Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other question I have for the Minister has to do with the $2.5 million for creation and implementation of a Tourism Product Diversification and Marketing Program. I’ll ask the Minister in terms of this project here in terms of I guess I’m curious as to where did this come out from in terms of a lot of questions around this here? So I’ll ask the Minister in terms of a very brief, very brief summary.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask the Minister on the Health and Social Services operations expenditures specific to the $150,000 that’s going to the Nurse Practitioner Program in terms of this funding that we receive from the federal government on these patient wait time guarantees in terms of how is this going to help people in our regions and our small communities in terms of this specific initiative? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm very afraid that this Northwest Territories cash cow is not going to get the Mackenzie Highway built up into our regions here. Mr. Premier, I want to ask you one question. We went on a hike here a couple of times. Last month, in seven days we walked 90 miles and we just did it. We saw what it took from us to do, along with the young leaders and people that accompanied us, and we just did it. I'm asking this government here to look seriously at the Mackenzie Valley highway in the next couple of days you have, in terms of just doing it, put the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Imperial Oil indicated that if the federal government puts some money into infrastructure like the highway, it would bring down the cost of building the pipeline. Is there any update from the federal government on this angle? Thank you.

They can only dream of having paved roads. Even bring the standards of our goat roads up in the wintertime, Mr. Speaker. The cost of living is high. We want to contribute to the Northwest Territories. We want to be part of the Northwest Territories in terms of shaping our economy and contributing to the political structure. We can’t do it in the dark. That’s what this government is doing in terms of postponing the bridge, postponing the highway, not having a serious discussion with the federal government when they had a chance to and say open up the North.

Part of Diefenbaker’s dream was to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my Member’s statement is on the Mackenzie Valley highway, the proposed highway that is being considered by this government and past governments. One of the key issues I want to hit on, Mr. Speaker, is the isolation the people in the Sahtu are feeling. There is an enormous amount of interest by oil companies, mining companies. More importantly, the people in the Sahtu are saying enough is enough. When is this government going to make a strong commitment in pushing down the Mackenzie Valley highway, bring jobs to the Sahtu, bring the cost of living down in...

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Members supported the idea that in order to protect youth, the proposed Bill 15 should be compatible with the NWT Tobacco Control Act and its regulations where monitoring and enforcement are concerned. During the clause-by-clause review of the bill, committee and Minister agreed to amend Bill 15 to make compliance monitoring and enforcement of liquor stores part of the mandate of enforcement officers. This includes allowing for minors to purchase or attempt to purchase liquor for the purpose of “sting operations."

People commenting on the proposed act mostly welcomed...

I apologize, Mr. Chair; I got ahead of the boat here so I’m going to leave the rest for details. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The patients’ wait time guarantees in regards to how this will impact or have an impact in our communities in the regions. I know there will be some with the larger communities with the hospitals, but I want to focus on the ones that don’t have that type of service in the larger centres, communities that are somewhat left out. I don’t want to say left out, but that hang in terms of services. So how is this going to work with our communities in terms of this patient time guarantees for our people in the smaller communities? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many people who came before the committee had concerns with the legal process under the SCAN legislation. One concern raised by a number of presenters was the fact that the legislation does not have any provisions for the service of respondents prior to the SCAN officer attending court and obtaining a community safety order. It is possible that the first time a respondent would learn of a SCAN investigation is when they are served with a community safety order. The committee understands the Minister may propose such an amendment to address this concern, and Members...