Daryl Dolynny

Historically, lease arrangements and the length of terms of airport lands have been nothing short of a dog’s breakfast in design. Can the Minister indicate to the House what is his department prepared to do to encourage tenant growth and meet the growing needs of current leaseholders on all our airport lands?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to know that there has been some recent work looking at the amendments to our current Public Airports Act to harmonize it with other acts. Another area which has been grey for some time is the clarity and the authority around the disposal of assets on airport land that has plagued the Department of Transportation for many years. Finally, the issue of Yellowknife Airport governance has been mulled over many times in the past 20 years, yet it appears we are no further ahead in trying to maximize our economic benefits for Northerners.

My question today for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 188-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2015-2016, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to thank the many fine folks we have working for our public service who have dedicated many hours of effort to bring forth our last budget of the 17th Legislative Assembly. Your hard work is definitely a reflection of the polished product we have before the House and it is important that this House respects this. So, thank you from all of us from the Assembly.

Sometimes we forget, and it is worth noting, the budget is not just an expression of numbers but an expression of our values and unique culture, a culture that everyone in this room cherishes and holds true...

With that last question, if we are going to be implementing something of that magnitude, I would assume that there’s going to be some program dollars associated with it. Looking at this activity as being the guiding directorate for this activity, I don’t see much in terms of allowances for this new program to roll out, that it would go through the proper performance-based management assessment, putting all the risk matrix, everything that has to go with a program rollout of this magnitude.

Can the Minister indicate to me where he will be seeking these funds in order to create this new program...

One year later and it’s still not concluded, as we’re hearing from the Minister. We know our first point of contact folks such as nurses, physicians, mental health and addiction counsellors, social service workers, child protection workers and RCMP require ongoing training with withdrawal management best practices, harm reduction and the use of a full range of assessment tools, not just awareness from what we heard today.

Can the Minister affirm that this is indeed in place?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I didn’t realize that that was going to be such a complicated question to respond to and I do appreciate the information forthcoming from the department.

I believe we have some coordinators out there dedicated to occupational health and safety. I also believe we have a lot of coordinators out there that run this on the corner of their desk. That is not their entire positon. I think we’re doing a disservice if we are not giving that proper consideration. So I will be asking the Minister if he can provide a complete listing of how many coordinators that we have by department...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about the issue surrounding our lack of progress on withdrawal management services. Clearly, the department has been given guidance and reporting to make realistic changes in its approach for Northerners. We are constantly reminded by our Health Minister that the economies of scale prevent us from finding a made-in-the North solution when it comes to withdrawal management and treatment addictions as a whole. This argument is used far too often as a means to justify bureaucratic policy. In essence, nothing would be done in the North if one used the...

I’m hearing a bit of a tonality of defiance here that it’s not my job to be doing this, which is quite puzzling, because HR, really, is the funnelling aspect that departments look upon to create this so-called safety culture net.

We heard about a contractor. Is this the gold standard? Are we using this contractor to provide these training programs, and if so, are these training programs system-wide for all departments to use?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What was touted as a band-aid approach upon closure of the only territorial addictions treatment centre in the NWT, our current Minister of Health and Social Services assured all Northerners the southern withdrawal management and treatment services would be temporary.

If we fast-forward to today, we see this temporary promise is now permanently enshrined in policy. Therefore, the recommendation of the Standing Committee on Government Operations from its work on Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Liquor Act, the government commissioned a report to look at the best options for...