Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I also have a motion and I move that this committee strongly recommends that the government take immediate steps to accelerate the implementation of year two actions identified in the Mental Health and Addictions Plan that will lead to a more robust mental health and addictions network better able to support the timely establishment of specialized wellness courts. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

The attached Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, AANDC, map for the Giant Mine Remediation Project shows the location of underground arsenic chambers and project drill holes. The attached GNWT Department of Transportation map, “Proposed Ingraham Trail Realignment,” shows the route of the road realignment.

What is the purpose of the realignment and what issues or concerns is the highway being realigned to address?

How was the road alignment route chosen so as not to interfere with the...

I certainly can confirm that I have constituents who have had a number of issues. I’ve brought them forward and I, generally, am satisfied that they are being taken seriously and efforts are being taken to address them with possibly the exception of the overly specific requirements, which I still have not reached satisfaction yet. I guess we don’t know when the comptroller’s review is going to be done, and maybe I’ll save that for Finance.

In terms of the Green Procurement Policy, if I can make a little leap and then I’ll try and bring these two together. Trust me. I mean, I’m looking for the...

Thank you. A strange kind of priority when we’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars on other projects and dragging this out over the decades. Because this is an operating and jam-packed hospital, carrying out the renovation during hospital hours will be difficult.

Does the Minister anticipate any extraordinary costs resulting from having to refer patients to southern institutions when wards, operating theatres, clinics, diagnostic and other facilities are closed for renovation? Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we’re getting some nice crunchy comments here. Thanks to the Minister for the opening statement here.

We recently took over utilities for all government infrastructure, and I didn’t hear anything on what the real opportunities and efficiencies are that we’re realizing here, locating problems where utilities are clearly over what they should be and so on, reducing costs, so what have we learned on that front.

The $8 million on operations and capital expenditure to deal with our maintenance deficit; somehow that’s magic. We’re only spending $8 million and suddenly...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Finance on the Stanton Hospital. We put tens of millions of dollars into a Fort Smith hospital and a Hay River hospital, and now, when we should finally be going after the long overdue Stanton Territorial facility, what are we doing? We’re building new highways on the most costly terrain known, paying off poorly-thought-out bridge infrastructure and pursuing other new and expensive projects.

I’d like a clear commitment from the Minister that this fall’s capital budget will contain a proposal...

I realize that there are a whole lot of aspects to this subject and so it’s not possible to discuss it all in this format. Maybe just one last question. The Minister will recall the recommendations that we move from a confrontational, almost legalistic approach, to a more dispute resolution, negotiation counselling approach. Has the Minister found opportunities to work in that direction in the area of child and family services?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The urgent need for a complete restructuring at Stanton Territorial Hospital has been under review since before the last Assembly. We’ve patched cracks and tinkered with failing and mouldy systems for too long. It’s time to get serious.

Emergency physician and current CMA president Anna Reid has been quoted as saying, “there is no place in emerg for doctors to privately use a phone, not even enough surface space for a doctor to sit and fill out paperwork.” That’s the critical care portal at Stanton Territorial.

Patients wheel through the waiting room to X-ray, there’s...

I think I will leave it at that. I am interested in results, but committee is there to deal with that. I’ll look forward to that.

Mr. Chair, my next question has to do with the pharmaceutical costs. I know seniors are going up something like 8 or 9 percent a year in the Northwest Territories and we are known to use a lot of drugs, apparently. The costs are going up. I know the Minister has been working hard to try and find out what we can do in the area of pharmaceutical costs.

Is there anything yet achieved or where are we at in our work towards trying to achieve some cost efficiencies with bulk purchasing or whatever? I know there have been a couple of things happen with just a couple of drugs at a federal or national...