Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I apologize. I took the whole 10 minutes. I was hoping not to.

The GNWT decided that they are not going to tax themselves, but we are going to tax the residents of the Northwest Territories with this fee. Is that what you are telling me? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members in this House heard, we had an accident at the Nahanni Butte airport on August 15, 2018. I'm very happy to say that all the individuals directly involved with the crash are safe and were discharged from the hospital. I'm very happy to hear the collaboration between the community health representative in Nahanni Butte, and the healthcare practitioners in Fort Simpson and Yellowknife work very well together. It is good to hear that telehealth and our telephone systems work well. The community of Nahanni Butte and the GNWT health staff did an amazing job and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm just disappointed. It's either or all. If you're going to exempt the GNWT, then we could be exempting all residents of the Northwest Territories. It's a tourism tax; that's what I am reading. It says tourism accommodation tax; that's what it is. So you mean that, for our sporting teams, they're now considered tourists coming into the capital to participate? Can the Minister please elaborate on that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank our law clerk for that information. I greatly appreciate that. One of my big concerns, though, is that this is going to be a tax on residents of the Northwest Territories. It's another tax on the residents of the Northwest Territories. It's no different than the airport improvement fee tax; people have to pay that. The smaller communities, it doesn't sound like a lot of money, but you look at it, you stay here for five days, that's $15; you fly in here, that could be X amount of dollars. So all of a sudden, you're looking at an additional $50, $60, $80, added to their cost of living...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive rule 89(3) and have Bill 29, An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, referred to the Standing Committee of Government Operations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister bringing forth that information to me later on when he gets it. I'm not asking minutes or seconds. I'm asking how long, you know, what time. What time did it take off?

In speaking with the residents in Nahanni Butte, they were hoping that a debriefing team would be coming into the community for this type of incident. As a lot of residents were doing their best to pull together and ensuring everybody that was involved, the injured people were taken care to their best ability; some residents felt very stressed over the whole incident. Did this happen?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was asking questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services about the accident that happened in Nahanni Butte. He told us that it was four and a half hours by the time medevac were there. Can the Minister advise us: how long did it take before the planes left there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister talks about the medevac and how they're trained and all that. Seven hours from the time the plane took off out of Yellowknife to the time the plane took the patients out of Nahanni Butte and Fort Liard. So he talks about ground transportation and these people are trained, Fort Simpson staff, hired staff, could have gotten moved in from Fort Simpson, brought in to Nahanni Butte, gone quickly across the river, and driven to Fort Liard or to Fort Simpson in a more timely manner. So can the Minister explain why it took seven hours for this process to proceed?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I would ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I was talking about a situation that happened in Nahanni Butte, and my questions will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain why the local airline wasn't able to bring the firefighters who are trained in extraction and so on to go into Nahanni Butte to deal with the crash? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.