David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to lend my voice today -- what’s left of it -- to celebrating Education Week. Last week Mr. Lafferty called on all NWT residents to help in promoting education this week. I’m very happy to help him do that.

The Minister also stated that learning is a lifelong journey and I couldn’t agree with the Minister more. I’m proud to say that I’m a product of the local school system here in Yellowknife and I’m very grateful for the teachers and the facilities that I had along the way. Now that I have a son that’s at Montessori at N.J. Macpherson, the cycle continues, only...

Obviously I think the planning dollars are going to be important to getting the government’s commitment to building a stand-alone college campus here in Yellowknife. Yesterday we found out there’s $900,000 in planning for Stanton. I’m thinking that’s coming from the capital plan that’s being developed by the government. If one Minister can say there is money, why can’t the other Minister say that there’s going to be some money? Where is the commitment in the capital plan that’s coming this fall to get planning dollars for the Aurora College stand-alone campus here in Yellowknife? We need a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment going back to my Member’s statement when I talked about a stand-alone campus for Aurora College located here in Yellowknife.

Yesterday I was asking some questions of the Minister of Health and Social Services about planning dollars and found out that there’s $900,000 in planning for Stanton. I’m wondering if Education has any planning money in the works for a new stand-alone campus for Aurora College here in Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, I spoke earlier of the need for capital dollars and especially in the area of health care. I am wondering what planning is going into trying to look to the future needs capital requirements for our health care system, particularly Stanton Hospital which I mentioned is probably going to need a major capital retrofit in the very near future, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services getting back to my Member’s statement where I talked about planning for the future of health care in the Northwest Territories. How is the Minister planning to move the Foundation for Change along and introduce it to the public here in the Northwest Territories as the answer for what ails our health care system here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Just one quick question, Mr. Chairman. On the contract services, I’m just wondering why we’ve gone up $1.4 million. Maybe just a quick explanation on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a question on page 3-34. The breakdown from ‘10-11 in comparison to the page that appears, this is for regional operations, the regional allocation of employees on page 3-10, when I compare the two the numbers are different for the South Slave and the Beaufort-Delta. They’re out by a couple of employees and I’m just wondering why that is because if you go into the new year they seem to be accurate, but for ‘10-11 the reporting is just off a little bit and I’m just wondering why. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe if I could, I believe the Minister has talked about the backlog and that was a big issue years ago. Just a quick question, is there still a backlog and if there is, when might you be finished dealing with the backlog of files at Human Resources? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a few opening comments and I just wanted to echo some of the things my colleague Mr. Abernethy was saying about investment. I want to start off by saying I know the Minister is a real champion of the Northwest Territories and I know that he works very hard at promoting the Northwest Territories and getting out and hustling to get investment and dollars into our Territory and I’d like to thank him for the work that he does. I think as a Territory, and I know the Minister does what he does, but I think we should be doing much, much more self-promotion in getting out...

Thank you. I don’t think the hospital was ever designed to be an office building and that’s probably the first problem. I’d like to ask the Minister, and I know and I appreciate that all this lead-up work has to be done, that has to be done, Mr. Speaker. My point is the capital plan -- and the Minister knows this, she’s been around here for almost 12 years -- that takes time. Getting money in that plan takes time. You’ve already had the Foundation for Change in place for two years. You’ve had two years. You say you’re working through all these things. When is the process to get all those...