Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development met on October 11, 2005, to review Bill 9, Municipal Statutes Amendment Act. This act makes minor amendments to the Charter Communities Act, the Cities, Towns and Villages Act and the Hamlets Act.

The committee asked for an explanation of the new amendment that deals with transferring unpaid service charges to property taxes. The amendment will allow a municipal taxing authority to recover any outstanding bills or fines that relate to real property and charge them against property taxes. A homeowner, for...

Thank you for that, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that. We’re trying to think outside the box here in terms of how to address this problem because we don’t want people to see our communities as having a lesser standard of living or quality of life because of lack of medical services. So those are the kinds of things in discussions we’ll probably have in our communities. I’m glad to hear that response, and I’ll certainly pass that on in Hay River, that maybe we’ll have to do some recruitment as a community on our own, quite apart from what the Minister does. You know, I can’t think of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we switched from fee-for-service to salary, it was intended to be a recruitment tool to get physicians to come here so that they would be able to enjoy a quality lifestyle. We could offer a definitive package which was competitive with other jurisdictions in Canada. Is the department looking now at doing a combination of fee-for-service, where there is a salary and a fee-for-service combination, something that would encourage physicians to see more patients on a daily basis? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to make it abundantly clear that I know extremely well, as do the people across the North and in Hay River, that there are many challenges facing health and social services in the big picture. But I want to say that a good working relationship is the premise of why I remain very optimistic about continuing to address those concerns. I would just like to thank the Minister for his attention to those issues. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Standing Committee on Governance and Economic Development met on October 11, 2005, to review Bill 8, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act. Following the clause-by-clause review, a motion was carried to report Bill 8 to the Assembly as ready for Committee of the Whole. This concludes the committee's general comments on Bill 8. Individual committee members may have questions or comments as we proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. For all intents and purposes, the old system of privately owned clinics run by physicians on a fee-for-service was private health care to some extent. What is the rule, or what would the opinion be now, of the Department of Health and Social Services if a physician wanted to come to Hay River or Yellowknife or Inuvik, set up a private clinic and bill the government on a fee-for-service basis? Seriously, it could run some very serious competition on the system that we have got right now. What would be the response of the department to such a proposal? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for that. I don’t think it can happen too soon. In the list of people that he recited who are going to be consulted on this, obviously absent were the people who are involved in providing the service themselves, even the volunteers or the paid contracted ambulance services. I would like to know, will they be included in the consultation in setting up this new and organized system? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services in follow up to the questions that I posed to the Minister of Transportation and MACA yesterday with regard to the ambulance service that is provided by the volunteer fire department located in Hay River. As I stated yesterday, the volunteer fire department provides an ambulance service, which takes some vehicles -- as I stated yesterday, one is 10 years old, I think one is 19 years old -- out on the highway and services quite a wide radius of the road system in the South Slave area. So I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since the appointment of a new chair to that board in the person of Mr. Todd Burlingame, is he satisfied that Mr. Van Camp, who he says is eminently capable -- and I totally agree with him on that -- has been kept informed of applications that have been reviewed in unsettled areas, that he has been kept informed with correspondence, attendance at meetings, has been kept in the loop as a participant on the board? Is the Minister satisfied that that has occurred in recent months? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources today on the much talked about Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and how it is functioning. Does the GNWT have a representative and a voice on the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board this time? Thank you.