Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Sandy Kalgutkar, acting deputy minister of Finance.

The Water Strategy was developed in consultation and partnership with the Aboriginal government. We have a committee that was set up to provide oversight to work with the territorial government. That role is carrying over in terms of what’s happening with the negotiations and there’s a cost to that. We, as well, want to make sure we have, when we have the actual negotiating team at the table, that there’s an Aboriginal representative there along with the territorial government representative. Those funds will be expended to fulfill those particular job requirements and obligations that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have with me the acting deputy minister of Finance, Sandy Kalgutkar.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can go through key points on this list on page 303. The water unit staff have responsibility and involvement with the communities across the North and work on the ground in the communities across the North.

The Wilfred Laurier University contribution is, we partnered up and got, I think, $3 for the price of one or $2 for the price of one to a contribution agreement to do on-the-ground water research in the Northwest Territories on areas of significant interest and concern not only to Wilfred Laurier but to the Northwest Territories and the communities.

Source water...

Some of that work is already being done or has been done at headquarters. It is an issue that I, as well, am familiar with. I do have recollections of dealing with it when I was Minister previously. I’ll commit to the Member that that information update is available.

The Member raised this specific issue with me a couple of days ago. I’ve asked the deputy minister to get me the information so that I could get updated on the file, but I believe the circumstances are very similar to what were there when I was last Minister and the Member and I were having this discussion.

I have no quick response that I can give the Member in this House today, unfortunately.

As we have this dialogue in the House, I have staff making note, and I will commit to the Member that we will have discussions with the Health and Social Services Authority in Simpson to look at some of the concerns and possibly follow up for further clarification from the Member so that we can look at the right areas and to give the appropriate response to the Member.

In fact, the Member has the chronology wrong. I had to deal with this issue, as well, with constituents and inform them of what was covered and what was not. I’d also point out that there’s also an expectation that when people leave the Northwest Territories to go anywhere, if they do not have third-party coverage and they require any kind of medevac services in Alberta or any other jurisdiction, that is fully their cost. It’s not covered by anybody, any government, this or any other. It is a situation where people should be very cognizant when they go, of what the risks are and what kind of...

There is a coordinated approach. There are these broad programs, mental health and addictions programs, and all the other programs that are flowed through the various health boards. Each health board then in turn delivers those programs at a community level with the resources they have available with some common standards. There is a significant amount of work that was done in how addictions workers were going to get paid and what type of job descriptions. Mental health workers, community health workers, wellness workers. We’ve invested a significant amount of money in this area, and I agree...

I’ve done a number of fiscal updates in this House and we’ve pointed out very clearly some of the challenges that we face. Today alone we’ve heard requests for potentially significant investments in emergency evacuations and assisting communities in situations like Northland, autism, addictions. We have a huge list of things that people want us to invest in and at the same time be fiscally responsible.

We have a budget that’s fully subscribed to. The Member is asking for an increase to a program at a time when such a consideration is not possible. This year if there is an interest, there will...