Sandy Lee

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think I’m prepared to accept being compassionate and considerate that the government may not be able to meet this two-week deadline, but I would be happy to just have the government follow up on the commitment made by the previous Minister that there will be a review of what is happening, all the array of staff issues and morale issues at Stanton Hospital, and that it will involve a direct communication of the CEO and the deputy minister, if necessary, with the front-line workers division by division. That was a big commitment. That’s more important to me...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome everybody in the gallery, especially recognize Ms. Arlene Hache, our hardest working advocate for women’s issues.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As a Member of the Legislature, just a very brief comment to express my appreciation as a member of the Standing Committee on Social Programs for the involvement and participation of NAPEGG, the association that has been behind this legislation and for which this legislation is about. I think it should be noted, in one of our public hearings we had an entire set of past presidents of the association, about six or seven of them. I don’t want to name all of them, but I think that was a real show of interest and showed the history and the effort that went into the...

…to show whatsoever. So, Mr. Speaker, it's time to step up to the plate and produce some goods. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We're a creature of statute. We’re not a constitutionally formed provincial government, so now it's very scary but it's probably technically possible for the federal government to…She's coming toward me. I thought she was going to give me some words or something.

---Laughter

It's probably technically possible for the federal government to get through the pipeline, get the thing done, get the pipeline going south without a deal. There's nothing in it for us. It's up to us to make it happen.

Earlier it was mentioned that Prime Minister Harper promised resource revenue sharing and development....

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, wish to speak in favour of this motion and, Mr. Speaker, I would like to spend my time talking about not why we need this resource revenue sharing deal but how I think we should get it. Of course, I don’t have the million dollar answers there, but perhaps I could add my argument here, Mr. Speaker. Let me just put it on record that I support resource development and the benefits to be gained from that, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that the last time I was in Inuvik, I hadn’t been there for a little while and I got to see the new Mackenzie Hotel for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I will be very brief, but I'm thinking that I was not very clear on one aspect, which was that the feedback that I'm getting from my constituents are that there is no need for new Members and I understand that position. It's just that if there is any addition in another area, that the voting parity for the Yellowknife residents have to be increased comparably. So for that reason, I am supporting this motion, as I've said already.

Also, I really believe strongly that this is not an argument about whether or not 19 people represent 42,000 people well, or whether...