David Ramsay

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to be speaking in favour of the motion as well.

If you look at the money and the amount of housing units that the Government of the Northwest Territories has put on the ground in our communities over the last five years, you would expect that there would be a decrease in the core need in our communities. There isn’t. Also, I’ve travelled to a number of small communities and the number one issue facing residents in the small communities is housing.

I want to support my colleagues on putting this motion forward. I believe that people should be given an...

Ultimately the government did make the right decision and listened to the Regular Members of this House and listened to the public across the Northwest Territories who suggested that it was the wrong decision. I’m glad that they did eventually listen.

I’d like to ask the Minister, I know that he’s privy to the discussions on the 11 or 12 positions that were needed at ECE to administer the program. Even though it doesn’t fall under the mandate of the Housing Corporation, I know he’s been involved in discussions with his counterpart in ECE on those positions and what the status is of the HR plan...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of the Housing Corporation. Getting back to my Member’s statement, obviously the decision of the last government to transfer responsibility for social housing was a decision of the last government, Mr. Speaker. For however long I think about this, I’ll never ever comprehend or understand why that decision was made in the first place, but I want to get back to something else I spoke about in my statement. That is responsibility.

This government was elected in 2007 and it took them over two years to reverse that decision. One of the first...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to join my colleagues today in talking about housing.

Having been a Member of this House for the past several years, I must say I’ve been witness to some very bad and costly decisions that governments have made over the years. One of the most ridiculous and bizarre moves came when the last government decided to transfer responsibility for social policy and the $34 million to administer it from the Housing Corporation to ECE. The fact is, Regular Members in the last government told the government not to do it, but it didn’t matter because, Mr. Speaker, a funny...

Mr. Speaker, again, I do thank the Minister for that response. The one thing I didn’t hear in her response was whether or not the government’s going to ask itself and us the hard question, and that is whether or not we can afford to maintain having several authorities across the Northwest Territories delivering health and social services for our people and whether that current governance structure is sustainable going forward. That’s a hard question and I’d like to ask the Minister is that going to be part of the discussions with senior management and the government. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to continue with some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services related to the other questions that I had for her. The Minister spoke earlier of all the good things that under her watch the department has been doing. If the Minister has been addressing the root causes of these deficits over her three-year reign as Health Minister, like the underfunding, the unfunded positions, the growing costs for medical supplies and equipment, billing issues, unwieldy accounts receivables, and governance structure, then why do the deficits continue to spiral...

I’m having trouble understanding who the Minister signed the MOU with if these other provinces already have deals worked out with themselves. When is the Government of the Northwest Territories going to actively get involved and get in on a bulk purchasing plan with our neighbours to the south? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions again today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, getting back to my Member’s statement.

I talked earlier about the growing deficits at both Stanton authority and other authorities around the Territories. Mr. Speaker, around this country, other provinces and territories are taking quite seriously the growing cost to deliver and provide health care services to their residents, and I just do not see the determination or the effort being put forward by our government when it comes to addressing these ever-growing costs. In fact, the way we manage...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move to report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is very easy to criticize. I like to be critical of the government from time to time, but I also want to give my suggestions to government and a suggestion, Mr. Speaker, if I could give that to the Minister, would be to look at the authorities and change the way they operate. Take away the management aspect. Make them advisory boards, if anything, and, to me, if you are looking for efficiencies, that is where you are going to find it. It doesn’t make any sense to have eight different authorities in the Territories with 42,000 people in it. If you are looking for...