Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Canadian residents, the residents of Fort Liard can receive services anywhere in this country with no cost as long as it’s medically necessary. So if they travel down there for a doctor’s appointment or if they travel down there for an emergency situation, those costs are actually covered through reciprocal billing.
What I believe the Member is talking about is when members of the community choose to go to Fort Nelson as opposed to going to the health centre, they
want
their
travel
covered.
Our
recommendation is that we use the health facilities here in the Northwest Territories first and that they go to the health centre. If they get a referral out, we do cover those costs, but we don’t have an agreement with the Government of British Columbia to provide additional services to residents of the Northwest Territories.
I have asked my department to have some discussions with BC at the admin level to figure out what steps would be necessary to do that. We haven’t made it very far, unfortunately, and I don’t really have too much of an update for the Member at this time other than the fact that we are looking at it to see what needs to be done in order to allow us to do some referrals, if possible.