Robert Hawkins

Thank you. I certainly hope that all that information can be shared amongst all Members. Mr. Chairman, just to continue a little further, when the original agreement... Or let me say it this way. The present agreement had been signed, it must have an expiry date when the whole contract, if I may describe it that way, or agreement, was to go forward. When does this particular agreement come up for full renewal or is that what the territorial government is presently working on when you refer to I think you said about a year from now? Is that when it’s intended to expire or are you trying to find...

Thank you for the answer there. What is the actual cost that’s being predicted this year for those types of services and, therefore, what would the territorial government be subsidizing as the actual gap between what’s the estimated cost to do the actual services that we’re providing and, furthermore, trying to get a grip on how much money are we losing on this endeavour? Thank you.

It’s my assumption that hospital care under Indians and Inuit, as well as medical care under Indian and Inuit, maybe the Minister can help me find out where that money is specifically earmarked from and does it cover some of the NIHB money that is owed to this government? If not, perhaps the Minister can point to the relevant page. That’s my specific area of concern. I assumed that’s what that line meant. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are we operating off the 8-8 or 8-9? Because my question specifically points to 8-9, which I thought we were on. I’m just making sure we didn’t go back.

Mr. Speaker, is it because the Minister isn’t interested? Is it an issue that he doesn’t care about, or does he think it is too much of an effort to even put a focus on from the department’s point of view? Thank you.

It wasn’t meant as disrespect. Are we talking about running new programs for treatment for specifics of diabetes? At this time, as I understand, we are not sending people out or we are avoiding sending people out for treatment for those types of things who have received treatment. They are being told now that they will offer acute care. When I refer to acute in the sense is specific to their needs here whether it is a system with weight loss, the system with specific treatments, things of those types. It is my understanding there is no rollout right now. I am trying to get a sense exactly what...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said on Friday, I would have a few more comments to go through the opening address and highlight. Mr. Chairman, as I said on Friday, I am very supportive of working towards making our communities more sustainable through environmental investment, but one of the things that I find to date, we still have to realize that we need to find real savings for our cost of living issue. We continue to invest in cost of living initiatives but, as I said on Friday, several businesses all in the end say costs keep increasing. You go to anyone’s power bill, the power bill keeps...

I appreciate being schooled in the long-term vision, but the reality is the short-term vision seems to be very nearsighted. The issue here is partnership trust. It’s a relationship that needs to be fostered continually. Therefore, I continue to ask the Minister quite clearly, could we pull a small group of the aboriginal leadership together? Could we work together with the chair of the management board and out of that could follow perhaps a positive direction on the short term, as we all know that the decision is going to be at least three, four, or five months away? How much more destruction...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow along with my Member’s statement today, which is my concern about the caribou issue in context of the relationship with the aboriginal peoples of the Northwest Territories.

In my Member’s statement I called for the Minister to show some immediate leadership to this issue, such as working together in a partnership context by calling a caribou summit. This would well be under the authority of the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources to call upon the Dene leadership, as well as the Wekeezhii board chair to get them there, and anyone else who...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that we report progress. Thank you.

---Carried