David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to make a few comments. It’s obviously quite alarming that we’re carrying over $138 million for infrastructure projects. Although the Minister states representing 26 percent of the 2010-2011 revised capital plan, that’s a lower percentage than in previous fiscal years, which averaged around 33 percent. More alarming for me is the amount of capital projects within the Department of Transportation that have been carried over. That’s around $72 million.

I’d like to ask the Minister if there are historical numbers of percentage of carry-overs by department. I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. Again, I think it’s important that the recommendations are acted upon in a timely manner and that the Government of the Northwest Territories is there in a meaningful way as a stakeholder in that.

I’d like to ask the Minister maybe just for a commitment to bring back to Regular Members of this House updates maybe five or six months from now on some progress on these recommendations, where things are at, to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. I know there’s an election coming up in October, but if there is any progress, I’d like to...

Thank you. Going forward I think it’s very important that the concerns of residents here in the Northwest Territories and of this government are fully addressed by the transition with these recommendations into a new way of doing business out at the Edmonton International Airport. I’d like to ask the Minister who exactly from the Department of Health and Social Services is going to be representing the interests of the residents here in the Northwest Territories in that transition. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on some previous statements and questions that I’ve had in this House to the former Minister of Health and Social Services pertaining to the provision of medevac services that medevac patients from the Northwest Territories receive when arriving in Edmonton for care.

The Health Quality Council of Alberta has concluded its report and come up with 18 recommendations to mitigate the loss of medevac flights to the City Centre Airport. The report finds that the move would transform hospital transport times in Edmonton from the shortest in the country to...

I’d like to ask the Premier if he’s sure that our Member of Parliament was awake when the Premier told him whether there was a process underway addressing the borrowing limit of the Government of the Northwest Territories. Was he actually awake?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak today about Bill C-530.The bill and our MP, Mr. Bevington, were in front of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development on Tuesday, March the 8th, in Ottawa. I found that most of what our MP had to say about consultation with people here in the Northwest Territories and our government to lack, quite frankly, any semblance in reality.

In his opening comments to the committee Mr. Bevington used the word “legitimate” spending without actually defining what he meant by “legitimate.” Does our MP actually believe that sending a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The corrections officers aren’t the ones that are locked up. They are there working. They are doing their job. They are performing a function, looking after the inmates that are there. It’s the inmates that are locked up, not the corrections guards.

Again, I haven’t heard an answer from the Minister on whether or not the Department of Justice can try to address that issue that’s at the North Slave Correctional Centre in that... It’s close to 50 percent of the corrections officers in that facility that are smokers. They’d like to have an area where they can have a...

Mr. Speaker, I will just correct the Minister; they are not security guards, they are corrections officers. Mr. Speaker, I think we need to be treating our corrections officers in the same way that we treat other government employees. I know that they are there. They are captive employees for the period of time they are at the centre. Why is it that we can’t come up with a solution? Maybe it is a little ways away from the building, but a designated smoking area outside for use for employees, the corrections guards specifically that can’t leave that building, they can’t have a cigarette if they...

I thank the Premier for that. I wanted to ask the Premier, there may be a federal election on the horizon here shortly. I’d like to ask the Premier if the work of this review on the borrowing limits to the three territories, is that work going to be concluded relatively soon or when might we expect some movement in that regard on that process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Premier. I’ve had a chance to read through the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, the parliamentary committee that our MP, Mr. Bevington, appeared before on Tuesday of this week. It seems that the Member of Parliament is trying to convince people that he’s actually consulted with this government when it comes to his proposed Bill C-530. Again, he’s convinced himself that he’s consulted, but I’d like to ask the Premier what consultation has actually taken place between our Member of Parliament that would lend...