Sandy Lee

…ever so conscientious, and we’ve done travels on this bill and others. You know, this bill is very interesting and it is trying to address the larger public interest goal of making access to legal services and legal counsel more available to those residents in the NWT who qualify for legal aid. I think everybody is aware of the shortage of lawyers not only here but everywhere in Canada, and we have heard over the years about the serious backlog in family law files and criminal files, which are the other…Probably the criminal don’t have as much of a waiting list as family files but, at any...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a final follow-up to that. I know that although we didn’t have a lot of people coming before us in the committee, this initiative has gone through public consultation in at least three communities. I have had lots of people come up and tell me that they would like to see this legislation passed as soon as possible. We do work here, but not everybody knows what we are doing here on a daily basis. I would like to ask the Minister if he would commit to doing some sort of public awareness, not a campaign but just a public service announcement, maybe a little 30-30...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to just state how important this legislation is really in terms of consumer protection. It is quite surprising that some of the provisions being provided in this bill were either not completed or inadequately addressed in the original Condominium Act. In Yellowknife, I have lived here for…This is my 29th year. In the last 15 years or so, lots of condominiums have gone up or existing dwellings or apartment buildings, but they could be just a collection of housing units or mobile homes have condominiumized. There was a lot happening once in the early...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Just as a Member, I would like to speak in support of this bill. I do appreciate that this may not be the most exciting and stimulating piece of legislation that we have had to deal with, but it is an important bill to address a gap that we’ve had in our business practice, legislation, where for those professionals who are not able to take advantage of the law that allows corporations incorporation that is available to other professionals or other businesspeople in order that they be free from liability issues that could…I don’t think this takes away liability...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement, I raised a number of issues. I want to start with one of them today. The question is about the announcement that was made on the wait times by the federal government and his territorial counterparts about a month ago in the Great Hall. I would like to ask the Minister of Health a question about how that proposal, in terms of how it relates to the North, has come about. The federal statement stated that the wait times would gear towards five categories. Some of them being cancer treatment, diagnostic imaging and surgical...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, keeping up with the past convention, I hosted a pre-session constituency meeting at Range Lake North School this past Monday and I was pleased to spend the evening listening to and sharing information with the valued members of my constituency whom, although few in number, had a lot of advice and assignments for me to work on during this session and beyond, Mr. Speaker, and as we begin our short session today I'd like to tell you about some of them.

They would like, Mr. Speaker, me to keep working hard to resolve the intolerable situation surrounding the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to nurses, nurses don’t do surgeries. Surgeons do surgeries and they don’t do diagnostic imaging. Primary health facilities, while they are important, don’t do these either. These are important wait times. I beg to differ with the Minister in that we do have our own problems here and wait times to deal with. First of all, I would like to ask the Minister to commit to giving us information as to how he compares us with the rest of the country. I would like to ask the Minister to commit to providing that information and also his...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like all things we deal with, all these things work in a continuum. We can’t isolate one issue at the exclusion of all the others. While we need to put resources into primary care in communities, that is important, but we still have to address the wait time issues in areas that the federal government talks about; in particular, diagnostic imaging. We have a long line-up at the territorial hospital here to get X-rays, C-scans, unless you go to emergency. You may have to wait days or a couple of weeks just to get an X-ray on your back about what is wrong...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize family of my constituents who moved from Edmonton area to my riding. Even though we don’t have VTA, the father came here to work for the GNWT and mother’s working at the bank here. Parents are not here, but I’d like to recognize Mr. Clemens Park and Mr. David Park and with them are my assistant Cathy Olson and her husband Mike Olson. Thank you.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report to this Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Partnership Act; Bill 2, and Act to Amend the Condominium Act; and Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Legal Services Act, and wishes to report that Bills 1, 2 and 3 are now ready for Committee of the Whole.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that Bills 1, 2 and 3 be moved into Committee of the Whole for Thursday, May 10, 2007. Thank you.