Denny Rodgers

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, general comments, I mean, you know, when I look through the business plan for EIA, I look specifically at the directorate as the Indigenous Intergovernmental Affairs and the Executive Council offices and, you know, there's much work to be done. And I'm appreciative of the work that's been done to date with working with Indigenous governments. I appreciate that the Premier and Cabinet continue that mantra, and I think it's great. But it's important to know that there's much work being done by the Indigenous governments, and there's much work to be done. And, you know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that the AOC committee report be adopted, report (audio).

Thank you. And that is, indeed, excellent news, and I'm sure it's excellent news for those that have been struggling with our medical travel system for the past several years. Just, again, a final question. I mean, likely it's a redundant question given how this government has now been approaching what we do, but she will be engaging and consulting with all Indigenous governments on this plan, I assume? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I understand there's a policy for this. What I'm saying is that if you have an elder, is there not a way and I get that, you know, there is the different plans out there. But, again, you have an elder who whether they're going down to have a hangnail removed, it doesn't matter. If there's an elder and they don't speak English, they need to be navigated, they need help navigating even to get to their appointments, is there not something we can do to kind of streamline that so, again, that paperwork is not being done. If there's not anybody in and medical travel is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, travelling for medical appointments in smaller communities in the Beaufort Delta can take a toll on patients, either to follow up for appointments for routine procedures or for a more serious condition. Both physically and mentally, we are all aware of the toll it takes. Now, Mr. Speaker, imagine if you are an elder and English is your second language and you're from a small community in the Beaufort Delta, having an escort to assist you is essential. Mr. Speaker, I've heard too many times that the onerous paperwork and bureaucracy to have an escort...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I echo the comments of my friend, MLA from Range Lake. I'm not saying he stole my thunder; I think he's added to it. But it's good to hear that because we hear that a lot in the small communities, and often times you wonder if the MLAs outside of the smaller communities understand what it's doing. Because it is destroying small communities, not just it's not just a problem, it is destroying small communities. Drug addiction, the influx of gangs, the influx of drug dealers, is destroying it. And I bet to say every MLA here from a small community will tell you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I can tell you the funding, I believe, was in the neighbourhood of about $500,000 per year. They did apply but did not receive the continued funding CanNor on that program. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, I've also addressed in my Member's statement the actual transition team and the important work that that team had been doing up until such time as the board of directors were put in place, understanding now that the college is an arm's length organization, but still much important work that we could do as a government to assist...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as brought forward by my colleagues in this House several times over the past week, the transition of Aurora College to a polytechnic is in jeopardy of not reaching some of its milestone commitments. Mr. Speaker, as a government, we must ensure that we continue our commitment to this important work. One of those commitments, Mr. Speaker, should be to fund the centre for learning, teaching, and innovation, an initiative that the Aurora College brought forward during the transition process, and, Mr. Speaker, this program provides expertise to develop new...

I now move that the chair rise and report progress.

You know, could I have been a little more aggressive in some areas? Absolutely. And I guess we can all say that about our ridings and individual things that we want to see action based on the business plan and things that are in here. But, yeah, overall, it's a great document, and I appreciate the work that the departments did putting it together. It's a bit of a read, but certainly, it's yeah, so you know, I can point to specific things that I'd like to see but, Mr. Chair, I'll save those for when we go through the main estimates, as we will be going through by department by department. I...