Floyd Roland

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know, we are faced with challenges across the whole jurisdiction, whether it’s the smaller communities or larger centres, when it comes to providing health care for people in the Territories. But we have as a government over the years tried to address this through a number of factors, whether we talk about our Graduate Nurse Program, Social Worker Program, and other areas that we focus on in ensuring that we can provide a level of service that is adequate to all people across the Territories.

There are a number of factors involved and I’m at a bit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 69(2) to have Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act, moved into Committee of the Whole. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that Bill 13, Supplementary Appropriation Act, No. 2, 2006-2007, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes supplementary appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess that is an option. If we were to lose our northern nurses and they formed an agency and then contracted the Government of the Northwest Territories, that is not something we would encourage. Ultimately, it comes back to the ability to find the dollars to do this. Hopefully, with some of our other plans in place, we will be able to start coming back to the way we have done it in the past where we hire north and keep our nurses in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, a number of times this issue has come up. In fact, the very first time was when we took over the delivery of health care from the federal government. That was the first time it came up. It has been reviewed a number of times. This time, not in looking at making our union or setting up another union process, we would still have to follow the same rules as we do when it comes to equal pay, pay equity and those issues as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’re basing it on the fact that the Government of the Northwest Territories needs the appropriate tools to make decisions on spending patterns. It’s not only about spending $100 million. As I stated earlier, we’re spending a billion dollars and should we as the Government of the Northwest Territories, how should we spend that money? Should it be focused on schools? Should it be focused on training programs? Should it be focused on infrastructure, airports, highways? Those are the things we have to use this piece for. In a sense, the policy will be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know the Member has issues with the macroeconomic policy. He’s made it clear since we’ve discussed this. In fact, at one point I believe he was suggesting it should go into ITI or Executive. It seems anywhere else but Finance. Now it’s why are we doing it. The fact is this issue was raised as far back as 1997 that the government should have something like this in place. A good example was, for example, when diamond mines were starting to be established should we pursue secondary industry or should we focus on taxation. That’s one of the reasons why we’re...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The act itself, this Pharmacy Act doesn't cover, or I guess the term is "silent" on that. But there are some other categories or effects here that I guess would fall in the territory. Ms. Cooper may be able to address that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess changing gears a little bit from our staffing levels to the actual program side, dialysis is something that has been affected, we have been affected by, and the demand for services can no longer just be delivered out of the Stanton facility. We are looking at expanding that in our other regions where we have high demand and we’re trying to work cooperatively with a number of other departments as well to ensure that we get that in place so people who are affected can get the service closer to home. Thank you.