Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Members for bringing this motion forward. Medical travel is a big issue throughout the Northwest Territories, and as my colleague mentioned, standing committee did get a briefing last month as well as on Monday, October 5. The Minister did table a document, NWT Medical Travel Program, Patient Escort Supports Report on What We’ve Heard and it is mentioned that they are working on their recommendations that were developed out of that report.

We all know that medical travel, as we go through our business plans, averages out to over $30 million a year. Now the escort portion is over $5 million and when we break it down that’s over 13,000 medical travel patients every year. So we’ve got to find ways to do things better that can cut our costs, whether it’s providing more services to the regions, or ensuring that people get the proper treatment when they do go out, because I’m sure a lot of these costs are travel that’s repeated over and over.

With the report, I know there have been some concerns and some discussions talked about staff turnover as well as capacity issues in the regions and there’s nothing that we can do about that. All we can do is continue to provide support and try to help our patients get the right programs, the right treatment, the right services that they need. I know there’s been an appeals process that has been discussed and that the department is working on it. I know, as I mentioned at the onset of my comments, that this is something that we’ve been working on for the life of this government.

What else we’ve been hearing is that some cases, when it’s not approved, people are just paying for their own escorts and that is something that needs to be addressed, whether it’s an afterwards appeal process to get remuneration on the hotel, airfare costs, per diems for people who need assistance. So the first part of the motion that was brought before us in the House, I do believe it’s being worked on. During our presentation to standing committee, as well, if you look at the document that was tabled on Monday, it says they are working on a lot of recommendations in there. Whether this motion will speed up the process, as I mentioned there are capacity issues, staff turnover, that’s going to reflect that.

The second part of the motion here is to apply throughout all the regions, and recently over the summer we passed Bill 44, the Health Administrations Act, that’s going to assist in transformation throughout the Northwest Territories. They’re going to provide better services to regions that are having some of those issues with medical travel, as well as all health and social service concerns in terms of services and programs provided to residents. However, due to the fact that this medical travel concern is something that we’ve been talking about, the Auditor General has brought it up and standing committee is trying to stay on top of it, among the many other emerging priorities throughout the life of this government. I will support the motion just on the fact that it is still important and I’ve got to show my support of the importance that medical travel and the escorts for our most vulnerable, our youth, our elders and those who are described in the motion.

I do understand and I do think that the department is working on it right now. There are challenges. Whether or not this motion is going to speed up the process, I have to have faith in our departments and when the governance and system transformation comes through I think it’s also going to reflect on the services that are lacking in some of our regions that don’t have these services currently.

So I thank the mover and the seconder for bringing the motion forward and I will support it based on the fact that it is an important issue and we’ve got to protect our residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.