Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to follow up on the statement made by my colleague from Hay River yesterday. There is no question that it’s not a good reflection on the House when the presence or absence of Members in the Chamber or in committees take up media time, not what we get done here in the House.

Nevertheless, this has been a problem for the last long while and it’s now public, and the onus is on all of us to work together to improve this situation.

Mr. Speaker, we may have to look at going back to the system where we get paid by meetings we attend…

---Applause

…I personally...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Another issue I want to bring up is about some of the changes being done to clinics in Yellowknife. I know the Minister has mentioned it and this has been in the books for awhile. There is a consolidation and amalgamation of clinics going on in Yellowknife. I only go to one myself, obviously, so I don’t know what it is like in other places. I am assuming that the work is being done in a coordinated way. I see the changes being made at the Great Slave Clinic there. I think it is being used as a pilot model of sort. This is being done with some of the federal...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Territorial Court Act; Bill 15, Court Security Act; Bill 16, Tobacco Control Act; and Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Public Colleges Act, and wishes to report that bills 12 and 15 are ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole, and that bills 16 and 17 are ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole, as amended and reprinted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

But, Mr .Speaker, this government has already stated that the viability of ATCO project depends on the pipeline going ahead and Imperial Oil using the ATCO project. But, Mr. Speaker, that is not up to the government to decide. It’s up to Imperial Oil. If they decide to go with the pipeline, who are they going to buy their housing from?

Mr. Speaker, I believe that I need to ask questions like has the government looked to see what housing building options are available other than this idea? They need to do that test. With $300 million, can we do a stick-built house? Those are questions that...

…because my questions, Mr. Speaker, of this project have nothing to do with the capacity of ATCO to build these Novel trailers or any other trailers they build. ATCO is a well-established company in the North. They employ a lot of people and I have no problem accepting that that company can do the job. The question here we have to ask is, if we have a $300 million project with social housing, how do we best spend that? We need to do the due diligence test that takes us at the end of that analysis that, in fact, ATCO Novel is the best way to go. We are not there yet. To say, whenever we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to do a brief reply to the budget address, as well. Let me just make one general comment about the budget, Mr. Speaker, first.

I do share Mr. Braden’s point that there has been quite a bit of feedback from the people out there on not only on what is in the budget, but what is not in the budget. I think for future references, the Minister of Finance should be mindful of the fact that the budget document is not just a communication tool for him to speak to the Minister of Finance in Ottawa. It is a document for everyone...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that’s a good restatement of what I was looking for on the part of the Minister. I would like, at this time, to make a motion to report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, like I stated, I don't think education is enough. I don't think there's anybody who doesn't know that going on a snowmobile at 130 kilometres is not a good thing. It's not the right thing; it's not the legal thing. But I have watched enforcement officers coming and their equipment can't catch up with the speed of some of these distant snowmobilers. Mr. Speaker, I think that we need to have some legislative teeth, and I would asks the Minister to work with the municipal organizations and federal government, and take a lead on looking at what sort of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that information. I think the important thing that the Minister and we all need to keep in mind in dealing with health care professionals, especially nurses, is that while working to bring professionals like nurse practitioners and we are training them, they have a unique role to play in the whole health care delivery system, but we need to make sure that we are increasing the human resource capacity and not replacing one with another, with an end effect that we end up with the same load. That’s not going to address the need for nurses and health care...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Justice and it's in regards to an issue that's been in the media a lot, and that has to do with the injuries from snowmobile accidents, Mr. Speaker. We live in a winter country and snowmobiling is something that a lot of people consider as an essential, as well as sports and recreation. But it is an area of activity that does see casualties and injuries and fatalities every year, Mr. Speaker. The national studies show that snowmobile injuries constitute at least 40 percent of all sports and recreation injuries...