Michael McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday, the Premier mentioned there was an AIP reached between the government, the Inuvialuit, Metis, Sahtu and Gwich’in on a devolution and resource revenue sharing position. I would like to commend these groups for doing what’s best for the Northwest Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasant surprise to see a number of constituents in the gallery, especially now that the ferry is not operating.

---Laughter

From our smallest community in the North, Kakisa, we have a number of people here, a number of students. We have Dalton Simba, Waylon Simba, Shyanne Chicot and Sheila Hilliard. I’d like to welcome them to the gallery, Mr. Speaker.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I'd like to speak on an issue that has been brought to my attention by a few constituents in Inuvik. That, Mr. Speaker, is the fact that some of the departments of the GNWT are asking for medical prognosis when employees are given medical leave by a doctor. To me, Mr. Speaker, that violates the doctor/patient confidentiality. If the doctor gives the employee a leave form saying that they can't be at work for a week, that's between the employee and the doctor. I don't think it has anything to do with the department. I don't think the department...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, along with my colleague from Thebacha, I, too, would like to speak to the frustrations that are facing the territorial sport organizations in applying for funding. The Canada Winter Games were recently held in Whitehorse and many NWT athletes that were there held their own against the rest of the country. Many of the coaches and mission staff and those that are directly involved with the athletes are volunteers, Mr. Speaker. It’s these volunteers that allow the athletes to compete. We ask the volunteers to coach and mould our athletes and yet we offer them...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answers. I said earlier that volunteers are overworked. I’d like to ask the Minister if this Sport and Recreation Council is going to make any effort to ease the administrative burden on volunteers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know a lot of people who work in the sporting field and they’re all hard workers, but again it seems to me there’s a lot of sport governing bodies. I’d like to ask the Minister, with the formation of the new Sports and Recreation Council will the other governance groups be dissolved and amalgamated into this one big sports council? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand Sport North has a board of directors made up of members of some of the territorial sports organizations. Now we have a new sports governing council. I’d like to ask the Minister, what is it that this new governance council will do that Sport North couldn’t do? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke to the administration of the sport governing bodies in the Northwest Territories and did some checking, and I know of seven that exist today and a new one is being formed. I’d like to ask the Minister of MACA, why did the department see the need to form another council for sport? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to the Member that we will have somebody attend and we will make the offer again right away to do the presentation. We were ready some time ago and we’ll go out and contact the Farmers' Association and offer to do a presentation and have a discussion on some of the issues that they have concerns about. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seem to recall that the Member raised it in 2004, 2005 and 2006. It seems that this issue, I agree, has been on the table…The Member has been very vocal about having the PATA reviewed. There have been other organizations and other Members of this House, including community governments, that have asked that we review the act. We have not been able to do so; we haven’t been able to dedicate the resources. So we don’t believe we’ll be able to review the act within the life of this government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.