David Ramsay

I’d like to speak today about where the Northwest Territories is at on the federal government’s agenda. I’m surprised this government seems to be taking, let’s say, a more laid-back approach to devolution and resource revenue sharing, especially given our current financial situation and our desperate need for increased revenue streams. Our Territory has never had such a great demand for investment in transportation, energy, education, housing and community infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, it is a shame the last government could not get substantial infrastructure investment dollars into our...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to comment on the sessional statement. Some of what I’ve got to say today I certainly will be saying more this week and as we go towards the end of session. I think some of it needs to be done as a Members’ Statement or something to that effect or spoken about on the floor here in a formal setting. But I’m going to talk about a few things.

I wanted to start with devolution and resource revenue sharing. And I know the Premier mentions it, actually mentions a Devolution Agreement in his Sessional Statement, but there’s no mention of resource revenue...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to request a timeline for when the Premier might have the two departments come back to Members of this House with information pertaining to a deal with Ottawa.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier. It gets back to my Member’s statement from earlier, where I was talking about the Nunavut government signing a $242 million dollar deal over the next seven years with the federal government for infrastructure development in the Nunavut Territory. It got me wondering. I know the Building Canada fund. We’ve had much discussion here in the House about, well, I guess, what the definition of a list is. I have my own definition; cabinet seems to have their definition of what a list is.

I’d like to ask the Premier what plans his government has to...

Two written questions:

Did the G.N.W.T. have the updated cost-benefit analysis prior to the signing of the concession agreement of the Deh Cho Bridge project on September 28, 2007?

What economic analysis did the G.N.W.T. and the Department of Transportation have at their disposal to make these decisions to proceed with the signing of the concession agreement on the Deh Cho Bridge project, and if so, who did that economic analysis?

Again I want to continue with some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I didn’t get an answer to the question of whether, in fact, the nursery on OBS at Stanton Territorial Hospital will be turned into office space.

Mr. Speaker, I know the capital planning process — I believe it was $27 million that was earmarked for Stanton over the next few years — is one issue. The issue I’m getting to is that if you have a morale problem and you have an issue there with not enough space to conduct the services that our residents require, why would you exacerbate the situation by continuing to make decisions that turn patient lounges — and now, it looks like, the nursery — into office space? It pokes a red hot poker right into the eye of the health care professionals who work at Stanton when the departments make...

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

It’s not a new issue; it’s one that was raised during the length of the last government. It has to do with space utilization at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

As I mentioned in my statement, morale has been an issue. There’s been an HR plan that’s in the works. There have also been some questionnaires that have gone out to employees. One of the main themes that has come back is space utilization and the fact that health care professionals at the hospital are having to deliver services to patients in crammed and...

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask the Minister about the patient lounge on the medicine ward at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Will that, in fact, be turned into office space?

I’m just having a bit of trouble understanding how the department and the hospital could make decisions where money is going need to be spent on renovating a patient lounge, the nursery and washrooms into office space. I think that money could be better spent taking the office administrative staff that are in the hospital and putting them in another space, perhaps downtown in other office buildings around Yellowknife. They don’t need to be in the hospital, Mr. Speaker. That’s the type of work I want the Minister to commit to today.