Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, obviously the Minister had her coffee this morning.

You know, it’s kind of shocking to hear a Yellowknife MLA — the Minister, who happens also to be a Yellowknife MLA — complain about the investment in Yellowknife.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the Minister misunderstood the point. My riding actually doesn’t cover the Bailey House. And by the way, the Bailey House and the Salvation Army? That’s not in downtown Yellowknife.

The question really comes down to what leadership role is she suggesting? She keeps telling the city to do this. This is not a mandate of the city. I have spoken to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, it is a significant issue, and many cities are working hard on this. I want to compliment cities like Winnipeg. It is a winter city, and they are trying to deal with this problem. I have even read that they have had architects come forward offering free service to design a public washroom to help deal with this problem.

Mr. Speaker, I’m going to close by stressing that access to public washrooms is also a health issue. If the Minister has never heard of infectious disease, then let me be the first to tell her about it. There are certainly her officials who can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I’ll help the Minister: there’s Grande Prairie; there’s Calgary; there’s Saskatoon. There are other places if the Minister is looking for suggestions to consider.

What is the Minister doing to make sure we have recognizable service levels defined in our contract with Capital Health? If she chooses to do nothing, why isn’t she doing something on this issue?

Is that the actual statement in the contract, or does the contract actually take the time to identify what is considered reasonable wait times for Northern residents who’ve contracted specifically with Capital Health? Is that exactly how it works?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll certainly, once again, accept the offer to review this file. I think that is a good first step for this family. Still, there’s quite a bit of vagueness on whether the Minister will provide a written apology to this family. I certainly hope the Minister will clear this up.

We need to be ultimately clear. Do we allow doctors — and this is certainly not a slight against doctors — to send people to hospitals where they can’t be treated? I want to be clear on that. Do we allow doctors to send patients south to hospitals that have no beds for them? In such cases I’m...

Mr. Speaker, all those hospitals in Alberta, all those hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton and elsewhere, yet there were no beds. I’m wondering who is taking responsibility for sending one of our patients, who was in dire need of serious medical care, to a hospital, or certainly a city, that has no beds. Is the Minister willing to take responsibility specifically for that and write an apology on that issue so this family has some healing and can go forward?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8 on our agenda, oral questions. Thank you.

Unanimous consent granted.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly wish we were in a court of law so we could treat the Minister like a hostile witness to get her to answer the question. The answer wasn’t in there anywhere. My question was about the detail of communication.

All indications are that there is information that flows from Capital Health to the Northwest Territories through Capital Health, maybe through to Stanton, then it gets to the Minister’s office. So, Mr. Speaker, I will have to find another way to say the same question: is there any type of communication that gives the detail that beds are full or not?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of Health today. I’ll be following up on both my Member’s statement and my questions from yesterday, which addressed my concern about this young mother, two in tow, a three month old nursing baby with her, who had trouble getting a hospital room and waited 34 hours.

I was reading Hansard questions yesterday. To understand some of the complexity, the frustration I’m feeling on this side of the House…. The Minister said we send people….that we use Capital Health services, because services like urology…. Well, Mr. Speaker, I was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to use my Member’s statement today to trumpet the efforts of one individual in our business community, in our Yellowknife private sector, who stepped up to the plate, when government sometimes is uncomfortable, on environmental education for youth.

That person is Yellowknife’s Chris Johnston. He heard last week the lukewarm answers from our Premier about purchasing the documentary film “Water is Life.” He heard — and I quote from the October 7, 2008, page 22, unedited Hansard — that we will be prepared to “try and see what we can do to get this information out to...