Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the other day the Minister said something along the lines of you know, when I asked her could Hay River I guess she said could Hay River do better, I guess, at hiring doctors than the NTH SSA. Well, I know we couldn't do any worse because we just don't have the full complement of doctors. We don't have enough. So I think it's you know, we have an opportunity. I hear the agreement is coming up between the NTH SSA and Hay River. And I'm just wondering if the Minister's willing to discuss moving physician recruitment to the Hay River's SSA and try it out...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister when physicians are hired through NTH SSA, what is the priority for determining where they will be located, and how is location determined. Are they given a choice, I guess, to go to Hay River or Yellowknife or Inuvik or Fort Smith, or is it just kind of they just say that, you want to stay in Yellowknife, or do we encourage them to stay in Yellowknife. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one bright spot, if we can see it as that, is that Indigenous representation in senior management has reached its highest level since 2013 and currently stands at a whopping 19.7 percent. Can the Minister tell me what may have contributed to this little increase and can we expect to see exponential increases going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Indigenous representation of public sector is at an all time low right now, at around the 29 percent. Can the Minister tell me what may be contributing to this as we have had a policy in place for some 30 plus years? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, once again, I want to talk about affirmative action, an initiative that was put in place to ensure the GNWT public sector would be representative of the population it serves. We know that over the past 35 plus years, little has changed when we look at percentages of Indigenous Aboriginal people employed in the public sector.

Mr. Speaker, the current affirmative action policy has specific groupings of priority hires, more specifically, Priority 1, 2, and 3 candidates, with priority 1 being specific to Indigenous Aboriginal persons. The current policy defines...

(audio) they are for weights. I know that Deline was probably a little bit behind there, and I'm just wondering if fuel is getting into communities, how the roads are holding up as well up the valley? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I want to read something that a constituent sent to me yesterday, and I tabled it today, but I just want to read a portion of it, and I quote: "The bottom line is that the carbon tax is purely punitive for Northerners. There's no evidence that the carbon tax will drive down carbon emissions in the North nor that the minuscule reduction in carbon emissions will have any meaningful impact. If anything, the carbon tax will have the effect of driving industry, jobs, and population away from the Northwest Territories."

Madam Chair, you know, we've slowly killed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to table the following document: Case Study on Carbon Tax Impact to One Family in Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister what initiatives or are there any special initiatives in place or have been taken to recruit physicians specifically for the locations outside Yellowknife, such as Hay River. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had a chance to talk with the Minister of health for a bit, and she said she'd be willing to take some questions. So these are pretty straightforward. Can the Minister of health tell me why Hay River is consistently without a full complement of physicians or always a limited number of physicians. Thank you.