Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just in terms of the capital infrastructure that’s planned for next year. Of course, I’m certainly pleased to see the investment into Highway No. 7, the resources that are going there. It’s something that has been high on my agenda and will continue to be so. It’s $3 million a year, and certainly, it will help with that highway. Because I’ve always said, as part of our tourism plan, as well as to have a good solid highway, we can truly continue to sell the Deh Cho Trail which means coming in through Alberta and exiting through BC, or vice versa. It will be a...

I think the Minister touched briefly about one of the core issues. The core issue is that they’re being turned away from the health centres; they are being given aspirins and they don’t have the confidence to say… In fact, in a couple of cases – the Minister was there – we heard residents just say, “Okay, fine. I’ve got a sick child. I’m going to Fort Nelson to get my sick child’s needs taken care of.” That shouldn’t be, Mr. Speaker. Our health care system should pay attention to all of our constituents who are out there, take care of their needs, identify what exactly is the problem and that...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be extending my statement.

---Laughter

Between May 5th and May 8th, I accompanied the Minister of Health and Social Services and the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs on a tour of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte. I would like to thank the Ministers for their attention to issues in the Nahendeh region.

Residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte talked quite a bit about their desire for an agreement with BC Health. There are several reasons. For one thing, some of my constituents have lost confidence in the NWT health system, so much so that they would...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The residents, when I go there, speak loud and clear. In Slavey they say...[English translation not provided.]…and also they say…[English translation not provided.]…which means they’re not helping us and they’re not caring about us. That’s why they go into Fort Nelson.

If I can ask the Minister one last question, Mr. Speaker, can our health care care for these people in the smaller communities? There’s got to be a core issue there. Can we find out what that is? Mahsi.

I think the Minister’s talking about someone who wanted to privately do it, but what we’re talking about is residents not having any confidence of using our health care in those smaller communities and it’s sad to say that, standing up here today. But the residents want to have an arrangement with BC Health and I think one of the barriers was the electronic medical records, so we’ve got that now.

I was wondering if the Minister can move forward with making an arrangement where residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte can go to Fort Nelson for their health care needs. Thank you.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. My observation is that our current government prides itself on thinking big but often forgets its duty to also think small. All too regularly our small communities are an afterthought when this government plans its big projects such as the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic line. My colleagues across the floor sold this 80-some million dollar project to me and other Members partly on the benefit it would bring to the small communities along the route such as Wrigley. There were promises that a fibre optic line would serve those communities with faster and cheaper Internet...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents to table. The first is the Liidlii Kue First Nation November 12, 2013, band council resolution calling for a moratorium on hydraulic fracking in Liidlii Kue traditional territory. As well, I’ve got the resolution number two from Dehcho First Nations calling for a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Dehcho First Nation traditional territory.

Certainly, these are very small communities but it’s important to advertise about subjects of this importance. I’d just like to ask the Minister, as well, what additional engagement measures will the department take over for the extended engagement period as they’re looking at extending it until August? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up with some questions on when I spoke on horizontal fracturing. I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI, just with regard to studies related to hydraulic fracturing taking place in the Liard Basin, are there any baseline studies being done there, or have been done?

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Much of our discussion over this item and these communications positons is about due process. Myself, I do feel that this could have been better addressed in the business plan and not at this late stage, so I certainly will be supporting this motion for deletion of this item under consideration.