Michael Miltenberger

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member raises a good point and I know that we can give the same incentive that B.C. does. For sure, the incentive will be we have no sales tax and that won’t be a burden on the purchase of the vehicle, the very same incentive that B.C. is giving. It would be one step that we could make. I would also like to point out that when it comes to energy savings, conservation and protecting the environment, in my opinion, part of the incentive should be that virtue should be its own reward in this case where you know you are doing the right thing for very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member makes some very sweeping statements. She indicated in her Member’s statement she met with six people at her constituency meeting. Stanton has over 500 employees. While I recognize there are employee concerns out there, very clearly we also have, for the most part, a facility that is running very well. What I am prepared to offer the Member is if the Member is interested as a chair of the Social Programs committee, I would be happy to set up a full briefing for the committee and bring in the deputy minister, we could bring in the folks from Stanton. We can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll commit to the Member that I'll work with the deputy and we'll ensure that steps are taken so there is consultation in a free and open environment with not only the management but the staff; as she indicated, unit by unit. We will compile that information and we will look at what comes out of that and how best to respond to that particular feedback. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will commit to providing the Member with the level of detail in regards to the staffing schedules for the emergency clinic. I would also like to point out that one of the intents of the consolidated clinic is to have a clinic that is open past five o’clock so that people that would normally have to go to emergency to get a very simple concern taken care of will now be able to go to a clinic and get that procedure done and not tie up the time in the emergency ward, which would be another way to shorten and alleviate the pressure of the emergency ward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize a constituent from Fort Smith, one of the new regional directors, Mr. Bob Sanderson who a way back in 1963 was also one of the supervisors at Breynat Hall when I was there in the junior boys' side.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Member will recollect, last year there was a package of programs and subsidies and incentives that we did have. That money was voted by this Legislature to do the very things the Member asked. There were a lot of good ideas in there and the ideas the Member has mentioned are good ideas. We have them on our list and we are always looking for ways to implement them. As I indicated, if there is an opportunity to access federal money that will allow us to do that, we will do that. I will ask the deputy, as well, to check to see if we have some unsubscribed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is currently some funds identified in the 2007-2008 budget to start that process. We have been working with the master plan development of Stanton and recognize that, before we should actually finalize the Stanton master plan, we should look at the consolidated clinic issue. So we are looking at putting resources into that for this coming business plan.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, some of the examples are the participation and the development of community energy plans from Norman Wells, Yellowknife and other communities, including Fort Smith, Enterprise, Gameti, Deline and Fort McPherson. This is a critical first step that will allow communities to look at what their energy consumption patterns are. Whati is also on the list. They are sort of a model community of all of the steps they have taken to try to save energy in terms of efficient furnaces, low energy and low water, fluorescent bulbs and those types of things. We are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the reality is the social services professions are facing the same kinds of challenges in many cases as we are with allied health professionals. In fact, I just met with the Social Workers Association to talk to them about the extra efforts we are going to have to make to try to make sure that we ensure that we continue to have northern-grown social workers. We have graduated a class of about a dozen or so community wellness workers. But it is still not up to the demand of what is there in the field. We are facing very similar pressures on the social...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the mayor, Peter Martselos, who last night was elected to his fourth term as mayor of the community of Fort Smith. I believe this makes him currently the longest serving mayor in the Northwest Territories. Also re-elected on council were Pat Burke, Marion Berls, Beckie Linaker, and Tim MacDonald. Elected for the first time were Brenda Johnson and Fred Daniels. On behalf of the Metis president Ken Hudson, Chief Jimmy Schaeffer of the Salt River First Nations and myself, I extend our congratulations. We look forward to...