Michael Miltenberger

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I haven't seen the final draft. I know that the work's been done, as I've outlined. But I haven't seen the final draft and I am waiting for that to come across my desk. There has been extensive efforts made to connect up with the leadership and I do believe that if they didn't do it as a group, they've managed to meet with them individually. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as the Premier noted earlier, conservation and efficiency are critical elements in addressing the broad range of energy issues facing the Northwest Territories today. Conservation and efficiency provide an immediate response to the high cost of energy and, as a government, now form a part of our business-as-usual approach.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, energy conservation and efficiency help us to address one of the most serious environmental problems facing us today: climate change. Mr. Speaker, experts predict that unless efforts are made to reduce greenhouse gas...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the review was done. They are just finalizing the consultation with the communities. They've been in there with the various stakeholders and trying to set up meetings with the community leadership to go over the content of the review and the recommendations that were made, and I'd be more than happy to get a copy of that for the Member. Thank you.