David Krutko

Mr. Speaker, again, as I mentioned, there was an offer made by the Gwich’in Development Corporation and other lending agencies to the board of directors of Discovery Air based on an agreeable price and a percentage by way of the loan that they were willing to offer. They met with the board of directors before this government made the offer for $34 million. Was that ever considered and the question asked have you approached other lending institutions to see if they are willing to lend you the money versus you coming to the government for a $34 million loan?

Mr. Speaker, my questions are directed to the Minister of Finance with regard to my statement earlier about the loan to Discovery Air to the tune of $34 million. The Minister talks about due diligence and when we review the report it’s surprising to me that there was no market disruption review done in regard to this particular loan. There are other lending agencies out there who had loans in place, they had a major stake by way of shared equity in this company, but they weren’t even contacted in regard to this government’s $34 million loan which undermines their ability to basically provide...

Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to raise the issue in regard to the government loan to Discovery Air. I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance if he was aware or did he receive any information that the Gwich’in Development Corporation was one of the businesses that loaned Discovery Air the amount of $10 million in regard to share equity in Discovery Air? Also, was the Minister aware that the Gwich’in Development Corporation offered an extension of the loan to Discovery Air based on the terms of the Gwich’in Development Corporation was prepared to accept? Also, was the Minister aware that the...

Thank you. I’d like to welcome everybody back to the House. Mr. Speaker, our constituents are reaching out to each and every one of us in this House to improve the economic nightmare we are all going through in regard to the recession, the high costs of living, power costs, energy costs and, more importantly, the overall costs of living in the Northwest Territories. People are talking in our communities and in our ridings about this government’s direction in regard to income supplementary programs, dealing with the supplementary health benefits which are basically putting more pressure on our...

Thank you. I’d like to welcome everybody back to the House. Mr. Speaker, our constituents are reaching out to each and every one of us in this House to improve the economic nightmare we are all going through in regard to the recession, the high costs of living, power costs, energy costs and, more importantly, the overall costs of living in the Northwest Territories. People are talking in our communities and in our ridings about this government’s direction in regard to income supplementary programs, dealing with the supplementary health benefits which are basically putting more pressure on our...

Mr. Speaker, there were two other parts to the meeting. One was dealing with the Liquor Act. Under the Liquor Act we do have prohibition orders that can be sought in communities that are dry. Tsiigehtchic does have a prohibition order. Again the question comes down to having the legislation and having the tools to stop the flow of alcohol to communities by prohibiting it. There also has to be enforcement of that legislation to ensure we are able to stop people from doing that by making people aware that it is against the law.

I’d like to ask the Minister: has he also had an opportunity to see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Policing in northern communities is a very essential service that a lot take for granted. There are a lot of small communities — I believe there are some eight communities — that don’t have policing services in the Northwest Territories.

I think it is paramount on this government that we do whatever we can to provide some service, regardless if it’s scheduled service or, in most cases, ensuring that we have a process where the community feels that they can see the RCMP once in a while in the communities, either once or twice a week in every month, if possible.

Mr. Speaker...

All health boards in the Northwest Territories are not running deficits. There are two health systems in the Northwest Territories: the Stanton hospital and the Inuvik health system. There are only two places that have been running deficits for the last number of years. The other three systems have — and in some cases, had — surpluses, and good surpluses.

For me to stand here and hear the Minister say that it’s a problem right across the board…. It’s not a problem right across the board. The problem is in two locations: the Stanton health centre and the Inuvik regional board of health. I’d like...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. When we have a dysfunctional system and it starts to break down, as government we usually try to intervene and basically bring it back up on its footings. I’ll use the Stanton hospital, where they hired a public trustee to intervene with the major deficit that’s being handled by the Stanton hospital.

Presently there are some 45 vacancies in the Inuvik hospital, yet they’ve been running deficits year after year. In this House we’ve been passing supplementary appropriations to bail them out. When you...

One of the other outstanding issues is that poor communities don’t have police or a nurse. In order to respond to situations where we have to have a fast response…. There seem to be a lot of time delays, in some cases up to six hours.

One of the issues that came up was looking at working with the Department of Justice or working with the Department of Health to develop an emergency response program for Tsiigehtchic so that when the bylaw officer has to call somebody, he’s got somebody’s phone number and somebody has the keys to the health centre. Those types of things have to be accommodated...