Jane Groenewegen

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before my colleague Mr. Delorey gets a chance to recognize my constituency assistant, I thought I should jump up and do it.

---Laughter

I would like to recognize Wendy Morgan in the gallery. Wendy was my assistant in part of the 13th, the 14th and now in the 15th Assembly. So I want to thank her and recognize her today. Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Bill 1, Appropriation Act, 2004-2005, and would like to report progress and, Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

What is the wish of the committee? We have Bill 1 before us today. Mr. Braden.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear that because that was one question I was going to ask. I was going to ask what kind of a timetable, because, as I said at the beginning of my preamble on my first question, time is of the essence. So we need to move on this fairly quickly, and we need to be very proactive. I don't think the Premier's reference to a department of which he didn't know the name in RWED is really that visible a source of support or information for communities and other governments. So I want to know what the plan is to raise the visibility of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe that the Premier provided the right answer today when asked by the Member for the Sahtu whether or not this government is prepared to, in correspondence with the federal government's initiative, form some kind of a committee with a mandate to oversee some of the issues related to the pipeline. I think that time is of the essence on this. There are lots of communities that are waiting with a great deal of anticipation to learn how they can plug in and benefit from a lot of different benefits which may accrue to northerners as a result of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicated that approaching the airlines with some kind of a proposal for a certain amount of business, sharing the business is not an approach that he has chosen to take. I was wondering with an expenditure like $10 million if this isn’t something that he might consider visiting that subject with the airlines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. There is a lot of pressure on our funding for health services in the Northwest Territories and one large-ticket item is medical travel. Certainly, the GNWT is probably a fairly significant customer to the major airlines here in the Northwest Territories that travel south, and probably not as significant as we used to be in relation to industry but certainly still very significant. On Northbeat last night, they’d indicated that in Nunavut, the Minister of Health had negotiated with First...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m aware that there may be some very real merits to something like this being undertaken, that there will be a lot of considerations of things such as costs. Can the Minister just perhaps summarize some of benefits? He made reference to wildlife and environment versus the economic development side. Could he just articulate some of the benefits that might be achieved by seeing these two activities separated? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, each Member elected to this Assembly first and foremost has the particular interests of their communities and region at heart. The North is very diverse and often so are the issues of priority to our constituencies. It is important for all of us to listen, learn and understand the pan-territorial big picture and the commonality of needs related to the delivery of government programs and services. This can be accomplished, to some extent, as we listen to each other in the Assembly and in committee meetings. But it's also valuable, whenever possible...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, I would not be supportive of anything that was detrimental to the airline carriers and I understand that is a very fragile business as well, but they do offer savings on an ongoing basis, things such as reduced rate seat sales, reductions for pre-booking a certain amount of time, also special rates for seniors. Does the department and the people in medical travel who make these arrangements on behalf of patients take advantage of at least those kinds of offerings that are made by the airlines? Thank you.