Norman Yakeleya

I appreciate the Minister’s willingness to have some continued dialogue on this and see where we can go with it. This has been achieved in some of our vision and goals that we set out in the 17th Assembly.

So I’m going to ask the Minister, given this, can the Minister provide some of the basic economic dollars as to the communities that do not have health centres or communities who do not have RCMP officers? What are we looking at in terms of the dollars that would be required, and have some discussion to see if we could at least move towards that direction?

The Minister and I haven’t gone out for supper, but we’ve had a lot of discussions on this issue. I’m asking for a plan. In the last 10 years of being in this House and being a Member of the Legislative Assembly, when are we going to stop talking about a plan, given that we have a lot of vacancies? Let’s do one community this year, let’s do another community next year or the year after. We know from the previous Ministers and even this Cabinet, they tell us the amount of money to staff an RCMP officer or the nurse in the community.

I’m asking, when do we start the plan other than give reasons...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, February 13, 2014, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on February 13, 2014, it shall be adjourned until Monday, February 17, 2014;

And further, at any time prior to February 17, 2014, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon...

Within the life of this government, would the Minister look at a discussion paper where he could bring forward to the Assembly to say where we could start having discussion on the Heritage Fund and the government framework for the fund? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement is on the mechanics of the Heritage Fund. It’s fine and dandy if you have a Heritage Fund, and colleagues have talked about the amount of money going in and how it’s going to be administrated. I wanted to look at the mechanics. Should the Heritage Fund come to a full-blown discussion with the people in the Northwest Territories, what is the purpose with the Heritage Fund and how it’s to be set up within the government structure, independent, arm’s length from the government and have people who would administrate it and look after it for us, and...

That’s a long time. I don’t know if I’m going to be around that long, but at least it’s on the record. I guess it’s a done deal. We will have to bite the bullet on this one here. I’m not too sure what type of impact it’s going to have on some of our requests for health and social services care in the Northwest Territories. It’s one of those things where the federal government has the majority to sort of tell us what to do and it’s not the best of positions we want to be in, so I guess I will just have to leave my questions on that and, hopefully, in 18 years from now a Member will bring this...

Given that statement by the Minister, when the federal government downloads these responsibilities, does it also download some additional dollars, because we are taking on these additional responsibilities, even though when you look at the comparison of RCMP members in the Northwest Territories to the province of British Columbia, certainly, they will feel the impact more in their health care system as to the Northwest Territories.

Is the federal government willing, or it’s take it or leave it? No. It’s you’re going to do this, this is what it’s going to cost you, and find money within the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just for clarification, to the Minister, this act, I guess I thought that the medical services provided to the RCMP was straight across the board to all members across Canada, because of the jurisdiction and they are a national police force. Why are we changing ours to bring them into our Medical Care Act? Shouldn’t they automatically be covered under some federal legislation for their medical services?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister say that it will be within a year, within a few months shy of us calling our next election? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I talked about the mechanics of the Heritage Fund. I want to ask the Minister of Finance, within the life of this government, will the government consider an option to look at considering having an independent body type of framework to manage the Heritage Fund?