Floyd Roland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the situation we find ourselves in, if we were to go after a dedicated facility as a Department of Health and Social Services, we’d have to work through our capital plan, get it established, get agreement that it was a priority that it would receive the funds. There is another route that we are working with and that is the workplace shortfall capital fund and we’re putting a plan together to try to see if we can access that to help us in our office shortfall right now. From time to time, whether it’s in this facility or other facilities throughout the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as we proceed with this and go to implementation, one of the things we will be working on is a transition plan looking at certain areas such as timing and how things will flow. That’s one of the things we will take into consideration. Of course, there would be some cases because we will have to work with individuals and do the notification; there may be some time lag as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the surgery ward, as the Member stated earlier, for a number of years now when they look at the utilization rates, the number of surgeries that were being done, the elective surgeries being done, there’s a number of times throughout the year when the volumes drop. So looking at how we utilize our staff best and our facility, that’s been decided quite some time ago, but we would, during a number of times throughout the year, close the surgery ward down to elective surgeries. Everybody remains on call if there is surgery required and that continues to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the Member brings up a number of good issues that we feel this bill will address: simplifying the process, making it easier for individuals to change their name. As well, one of the factors within this bill will be the consideration when we look in the area of fees, there would be allowances that we could deal with a nil or nominal fee when it comes to names that have been changed where the government had made that change or forced an individual to change their name. So that could be taken into consideration, as well. We are anticipating the bill will...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the office, indeed in the past, has had some problems dealing with the workload issues within that office. We have paid some attention recently to how that office has been functioning and we’ve been informed now that they are up to par on all their files and we will continue to monitor the situation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the new act would change the way we’ve looked at things and clarify the roles and responsibilities of the department and the chief public health officer. At this point, I’ll go to Dr. Corriveau to give some detail to that response. Thank you.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Friday, August 17, I will move that Bill 18, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2007-2008, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we’ve seen from our results and many discussions that involve the Northwest Territories and other provincial and territorial Ministers of Finance, as well as the federal government, the process can be rather involved. We are working with that. We have initiated the contact and we’re starting to get those responses. As well, we have the opportunity and actually, as I stated earlier, we’re going to be working together with our territorial colleagues in making a joint presentation in Iqaluit on September 24th as the House finance committee launches...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if I understand the question correctly, is how soon can an issue be put out there and how soon would it be dealt with. That would work in conjunction with our testing patterns as we found problems. Again, for more detail, we will go to Dr. Corriveau for more detail than I can provide. Thank you.