Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.

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.

The Government of Alberta, the Alberta Health Services is our primary partner in the delivery of services. They do most of our diagnostics around things like MRIs. They are

the specialists that we send our residents to, and they have a direct link and cooperation with our practitioners here in the Northwest Territories and agreements that allow them to share information, where appropriate, as long as it falls under the Health Information Act and the Access to Information.

We have agreements in place that allow us to work together and refer to them. We don’t have those same agreements with BC. It would take negotiation to set up those types of agreements, and we’ve got to do, obviously, cost-benefit analysis on that and make sure that those agreements are actually going to provide some value.

In the meantime, I do remind the Member as well as the residents of the Northwest Territories, and particularly Liard, as you travel outside of the Northwest Territories and you do go to hospitals or health centres outside of the Northwest Territories, those costs are recovered under our reciprocal billing and you shouldn’t have a cost. Where we’ve run into a difficulty with Fort Nelson is they don’t have the ability to refer back to the Northwest Territories for things like home care, physio, occupational therapy or any of the additional programs that we provide above and beyond what is consistent across this country.

I’m very pleased that at least

the department is beginning the process of trying to understand the situation about having Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte residents having a travel cost. I think that’s the biggest issue, because the Minister is right; we do have reciprocal billing and we do have an agreement throughout the provinces that our health care cards are recognized in BC as well as Alberta, but it’s just a matter of getting there, seeing the services. Like I said, they’ve been doing it for decades. They’re familiar with the doctors and the dentists in those communities in northern BC.

I’d just like to ask the Minister once again, can be commit to have his department seriously look at this issue and see how much further we can go about delivering health care close to home to the residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte?

I’m happy to have the

department continue and re-engage in some dialogue with BC to see what it would take, but I do put some provisos around that. When a resident of the Northwest Territories chooses to go outside of this province for medical treatment that’s available in this province, we don’t cover that. What we’re talking about now is whether or not we can cover people for referrals, somebody who’s actually accessed and engaged in the system. So not people who are just making choices to travel outside but where there’s been a referral or something, we’re certainly willing to have those discussions.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I can say unequivocally on behalf of the residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte that they’re not choosing to go there. It’s just that over time they’ve developed trust issues about service of health delivery with our own system. But aside from that, if we can develop this base, the residents have a working relationship already. I’m just asking our government, let’s formalize this, let’s work a way around it, let’s continue supporting our residents getting the proper health and close to home delivery of health care that they can.

We’re committed to

providing health and social services in the Northwest Territories as close to home as possible, and I heard the Member that we have some issues with Liard and the trust issues. I’d say that it’s going to be important for the future Ministers and the existing Minister as well as Members to work with our communities to find out how we can overcome some of those trust issues and re-encourage some trust and faith in the system that is available here in the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Mr. Miltenberger.

Tabling of Documents