LONG-TERM CARE (NURSING) HOME FEES
Mr.
Wall:
—…I raised a concern of a lady from Swift Current a couple of
days ago. And I found out that . . . a little bit more about her
income because I’d like to ask you about her case, frankly, Mr.
Minister, and see what you think about her case. She is a
long-time resident of the Southwest and her and her husband farmed
for all of their lives. So they don’t have a pension from any
particular work they did. They’re going to have their pensions
that they get through old age and Canada pension, that sort of
thing. And they will get the income that comes from, you know, the
disposition of their farm or what savings they were able to accrue
after all of those years of hard work. And she told me that their
income in 2001, combined, and I’m not sure in whose name most of
it is, was about $42,000 — $42,000. Now she wrote to you, Mr.
Minister, no doubt your office will have many letters so I’m not
expecting you to know chapter and verse of her case. But she wrote
to you, the letter that I quoted two days ago, that you asked
today that we would table them all, a lot of them are to you. This
one’s one of them. And this particular lady, she just assumed
that she would probably be on the low end of an increase. So she
says in her letter, if the fee goes up 10 per cent, that means
$1,000 less for the spouse at home. And she goes on to outline the
things that she’s worried about — the dental needs of her and
her husband who’s now in long-term care at the Palliser Regional
Care Centre; the fact that he’s incontinent and that requires
certain special needs that are very expensive, on a 24-hour basis;
their drug and prescription requirements…
…You
know that’s a grave concern because she’s talked to me about
her particular case. This is not a wealthy couple. This is a
couple that now has to maintain two residences effectively — one
that’s very costly in long-term care at the Palliser and then
their own private residence. And I’ve talked to her on the phone
many, many times. Minister, I can tell you she is legitimately
concerned about her ability to afford to operate her car. I think
the car’s paid for but it’s $800 to plate it a year, she says.
And it’s her means of transportation to visit her husband at the
Palliser care centre. I could tell you she’s worried about
keeping . . . maintaining the private home that her and her
husband worked a lifetime to build. And I can also tell you . . .
I just want to read for you if I can, Mr. Minister, and I’ll get
right to a question, Mr. Chairman.
Here’s the last part of her letter to you:
‘I’m
sure this budget was drawn by the government who don’t realize
who a nursing patient leaves behind when he or she ends up in a
nursing home. Would the government stop and realize and reconsider
the blunder they have made. I have been an NDP supporter all my
voting years. But if things don’t change and this government
doesn’t smarten up, my mind might change too. (She says) hoping
to hear from you.’
And
that’s the case we bring. This is not a wealthy couple that can
afford another $4,000 a year. You know I talked about her . . .
she talked about her quality of life already trying to just
maintain it under the old regime . . . fee regime. She says, we
cancelled our . . . You know I used to have a little dish to have
some extra TV channels, we don’t have that any more; I don’t
go out any more, except maybe to visit my husband at the Palliser
care centre. This is not a couple of great means. But it is a
couple that has built . . . frankly contributed to building your
political party, building our part of the province as a farm
family, and she makes this very good point. And so I know this
question’s getting repetitive and I apologize for that, Mr.
Minister. But the question is this: why won’t you reconsider
this? Even at $14 million, when you juxtapose it against what’s
happening in the Crowns even — even when you juxtapose it
against that — there’s obviously resources out there that can
be made available to the government through Crown dividends
anyway. Why wouldn’t you reconsider, for $14 million, doing this
to this particular couple in the city of Swift Current?
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