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Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas wrote an open letter to Ontario's health minister, Christine Elliott, about the long waits people in her riding are experiencing when waiting to be reimbursed by the Northern Health Travel Grants.
"This is not acceptable. The government should not take four months, sometimes up to eight months for one of my constituents, to pay people money they owe," said Gélinas.
Gélinas says the NHTG program was set up to help ease the financial burden of northerners who have to travel for medical appointments, but says it’s adding more stress.
"The traveling is stressful, having a disease is stressful, being in treatment is stressful. You add to this, that you’re not at work because you are sick; you don’t have an income, or have a very limited income. You endure all of those costs to get to your treatment and then the government doesn’t pay you back," said Gélinas.
The Ministry of Health sent the following to CTV News as a response to questions about the delays:
"Delays in processing can sometimes occur when grants submissions have incomplete or missing information. Every effort is made to connect with clients by telephone to assist them with incomplete travel grants. The ministry acknowledges that the processing time of travel grants has increased, but is working hard to return to its regular service standard of six weeks for processing a completed application."
Gélinas wants those who are experiencing delays to not hesitate to give her a call, she says she will follow up with each individual claim.
