Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, through you and with your assistance here, I’d like to point out in the gallery someone I’ve worked with earlier in 2014, Mr. Kevin Hynes who is the president of the Yellowknife Firefighters Association, here for Bill 45. Thank you.

I’ll take the Minister up on his offer there.

Now, with respect to that service delivery, as indicated earlier, there was some discrepancy in terms of when these nurses were available on call. There were hurdles in our system, and the Minister is very much aware of this. It happened to one of my residents here, where these nurses are basically Monday to Friday, nine to five, and we all know that emergencies and medevacs are 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Has the department mitigated that philosophy of just a Monday to Friday availability of service and do we have this now, indeed, as a 24...

We know that the Department of Health has, under contract, nursing care or, I guess, nursing helper services in some of the jurisdictions down south, especially at the University of Alberta Hospital, where these individuals help patients who are brought down from the Northwest Territories who are in need of help to explain what’s happening to them, making sure that they’re coordinated with loved ones, et cetera. Where does that budget fit into here with respect to that service we provide?

Thank you. Just as a question because it sounds like there is some work happening behind the scenes with ECE. How much of this budget is going to be allocated to translation services specifically for technology enhancements or changes so that we can use very app-friendly devices and applications? What is the budget, where is it in our main estimates and how much is it?

I’d appreciate if we can get that level of detail. Again, interest compounded daily, monthly, yearly adds up, especially when you’re dealing with potentially over $11 million, $12 million. Again, public accounts has shown us that that rolling average went down for a couple years and now it’s back up there. Again, I think it was around $7 million. I encourage the department to keep a handle on that because that’s a cost. It’s a cost we don’t talk about. It’s a cost that’s a burden to the taxpayer.

To the question, though, in terms of zero-based budgeting and looking at forecasting for the 2015...

I would agree; the numbers in question are not huge. We’re talking about $180,000, but it’s the principle behind it. The fact that even when the act, hopefully, that will pass in the House and the regulations to follow soon after, they will probably – and again, I don’t have the numbers in front of me – be at least 50 to 70 health professionals that are affected by that legislation to which it will have a fee anywhere from $200 to $500. Again, it would happen, I would assume, during this calendar year. I’ll refrain from beating that one down a little bit more and I’ll definitely ask those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to welcome the Minister and the Department of Health here today. In preparation for today I had to look back almost 364 days ago as to what I said on this department back then, and back then the Minister was in power in his position for 232 days. So, it was more of a reflection of a short period in office and I tried to recant and re-evaluate some of the overarching issues of the day and apply them to now, which is around 597 days later in office, as to where we’ve gone with this department. In that respect, I’ll try to make comparisons within that year and how...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, February 19, 2015, I will move the following motion: Now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that the Government of the Northwest Territories investigate the best way to implement a lobbyist registry that is publicly accessible via the Internet;

And further, that the government provide a comprehensive response to this motion within 120 days.

Recognizing the entire area of the East Arm being unique and special to all people of the NWT, does the Minister see merit in creating a co-management board of representation of all various interests that would manage all aspects of use from industrial development to exploration, commercial, recreational leases, harvesting access and traditional use?