Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012, be read for the first time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill makes operations appropriations for the Government of the Northwest Territories for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Thank you.

This is a longitudinal look at trends across the land in different areas. If you take this five-year increment and put the other three reports before them, you’d see, as the Member has indicated and as the report demonstrates clearly, a lot of our statistics continue to go in the wrong direction. We have some more current statistics on different areas that we could look at if the Member has a specific request, but in terms of gathering this kind of broad data that’s going to give us those trends and available for planning purposes, it’s those five-year increments that give us that kind of...

Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 25, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012, be read for the first time. Thank you.

The over $300 million that we do spend provides a very high level of service to the people. The Member’s point is a good one. We’ll never have enough hospitals, enough facilities to put people back together, to get them healthy once they’re sick, and the challenge is an unmet challenge, is the one that the Member lays out.

Will this be used? We’re going into an election here in a couple weeks. There will be in the next few months an Assembly elected and a Cabinet picked. Through the business planning process and the priorities of the next Assembly, they will be targeting where they think the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents entitled Interactivity Transfers Exceeding $250,000 for the Period April 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, and Northwest Territories Liquor Commission and Liquor Licensing Board 2010-2011 Annual Report.

I’m sure the Member’s not calling me fat, so I won’t take offence to that comment.

I would suggest this Assembly and, of course, more importantly, the 17th Assembly is going to have to deal with a number of significant issues like this as we move forward with devolution and as we move forward with the deficit reduction impacts that we’re going to feel over the next three or four years coming out of the federal government. There’s going to be some difficult circumstances and money is going to be a priority issue both to us and as we negotiate arrangements with the federal government to honour...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I had opportunity to talk to Minister Kent when he was here a number of weeks ago. These cuts are going to be felt across the land. They’re going to be felt in the Northwest Territories.

Specifically, I sent information out, for example, on the closing of water monitoring sites where we have 23 and they’re closing 21; all 10 in Nunavut, two on the boundaries between Nunavut and Northwest Territories that are important. They’re going to discontinue monitoring through national parks. There’s no monitoring on the Mackenzie River. There’s a whole list of implications for us...

The intent is to take a careful measured look at this service and where it makes the most sense to be applied, where is there critical mass, where is there any service at all, transportation issues, the population issues, and if there was a need to put birthing services in a community, some of the questions, for example, would you want to put it into a community that already has some of the best birthing services in the Northwest Territories or would you look at a region where it possibly has a greater chance to provide some service where none exists currently. Those are the kind of questions...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve committed to a process that is now underway. An RFP has been put out for a review of midwifery services. I indicated this in this House previously. That report should be done and ready by January 2012, at which time the Department of Health and Social Services will be able to look at the recommendations, share them with the Members and committee members, and look at what’s being recommended. Most importantly, as I’ve indicated time after time as Finance Minister in this House, what resources may or may not be available to try to hit the priorities of the 17th...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 24, Supplementary Appropriation Act (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2011-2012, read for the third time.