Bill Braden

Mr. Speaker, good regulation means that we have to have good legislation to back it up. Is the Minister aware of anything that this Assembly should be considering to enable the highest possible standard of regulatory monitoring and control of this project, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you for the answer, Mr. Speaker. Where I would like to go with this is in getting some assurance that there is adequate jurisdiction on the various kinds of lands in the Northwest Territories -- federal, municipal, Commissioner’s lands, aboriginal lands -- and the regulatory framework that is assigned to each of them. Is there a comprehensive and a cohesive regulatory framework that will enable this project to be properly regulated as it goes through these various types of lands and has various types of impacts, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize the Nats’ejee K’eh workers today in the gallery and a constituent of Great Slave, an ally of these workers, Mr. Todd Parsons, the president of the Union of Northern Workers, Mr. Speaker.

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Mr. Speaker, thank you. My questions this afternoon are again for Mr. Roland, the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, it was about a year and a half ago that the government decided, surprised us all, actually, with a decision to relocate the Territorial Treatment Centre, a facility for children between the ages of eight and 14 who have severe behaviour disorders, to move this facility from Yellowknife to Hay River. In the meantime, or recently, Mr. Speaker, we were advised that there was a kind of a change in plans here. The government might be looking instead of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am well aware and I know my colleagues are well aware of the process. It is the struggle that we’re all engaging in to get those most needed facilities, those most urgent to the top of the process and that’s what we’re engaged in. Now, Mr. Speaker, the YACCS organization has provided an alternative by which they would finance the construction of this facility as an option to the government itself financing it. Is that a proposal that is under active consideration along with our own financing, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is for Mr. Roland, the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, our government, this government, recently advised the Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors that it has decided not to commit to funding for a new dementia centre in our three-year capital plan. We cited other competing needs, Mr. Speaker, and the bulging costs of construction that are affecting virtually anybody who wants to get anything built in the North these days.

Mr. Speaker, the need for this kind of facility is amply demonstrated. It is not, I...

So the exact information that will be made available to the courts would be what then, Mr. Chairman?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of aspects of this bill. I speak in support of it. So we're changing, I guess, the resource or the data pool for names of potential jurors from the voters list to the health care plan. Is this bill potentially going to be an improvement in this data, Mr. Chairman? Will the courts have potentially more names and more current names than the voters list provided, Mr. Chairman?

Mr. Speaker, the TTC, the Territorial Treatment Centre, now presently being used located in my riding of Great Slave still has I think some viability potential as a facility of some kind in this community, and I'm wondering has the government looked at potential future uses for this facility? Or if it's going to require demolition, is this also included in the $3.2 million budget cost for the transfer of this program, Mr. Speaker?

So, Mr. Speaker, could the Minister advise the House what is the timeline before us now as regards the relocation of this program? We've obviously seen considerable delays in the decision-making about this. In the meantime, the families and the staff are wondering what's going on, and so am I, Mr. Speaker.