Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, of late, one of the debates around the House has been about the important value and the need for the Members to be able to speak without the fear of intimidation on behalf of the people we represent. We showed our resolve in that regard yesterday. But I have been thinking about what we have been doing to make such capacity available to people in our communities who are afraid to speak out against the government because of their fear about losing their jobs, their businesses or their contracts. As I stated two days ago in this House, Mr. Speaker, in a small...

Mr. Speaker, I think that this government, and this Legislature, and the Premier, and the Cabinet, will be judged on how we come out in terms of benefits for the people of the Northwest Territories. I need to hear from the Premier very precisely what is it exactly he's asking the Prime Minister and how he's about to get that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

…for the territorial government. So what is the Premier going to do, in light of this new information, to stand up for the NWT and for this government? Thank you.

I think what we are looking at is what portion of $17 billion or any relation to that does this government stand to gain from that. Could the Premier enlighten the House as to what his response is to that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to use the remainder of the question period to pose one more question to the Premier and it's in regards to what I heard this morning from the study that was done by Alternatives North, which suggests that the potential income, or revenue, or profit, from the pipeline development for industry could be as high as $17 billion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are in following up to my Member's statement with regard to the whistle-blower legislation, Mr. Speaker. I believe my question will be directed to the Minister of Justice. Yesterday, I believe, in the House, the Premier confirmed that there is a discussion paper in the works. Well, I guess it could be either Minister Bell or the Premier, whoever wants to answer. But I was a little taken aback, in a good way, that in fact this legislation is in the works, and I have to reiterate, once again, how many times during the course of my work that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This flexibility that's built in for OR nurses is done because it's convenient for the government. It does not pay attention to equity issues and fairness to all the health care professionals. The government allows this flexibility because the OR shuts down. But for the rest of the health care professionals, they are asked to work overtime excessively because there's a shortage of workers, they can't take any time because there's a shortage of workers, they're asked to get cash paid out. But you know what? People don't want to work three weeks in a row, or 10 days...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad the Minister mentioned that, because I think that speaks precisely to the inequity and the problems that come out of this Minister's policy. Mr. Speaker, it is not right for the government to have one policy, even just within the nursing field. There are nurses at the OR room at the hospital who are allowed to bank 150 hours and the rest are 75 hours. Does he think that's fair, Mr. Speaker? How could that be fair? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the last few months, the GNWT introduced a policy where across the board, with very few exceptions, the GNWT employees cannot bank any more than 75 hours of overtime. Not only that, once an employee has reached that in any fiscal year, they cannot refill it again. Mr. Speaker, this means that most of your overtime, above and beyond that, is paid out in cash. This is a problem, Mr. Speaker, because, believe it or not, money is not everything to our people. They want to have the choice of being able to take the time off instead of getting cash, but the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to tell you that this inequity is caused because of overall shortage of health care workers and it is really playing on the morale of the nurses, because nurses are being treated differently and the policy is based on the lack of nurses and this is just a catch-22 thing that's making the whole situation worse. I would urge the Minister, could the Minister just commit to looking further and talking to his managers and really revisiting this, because I'm telling you, this is…