Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise in support of this motion and I want to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing it forward. I think it’s a very important issue to consider. We have had a very serious situation at Stanton. We’ve had several serious situations at Stanton and it seems that it is happening more and more often. As has been mentioned, we have other health care facilities within the NWT and we don’t want the same thing to happen there.

A change is needed. Some adjustment is needed, and it needs to be made sooner rather than later. The Minister has said that the hospital is...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the information from the deputy minister, but the effort’s been ongoing for a very long time. Is there any end in sight? Obviously, the answer to my question about the research is that no, it hasn’t been done. It’s in the throes of being done through this test section, but is there any kind of a time frame that the Minister or the department can give me as to when we will get to some point of being able to turn this piece of road over? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may consider that it’s a natural break, but I think there are people who don’t consider replacing people in the middle of an environmental assessment is a natural break.

Thanks to the Minister for that information. I can’t argue against putting Northerners on boards. I agree with that, but I do have a large problem with the way this process was done. It suggests that these particular board members weren’t doing good work and I know that that’s not true.

So, in order to provide for continuity on the board, in order to find a good way to do it to ensure a smooth transition from one set of board members to another, because this is happening in the middle of an environmental assessment, I would like to ask the Minister if he consulted the board before this decision...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize one of the Pages who has been working with us for the last couple of weeks, Raya Laframboise. She’s not in the House today, but she has been doing great work along with all the other Pages who have been working with us for this week and last week. I can’t see him, but I can’t not say hello to Mr. David Wasylciw. Welcome to the house, David. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We will continue with Tabled Document 188-17(5), continuing with the Department of Transportation and then the Department of Executive. Thank you.

To say that these people, yes, they are living in the South; however, they lived here for a very long time. I think two out of the three I know for sure were here for 10 or 15 years. To make this change in the middle of an environmental assessment is what really concerns me. I don’t think that the Minister has accepted that.

In replacing these board members, what skillsets did he consider are needed for the board to do its job? What were they looking for in replacing these board members? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are to the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I would like to follow up on my statement and ask some questions about the action that’s going to be taken on replacing board members on the Ekati Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency Board.

In my experience, that board has done extremely good work. In my experience, as well, it is past practice to replace board members when they retire. It’s also my experience that the board has been relatively critical in doing their good work and sometimes forces the owner/operator, Ekati, to do some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to give voice today to some concerns that arose yesterday after I learned of changes coming to the Ekati Independent Environmental Monitoring Agency Board.

As its name suggests, this is an independent organization, registered as a non-profit, a non-decision-making, non-management type of organization which provides advice to both the company, Ekati, and government, NWT and federal.

What caught my attention yesterday, what made me concerned, is a proposed action. Well, it is not proposed anymore, Mr. Speaker. It has been decided that three very experienced, very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far back as 1969, through a federal Order-in-Council, land has been withdrawn and plans in the works for a national park at the eastern end of Great Slave Lake. After that initial land withdrawal, there were long periods of inactivity until 2001, and then from 2004 to 2013 talks were held in earnest to try to develop the park concept.

In reviewing the budget last week, Premier McLeod advised the House that we “expect to have some results by the end of March or early April” so that we would know “whether we were moving forward or not.” He also stated that the feds have...