R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have another question. This is actually a pretty serious topic in Hay River. I have heard from various businesses that there are concerns about MTS' rates for deck cargo. For the last four or five years, I believe, NTCL was raising their rates, and last year alone, they increased it by 10 per cent. People are concerned that, if MTS is aligning their prices with NTCL's, they are not only pricing themselves out of the market but people are going to go through other places in Hay River to get their goods. This is a serious concern, so what is the department doing to...

As I also mentioned, when people are looking for employment, they have to send their resumes to Newfoundland because there is a crew company that we have contracted there, apparently. What are we paying this crew company to do that we cannot do locally?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear tell that, down at the Department of Infrastructure, there is something like a "swear jar." Every time anyone says "NTCL," you have to put a buck in. Although various names have been suggested for the new government entity, like "The Schumann Shipping Company" or "Bob's Navy," the official name is Marine Transportation Services, or MTS for short.

For those who don't know, the core staff at MTS is made up primarily of employees who were laid off last year when NTCL shut down, so they were able to hit the ground running. However, operating a marine...

I can add "I don’t know" to the number of responses I have gotten to how much it is going to cost. I know every year that the department tops up this pension plan, and I was wondering if the Minister has the numbers about how much the department has already put into this pension plan over the past 10 or 12 years, however long it has been going on.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Minister is making my case for me. Clearly something needs to be done. I mean the government is just throwing good money after bad here. What’s being done right now to make this happen? What’s in progress?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we all know, last year Health and Social Services authorities amalgamated into the NWT Health and Social Services Authority. The rationale for this move was to improve coordination, communication, and the use of resources, including staff, among the regions. The Hay River health authority was one of the two that were left out of the amalgamation because it was engaging negotiations, but the primary reason appears to me, anyway, to be the costs associated with bringing it on board, due to their underperforming pension plan.

This pension issue has been going on for over...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It sounds like there’s a lot of work on that. That’s great to hear. The Minister says it must be done, and so I just want to ask the Minister: now that the 17th Assembly has been dealing with it, can we get a commitment that the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority would be brought into the NWT Health and Social Services Authority before the end of this Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

All those opposed, please stand. All those abstaining, please stand.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am aware of what has happened in the past. That is why I am asking questions about the future. Going back again, I asked the Minister yesterday if he would make the details of the new program public because, as I mentioned, the RFP is quite vague. Even the appendix referred to was a blank page in the RFP. It has since been updated, and it contains -- actually, the PowerPoint presentation was given to the standing committee. It does not even make sense in the context of the RFP because -- it is going to take me all day to discuss, so I will just cut it short here...

Thank you, Mr. Testart. To the motion.