Thank you, Madam Chair. I will just end with a comment in that I think we are a very unique jurisdiction in that half our population automatically falls under NIHB, and then the largest employer in the territory is the GNWT and their dependents. We end up extending health benefits to numerous other people. We end up with these 2,200 working poor who don't get health benefits. If you did this analysis, I imagine any other jurisdiction except, perhaps, Nunavut, it just wouldn't be feasible to provide everyone benefits with such a small amount of money. I just would encourage the Minister, during this review, I think there is a way to do this, and maybe it's creative negotiating with the federal government for some sort of territorial health benefit package that exists or looking at what other jurisdictions do where they needs-test it. I really encourage the department to take a serious look at this. I think it would be a great legacy to give the working poor Extended Health Benefits. Do we have a timeline for when that review is done? Madam Chair, thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The first phase actually we completed last year. That had to do with covering drug costs, and the next phase is scheduled for work this year, but ongoing. There will be a very heavy public consultation component to this review so that we can hear from residents of the Northwest Territories about their expectations for coverage, and we can provide answers to them. For more detail, I will ask the deputy minister to continue. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy Minister Cooper.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. We could do it by the end of session. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I certainly look forward to the results of that. I think there is also a bit of a national conversation going on with pharmacare, and I think the department is also looking at what is driving health costs everywhere. That's obviously a national conversation. In that regard, I see both medical travel and Extended Health Benefits have quite significant increases from the revised estimates. I will start with: can we get a sense of what is driving the cost in Extended Health Benefits? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. The biggest driver is medical travel. That involves both the costs and the volumes of scheduled air travel and inflation on the ambulance contract. That's what I am aware of. I am going to ask the assistant deputy minister if he would like to add more detail. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Elkin.

Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think one of the side effects of this pandemic is that we took a hard look at what medical travel was necessary. I know there has been work in the past for the department to sometimes avoid appointments in Edmonton where it's simply a pre-surgery consultation that takes an hour, and then that person flies back. I know the department spoke earlier about a couple of great initiatives happening in terms of Telehealth and digital health. I am concerned that I am seeing $2 million here, and I am seeing continued driving costs for medical travel. When can we expect some cost savings due to digital health and perhaps not necessarily always having to have people travel in the medical travel line item? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. My thought is that we will be able to get a better sense of this when this fiscal year ends, and we will have a year's worth of data. We know that there have been some successes as you have mentioned, but we also know that the digital divide is pretty deep in the NWT. It'll be interesting to see how all of that works out. It is a very expensive program. Of course, NIHB pays for Indigenous and related people. The GNWT pays for everyone else, and the cost there is $45 million. If there were ways to make that cost come down, I think we'd all be doing the happy dance.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just wondering with the medical travel line item, is the department adapting for people who would choose to drive now out of the territory versus flying because they may feel more comfortable? Myself, I have upcoming medical travel in April, and I would prefer to drive. Am I going to be able to recoup any of the gas costs to do so? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

That's an interesting budget question. I'm going to ask the assistant deputy minister to provide an answer. Thank you.

Thank you. Assistant Deputy Minister Elkin.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.