Michael Miltenberger

Mr. Speaker, what my intention is, as Minister is, to maintain the current arrangement where there’s a public trustee that’s going to oversee, that the CEO’s going to report to. The JLC’s going to continue and on our legislative agenda is a review and updating and revising of the legislation that governs all the authorities and boards because it is out of date and needs work. But for the foreseeable future I intend to carry on with the arrangement we do have. I believe Stanton is functioning very effectively and the board chairs that I deal with on a regular basis seem quite pleased with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the current legislation there is provision in legislation for boards, for authorities, including Stanton. There is also provision for what happens when there is no board, as there is in this case. What happens then is there’s a public trustee to be appointed, which there has been, and that has been the deputy minister. The CEO then reports to the deputy minister. That’s the legal arrangement that currently exists with Stanton within the framework parameters of the current legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Joint Leadership Council, which comprises of all the board chairs from the authorities, the deputy minister and myself, are going to be paying very close attention to this initiative. As well, all the CEOs are involved through the Joint Senior Management Committee to oversee a lot of the detailed program implementation piece. The CEO of Stanton will be working closely with the Elders’ Advisory Council and there will be a representative from the Sahtu on that and they will be providing that kind of advice, so we can see how we move forward from here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Stanton Territorial Hospital is an $80 million, 500 staff facility. It is our major tertiary care facility. The Member is correct; there is a high percentage of aboriginal population who use the service and we have been working with Stanton, with some of the MLAs over the last number of months and have been getting advice from elders across the Northwest Territories about how we can start to better incorporate traditional healing practices and wellness approaches into Stanton hospital. There has been a lot of work done. We’ve taken the time to go to other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I understand there’s leadership roles played by both bulls and cows and one of the concerns is with the shooting of cows, is that in many cases when cows are taken, you lose the potential of anywhere up to a dozen or so calves and I’ve heard many stories of pregnant cows being shot. So there’s a concern about the breeding stock, as the Member has indicated. The reality is, we have a bulls-only policy for the resident tag hunters, as well as the outfitters. It’s not a restriction at this point on the aboriginal harvest, but it is an issue that’s going to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we’ve identified that early on as one of the potential impacts if the declining herd numbers remain down and there’s restrictions to the hunt placed on hunters, but we don’t have a definitive answer yet. We’ve identified that as an area that we want to pay some attention to as we move through the coming months and into the next winter. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue has been on my agenda now for the last year or so and I’m very committed to try to have these issues resolved in the life of this Assembly and a process initiated that’s going to allow us to lay out a plan of how we’re going to move to a more rational funded kind of arrangement where we recognize the costs and we work with the communities to come up with a service delivery model that is effective for different communities across the North. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have to sort out a number of fairly complex issues, service provision, there’s a whole host of different models of what’s already in existence in the North and across different communities. There’s liability issues, there’s legislative issues that have to be addressed and there’s no one clear model to do this. So those are the type of issues we’re trying to come to grips with here in the next few months as we finalize that work. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Member first about his kind words about how well Stanton is running under my Ministership. I can’t take full credit for that. Clearly, I have a strong Cabinet that supports me, the Members of the Legislature…

---Laughter

…and lots of good staff that does all the work. We have a system that I believe is functioning effectively and has been the result of a lot of hard work and consensus building, and I intend to continue with that arrangement. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I just reiterate my previous information, which is the current legislation allows for when there’s no board that the public administrator be appointed, which there has been, and that is the deputy minister. That is the legal arrangement that currently exists. Outside of that legislation we have the creation of the Joint Leadership Council, which I sit on with all the board chairs as does the deputy minister. But the legal arrangement is the CEO reports to the public trustee, which is in place and has been done by the current legislation. Thank you.