health services in Colville Lake for a nurse. How is it today that a young girl has to wait a day to get medical service out of Colville Lake with a broken leg in this 21st Century?

We cannot have that. That is what I am fighting for, for basic health service that we have in this city here that is taken for granted. They can go to the health clinic. They can go to a consolidated clinic. We can’t even get a nurse in Colville Lake. People have to fight, yet we are having this discussion.

We should be talking about first things first, the basic principle of health care in our small communities. That is what I am going to stand on principle grounds for of this supplemental health benefit. If that is going to take away from services in my community, I’ll be damned if I am going to let this thing go. I am going to fight for the poor people. I will fight for the families. I will fight for my region.

The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to reflect on the tumultuous life of the 16th Assembly. Cabinet, Regular Members and the

public have had fierce debate on issues such as board reform, the Deh Cho Bridge and certainly the supplementary health benefits.

Our first budget sent the public service reeling with the threat of layoffs and cutbacks that seemed to come out of nowhere. Earlier this week, the YK Seniors, in collaboration with the Union of Northern Workers as well as many other concerned citizens, staged yet another protest, an excellent protest against changes to the supplementary health benefits.

Mr. Speaker, these major issues, as I have noted, can be all traced back to significant policy decisions made by the former Cabinet during the last election period. That points to a glaring need to improve public accountability. Let’s be clear. Changes to the supplementary health benefits are not the invention of the 16th Assembly; they are a result of policy

changes began in the 15h Assembly. They were moved forward by that Cabinet while they are no longer accountable to the Members of this House, by signing off such substantial government commitment and direction while the rest of us are completely unaware of this and while we are out face to face with the electorate. Something needs to be fixed, Mr. Speaker. Something needs to be fixed fast.

The next election is a little more than a year from now. If the 17th Assembly began today, it would

already be faced with monumental challenges. They do not need added financial administrative surprises by the Cabinet and they definitely won’t want to get their legs in a trap or painted into a corner if this government signs them to a contract or passes an initiative while the rest of us are out on an election campaign that they are unaware of.

Mr. Speaker, I can’t describe the situation more than it is like a hornet’s nest that has been stirred up and it has been thrown into the Assembly and they have locked the doors, because every time this government seems to fix something, it makes things worse. My feeling is stop fixing things because it is making things worse.

The people of the Northwest Territories can’t afford the guidance and direction that the Cabinet does in closed doors while the rest of us are out campaigning. They certainly deserve better and the people of the North deserve better.

Mr. Speaker, the Supplementary Health Benefits Policy, among other issues, has taught us a very serious lesson certainly the hard way. I urge this government to commit to an accountable process that ensures no significant Cabinet decisions or commitments are made while the rest of the House is out doing its business during the election period. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Item 4, reports of standing and special committees. Item 5, returns to oral

questions. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Mr. Hawkins.

Ms. Bisaro.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to welcome a constituent, Larry Adamson who is here today listening to the Members’ statements and up behind me is Jackie Walsh, assistant to the president of Union of Northern Workers, and Barb Wyness who is the public relations officer with UNW, both constituents of Frame Lake. Welcome to the Assembly.

Mr. Abernethy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize two residents of the Great Slave riding, Lena Petersen, a former Member of this House as well as a member of the Elders Parliament, and Mr. Todd Parsons, president of the UNW.

Mr. Bromley.

Mr. Speaker, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to welcome my mother, Barbara Bromley, to the House, and her lifelong friend, of course, Ruth Spence. I would also like to recognize David Gilday, a resident of Weledeh.

Mr. Ramsay.

Mr. Speaker, I see a couple of constituents in the gallery today that I would like to recognize, Ms. Joy Watt and Ms. Donna MacEachern. Welcome to the proceedings this afternoon. As well, I see Mr. David Wind, Yellowknife city councillor, in the audience. Welcome to everybody else as well. Thank you.

I, too, would like to thank everyone for coming today and take the opportunity to take in this function. Welcome to the House.

Item 7, acknowledgements. Mr. Yakeleya.