Alfred Moses

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 75(5) to have Bill 44, Hospital Insurance and Health and Social Services Administration Act, and Bill 47, An Act to Amend the Child and Family Services Act, moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I mentioned in my Member’s statement the shale potential in the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, the Sahtu region, and the Laird Basin. Should hydraulic fracturing get the green light and go ahead? Does the government foresee or has created or are they currently in existence of wastewater disposal sites, and if so, how many?

I thank the Minister for the update on some of the information around the transboundary water agreement. What the Minister did say was the flow from Alberta down to the Northwest Territories, and that becomes a concern, as well, in terms of monitoring. It becomes a concern with wastewater and also becomes a concern with some of the fracking chemicals that might, if possible, if there’s a chance that it does get leaked into the water system and then comes down here.

I want to ask the Minister, in one of our areas where we talked about the four new regulations that we got with fracking, one of...

There was also concern of monitoring, and as I also mentioned, the wastewater disposal sites that we have in the Northwest Territories, do we even have any, which got me thinking about our transboundary water agreements that we have with Alberta and BC. If Alberta and BC are doing hydraulic fracturing and they’re lowering their water levels, can that have an impact here in the Northwest Territories? Last summer we just witnessed the lowest water levels on record here in the Northwest Territories. If we do go ahead and proceed with hydraulic fracturing, how much of that water is going to be...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to express my appreciation for the work that was done. I think it was great that both the department and the community did reach out to a number of stakeholders, and we did get a lot of submissions coming in even before we went on our little road trip there. As I mentioned, we had nine communities and got a lot of really good feedback. I just wanted to mention there, as well, that I think this is the first time that a committee has taken two significant bills that are going to affect the way that we do our business in the Northwest Territories on the road...

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...