David Ramsay

Whether it’s the department’s responsibility or the doctor’s responsibility, I think we have to do our utmost to ensure that when patients from the Northwest Territories are sent south, they actually have a room and will be looked after the way they should be. I agree with Mr. Hawkins; I don’t think 34 hours in an emergency room with a daughter and a three month old baby is appropriate.

I’d like to ask the Minister…. I know that yesterday she had mentioned that other centres like Grande Prairie or perhaps even Calgary were looked at as a possible location to send this constituent of mine. Was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister: was the Government of the Northwest Territories there as observers, or were we actually there presenting our case so that a diamond bourse, an exchange, could be located here in the Northwest Territories, where we have four operating diamond mines in our territory?

Like I have mentioned previously in this House and earlier today, time is of the essence here. I don’t think we can afford, as a government, to drag our heels much longer on finding out exactly where it is that we want to take the diamond industry here in the Northwest Territories.

Earlier today I spoke of a feasibility study that’s looking at the possibility of opening a diamond exchange, or bourse, here in Canada. There were meetings held in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Where was the Government of the Northwest Territories in this feasibility study? Were they anywhere to be found?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to discuss the issue of diamonds and diamond policy today. The Northwest Territories produces almost 15 per cent of the global production of diamonds. We are the third largest producer of gem diamonds in the world today.

The city of Yellowknife is known as the Diamond Capital of North America, and rightly so, as we’ve been mining diamonds just north of the city for over ten years. We have four operating diamond mines in our territory. Yet as a government I believe we have been failing to ensure that our territory can benefit as much as possible from our diamond...

I’ve got one second left to come back and ask the Minister. He didn’t answer the question. I’m not sure if he heard the question, but where exactly is a dedicated stand-alone college campus for Yellowknife, the capital city of the Northwest Territories? Where is that in the government’s plans today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, I’m not an expert in heavy equipment by any stretch of imagination. It’s not like when you look at trucks and vehicles that you drive on the street. Every model year those can change quite a bit as time progresses, but with loaders and graders and dump trucks, I think the mechanical aspects of those vehicles don’t change very much. Again, I stand to be corrected, but if we’ve got a dump truck or grader or loader that’s three or four years old and we paid 30 per cent of the cost that shows up here and it serves the exact same purpose as a new one would, why...

Again, I think those are discussions that should happen. If there are enhancements there that the town wants specific to that new school or schools, they should be coming to the plate with some dollars to get that done.

The other thing I wanted to mention here, in terms of capital acquisition, is the three new pieces of equipment for Fort Smith and for Aurora College. I’m just wondering: why is it that we’re buying new pieces of equipment for the college? Wouldn’t we at least look at second-hand equipment, Mr. Chairman? Why does it have to be new?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to add a few comments to the discussion. I’ve got a few questions as well.

Like many other Members, I’m supportive of the Inuvik school replacement. I have been for a number of years now, since the roof collapsed in 2004, and there’s a need there to replace that piece of infrastructure.

The interesting thing for me, though, is that if it was in the private sector and they needed to replace a piece of infrastructure like this — it’s a big building — it’d be done in the most timely, cost efficient, effective manner possible. What I’m seeing with this project...

I didn’t hear an answer on whether or not other locations in Alberta or even…. I’m not sure; maybe the Minister could let us know. What other agreements do we have with health authorities in southern Canada to look after our patients? Are there other options? There are going to be huge demands on Capital Health in Edmonton. If their rooms are full, we need to be looking after our patients, and we have to ensure that this type of scenario is never allowed to play itself out again. So will the Minister answer that question?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on some questions a colleague, Mr. Hawkins, had earlier in regard to a patient who was medevacked to Edmonton and who, in fact, is a constituent of mine. I’m going to ask some questions today. I want to try to get a better understanding of what happened and why it is that the government and the Department of Health would send a patient who had a stroke to a facility if they knew there were no rooms there for that patient. The answer that Ms. Lee provided to Mr. Hawkins yesterday wasn’t clear enough for me. Could she explain why they would knowingly...