Alfred Moses

I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 12 on the Order Paper, reports of standing and special committees. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to report to the Assembly that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 44, Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, and Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, and wishes to report that Bills 44 and 47 as amended and reprinted are ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister mentioned the voluntary disclosure practice that is currently being used, and I am sure it is being used worldwide in terms of what companies have to disclose in their fracking ingredients when they’re doing the practice. He also mentioned it’s on the radar for the government to make it mandatory. It has been a concern heard in Inuvik at the public engagement session.

Can I ask the Minister, is there a timeline or does the government intend to make the voluntary disclosure practice mandatory so that we know all chemicals that are going into the fracking ingredients?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will continue on with my Member’s statement here, but I will ask questions to the Minister of ENR, mainly around some of the monitoring and some of the public disclosure of how we are regulating our wastewater.

I know that our government just signed a transboundary water agreement with Alberta just recently. I know we have one with BC and the Yukon as well. As I mentioned earlier in my Member’s statement, last year we had on record one of our lowest water levels throughout the Northwest Territories, and this year you heard some of that in Great Slave Lake as well as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you can tell, we’re having a little bit of a theme day here on hydraulic fracturing. I applaud the department in doing their due diligence and going out and doing the public engagement throughout the Northwest Territories.

On April 9th I had the opportunity to attend this fracking meeting in Inuvik. We had over 30 participants, so obviously it was a big concern. It was one of the biggest public meetings that I have attended. A lot of passion was spoken by members and leadership, not only from Inuvik but we had leadership from Tsiigehtchic, Fort McPherson, Aklavik and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, I know that we appreciated the work and the collaboration with the Minister, his department and staff on Bill 44 and we appreciate the Minister bringing this bill forward before the 17th Legislative Assembly. It was pretty good in terms of consultation. We did hit nine communities for stakeholders during the day and then had public reviews in the evenings. We do agree that it would help address some of the inefficiencies throughout our health authorities throughout the Northwest Territories. As we get into the report...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn’t get a chance to ask all my questions and just the dialogue gets you kind of wanting to ask a few more questions in terms of where we are going with these five positions that have been in more of the discussion from yesterday.

I would like to ask the Minister, if these five positions are approved, as I mentioned yesterday, under the key findings there were a lot of issues in terms of management. There were discussions around policy as well as some of the directives that fall under these two groups. I wonder, if these five positions are approved, will that open up...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) to have Committee Report 17-17(5), Standing Committee on Social Programs Report on the Review of Bill 44: Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you. The Standing Committee on Social Programs is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of Bill 44: An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, and commends it to the House.

Bill 44, An Act to Amend the Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, will allow for the transformation of the health and social services system. It will require the Minister to establish a single strategic plan for the Northwest Territories and allow the Minister to establish an integrated territorial authority by amalgamating the...

I appreciate that and also just looking at we do have a bigger population, a bigger public service than Nunavut and the Yukon and that they have more communications personnel within their departments working for them. I like the fact that you want to upgrade and you want to add these positions, but just having that lack of discussion on how these dollars are being spent is a concern to, I know, some committee members, because we haven’t really had that discussion and we’re seeing some of these dollars being spent already. More of a comment as to having that initial discussion.

We’ve been doing...