Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to direct my questions today to the Premier. Probably just going back in history a little when our government had a lot more wealth than it does now and the concept was that people got together and they sat around the table and they had little horse-trading sessions and they decided which communities and which regions were getting jobs and programs and capital projects, and they divvied up this big pot of money and everybody went away from the room relatively happy. Well, as we all know, that’s not the way things really work around here anymore...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

A good deal of discussion during our public hearings centred on the role of the medical advisors in the workers’ compensation system, and in particular on what happens when their opinions conflict with the opinions of outside physicians. As the workers’ advisor told us, the issue of “objective medical evidence” accounts for about 60 percent of his caseload. It is also a factor in many of the WCB’s long-unresolved claims.

As the report states at paragraph 157, “the medical advisors’ views carry considerable weight with caseworkers, claim managers and the Review Committee...

Agreed. Then we will resume in a few minutes.

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I'm going to call Committee of the Whole to order. What's the wish of the committee with the number of matters we have before us today? Mr. Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm not trying to be too prescriptive in terms of telling the Premier what he should do. I'd like to go to Ottawa myself on this file, but I'm a little busy right now. But it is so important and I'm glad to hear that the Premier is willing to dedicate resources to this. We have 4,500 people in our public service. We have money for a lot of things and I just want to see, if this is our highest priority, I want to see the resources and the effort that bears that out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if this is the highest priority of our government, I've been in the government 11 years and I've never heard who the negotiator is in our government on the resource revenue sharing file. I don't know if the Premier wants to share the name of who that person is; maybe I'd recognize it. But I've never heard the name of whoever that person is. We also have a presence in Ottawa? How much of the workload that is ascribed to the presence that we have in Ottawa relates to this topic? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek unanimous consent to return to Item 6 on the Order Paper, oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for those answers. What is the next thing on the Premier’s agenda with respect to this file? What’s up and coming and what do we have in our ability, within our ability…I want to say arsenal of tactics of things we can do. We’ve heard everything from taking down the flag of Canada to putting up a bronze statue. No, that one we don’t take seriously.

---Laughter

But we’re desperate. Desperate times call for desperate measures. What is the next thing on the Premier’s agenda and what do we reasonably have in our control to advance this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Premier, Joe Handley. You have heard the Members’ statements on this side of the House. I should say, Mr. Speaker, the Premier has heard the Members’ statements on this side of the House today and I think that it would be hard to argue that time is of the essence when it comes to getting a fair deal on resource revenue sharing with Ottawa. I would like to ask the Premier what he can tell us that would indicate to us that he agrees that this has to be the highest priority of this government at this time? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’re having a theme day, as you can tell, on resource revenue sharing. We’ve been talking about this for a long time. On the plus side, we’ve got a lot of resources from which to derive revenue in the Northwest Territories. Not every jurisdiction has that, so let’s lay that out first and count our blessings. We’ve got the resources. We have enough resources to make revenue sharing a win-win for everyone: for Canada, for our territory, for aboriginal governments and their aspirations.

My worry, Mr. Speaker, is that we are in an extremely vulnerable situation...