Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak today about the need for a youth shelter in Yellowknife; a place where youth can go, not just during the day and early evenings, but through the night if necessary, a place where they can take shelter from the elements and be safe from the influences of alcohol and drugs and other negative sides of night life.

Mr. Speaker, I know it is hard to accept, but the fact of the matter is that we do have youth in our community, especially on weekends, who have no place to go because, for many of them, their home is not what a home should be....

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask the Minister questions about the health care job evaluations that have been going on. The Minister’s opening statement indicated in the paragraph about that section…I am not sure whether or not he says the evaluations have been completed because we know that there have been some disagreements or some disputes about the evaluations. There were quite a few employees who were not happy with the results of the evaluations. Could I get the Minister to update us on where we are at with that? Thank you.

Thank you. I don't think I was saying that in terms of getting the producers to take a more active role in this whole state of affairs. I didn't include in that the option of the producers setting up their own cutting and polishing facility. What I'm saying is given where we are, we have a company that we have poured millions into in receivership. The buyer we thought was the one, has backed out. We know that the secondary diamond industry around the world is not that big. The ministry even admitted that the news had spread. So I don't know if the world diamond industry sees this is as...

Thank you. I think this is an important area in that we do live in a computer age and we need to have adequate technology and computer systems to do our work. I have just been noticing that I’m not sure if the government is keeping up to date with the upgrading of programs and such. I can tell you that I have, I think, a more smooth, better and faster-running system in my home and I don’t think I have a state-of-the-art system there either. It’s just got me worrying that the government has for too many years now not been investing money that’s necessary to keep with the program. I’m not...

Could I just ask a question on how many people are employed by the government who actually look at making sure that people pay taxes? I don’t know what they are called; inspectors. How many people are actually employed full time to make sure that employers pay the taxes that they are supposed to?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are so many questions to this and the details to work out and the debates to have, perhaps the Minister could make a statement in the House about where the government’s position is. But in the interim, could I get the information from the Minister as to whether we’re looking at a nationally run child day care program, or are we looking at tax benefits or are we looking at 50/50 funding? Putting aside the dollar commitments that the federal government is willing to give, because we do hear numbers flowing around, what is this government’s position...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question on the collection of payroll taxes and other taxes that the department is responsible for in just general terms. Can the Minister tell us about what sort of mechanisms are in place to make sure that those who are supposed to pay taxes pay, and those employers who are supposed to hand in those taxes do? What mechanisms do we have to know that if somebody is not doing it, that they are notified in an expeditious manner? Last fall I had two calls; I can’t give names of the employers or the companies because they don’t want to be revealed. In one...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate that the money might be a factor in something like this, but putting that aside I would like to get a more clear picture from the Minister as to what the GNWT’s position is as to what this National Childcare Program should look like. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Sorry; I didn’t hear there from the Minister, on balance, if the government is ahead or not. I think our findings are that the insurance premium did still go up. It’s just probably not as much as it could of if the change in the policy did come about. But is it possible for the government, or is the government engaged in doing a cost-benefit analysis where we say okay we take this much on premiums, these things happen over the years that cost us this much, and if we had a different kind of insurance package there’s X amount being covered? So now that we have this new kind of package we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. May I just conclude by saying that I really see this debate as an opportunity for all of us in the North. It is an opportunity to implement a spectrum of quality early childcare education that begins at the age of one, not at the age of five, so that we give our children a real head start in life. There is just no more important work for us to do. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I know that Minister Ken Dryden is a huge hero to the hockey fans all across Canada, but, oh boy, if he could score this one in the net, I know he will be a hero to all Canadians for ever and ever...