Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted a public review of Bill 7, Pharmacy Act, on September 5th, 2006, and October 16th, 2006. The committee would like to thank the representatives of the NWT Pharmacists Association, the NWT Medical Association and the Registered Nurses' Association of the NWT and Nunavut for appearing before committee to discuss the ramifications of the passage of the Pharmacy Act for all health practitioners in the NWT.

It became apparent to committee members at the September 5th public hearing that there were serious concerns on the part...

After the hockey game in Deline. There is a lot there to promote.

The other factor is, I understand that we are talking about the Tlicho area with self-government. What this tells me is that it takes more. Now we are dealing with a different governance structure, but it doesn’t mean that the GNWT is out of the picture and that the GNWT doesn’t do that. It just means that we have other players at the table, but we all serve the same population. So whether it’s with the cooperation and involvement and partnership with the Tlicho Government and Wekweeti community government and community people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, he lost a Cabinet Minister last week because Members felt intimidated. I believe, Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if everybody knows. I would really like it if he could just repeat what he just said and if he could just do a public notice telling the people that, in fact, that is the case; that we all have to operate under the atmosphere of freedom and freedom from intimidation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we saw last week, apparently it is not in practice. People have forgotten. I hear from the Premier’s answer that there hasn’t been any direct statement to either the staff or to the public or anybody who is interested in knowing about this that says that we are a consensus government and that we, as a government, respect the Members’ rights. Would the Premier make a commitment to do such a thing in a directive or policy way of any kind of document that he sees fit? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Governance Council must continue to show leadership and commitment, as it demonstrated in its appearance before committee in June, to improving the policy development process, and in particular resolving difficult issues such as chronic pain and pre-existing conditions. The council should not be afraid to break new ground and try made-in-the-north solutions where approaches borrowed from other jurisdictions do not work.

The council should also continue its work to improve accountability, for example, by developing its external reporting as well as its...

Thank you. It’s good that we have a 2010 plan, but the Minister is just telling me that there are three EDOs serving that region. Why is it with EDOs serving three communities that we have a situation where in this community and we do have that hotel there, which is one more reason why we should be looking at programming? Why is there not programming like that product in Wekweeti for these people to guide? Have there been any pilot programs to bring people in? Has there been any effort made for this community to network with the Yellowknife community or any of the centres? Is there any plan or...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to welcome and thank Ms. Golding and Mr. Henderson for being with us and waiting patiently for this momentous event for them.

Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Programs conducted its public review of Bill 6, Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act, on September 5, 2006, and October 16, 2006. The committee would like to thank the members of the Northwest Territories Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists for appearing before the committee to speak in support of this long-awaited modernization of the act. The...

I heard that and that's a call of alarm in my opinion. That is telling us that the NWT government does not have veto power, no aboriginal government has veto power, and if we are thinking leaders and responsible leaders and we don't want to fail the people, we have to take that as a challenge from the federal government, that we know what we want, we want a pipeline, we think the North has a useful role to play in terms of meeting the energy needs of the world, and of any kind of resource requirements because we have a ton of them, and we will do as little as what we need to do to get it....

I can't remember what the exact word is. We're a creature…

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last follow-up. As I’ve stated and other Members have stated, I do believe that there is no question that the biggest area of concern with what’s happening at Stanton is the recruitment and retention issue and management and morale issue, for whatever reason. I’m not assigning blame, but I think that’s the thing. That needs an involvement and leadership on the part of the Minister of Human Resources. So could I get the Minister to make a personal commitment, as Minister of Human Resources, that he’ll see to it that a solution is found and then acted upon? Thank you.