Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I think there is some creative solutions, and perhaps some of them are in the hands of the Premier with some corporate restructuring and looking at making sure all policy shops around each department are created equally.

I guess my question is in the previous Assembly, the way MACA did get some work done with the lotteries was to go out and hire a contractor. If they can't get it done in-house, sometimes they just got to hire someone to do some of this work. Is that an option that the department is exploring?

Not planning to move to Hay River any time soon, Madam Chair.

I know there is endless debates about day shelters. Can I just get clarification that the site has been selected, the one beside  I'm going to call it beside St. John Ambulance, across from True Value. Is that the site that has been selected. Is that a finalized decision. Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm going to sneak in one more; that may be pushing the limits here. I know we have a number of software operating but we still tend to fax records. This has caused a lot of problems. Are we going to end faxing? Do we anticipate any of the software we're buying or planning to buy will end that practice. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I  guess just a comment. I think there's probably  I recognize we have to let communities make their decisions on their infrastructure. There's some complication there in that a lot of that infrastructure we sometimes become ultimately responsible for. I also think that  I mean, it's not  the GNWT's not really in a position to tell people not to build a bunch of infrastructure you can't afford to maintain. But I think there's probably some very large policy work to be done to assess all of the community infrastructure, all of the GNWT infrastructure, and have a...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at about three and a half million dollars of various medical I really have no concern with what's presented here. My question is it was my understanding that we were looking to replace our electronic medical records system, and I believe that was quite a costly endeavor, and I don't see that here. Can the Minister just give an update as to what is going on with that process. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess I'll lead into what the Minister said there. I recognize that there's some disagreement about portions of the gap. You know, if a community pulls in a bunch of federal infrastructure money, that doesn't get factored into the formula. There's different ways to calculate needs and I'll note some communities have probably built far too much water and sewer lines for the size of them and some are on trucked water, and there's obviously a lot of engineering analysis that goes into assessing that. But can the Minister speak to when we expect to have a new formula...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate the Minister following up with what we expect Alberta to bill us back. I know that they bill us back millions of dollars a year, and I expect that births, even one complicated birth, can get very expensive really quickly. And I guess my point here is that this closure is becoming a million dollar cost to us. I think that's quite clear. We're in that range. And I know it's been reported that the OBS nurses for years have been asking for an additional staff person and there's some debate about, you know, about whether that is needed. But I think...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get an updated figure of what the municipal funding gap for capital is presently at. I see we're giving communities $29 million here. If we were following the formula as we have set it, what should this number be. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there is a lot of efforts being done to make sure we fill those 61 positions, and I know that it's costly not to fill them. And I was hoping the Minister could inform us with this latest closure of obstetrics, what is the estimated cost of sending all those patients to Edmonton to give birth as opposed to, if they were able to, here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess the first question is can I confirm that this is 100 percent flowthrough money that goes directly to communities.